By Joe Carter In the critically acclaimed, though rarely seen, movie Killer of Sheep (1978) there’s a scene that highlights why being poor can be so expensive. The film is about a black family living in the Watts section of Los Angeles in the 1970s. In an attempt to escape the drudgery of their everyday life, the family decides to join some friends one Saturday in taking a day trip out to the country. Before they can even get out of Watts,... Read more
By Joseph Sunde The global conversation on poverty alleviation has taken some interesting turns over the past decade, with an increasing range of economists, government leaders, and even rock stars beginning to challenge the status quo of economic development and foreign aid. Contrary to the longstanding model of top-down solution-seeking, we are seeing a new emphasis on the power of markets and the importance of bottom-up “searchers.” And yet, even as we begin to make productive steps toward improved quality of life and widespread economic progress,... Read more
By Evan Koons As Christmas approaches and we focus on being generous to those we love and care about, we thought this would be a perfect time to kick off another campaign to share For the Life of the World with your family, friends, and co-workers. From now until Christmas, when you purchase a copy of the film series, we’ll send you a second copy for FREE to give to someone you know. Find your copy at the store, add it to your cart twice (make sure quantity is set to “2”), and then... Read more
By Joe Carter For many people the holiday season is their favorite time of the year. But for the 9 million Americans who are currently unemployed, this can be an especially difficult time. The feeling of hopelessness and despair that can come with looking for work often increase with the approach of Thanksgiving and Christmas. Lauren L. Moy was recently unemployed during Thanksgiving and recalls the feelings of awkwardness when meeting with friends and relatives over the holidays. Moy offers recommendations for how to deal... Read more
By Ray Nothstine My pastor once made the point that the more secular we become as a nation the less we talk about “abundance.” Instead, the national dialogue of our politics shift to discussions about scarcity. Many politicians are stuck in the mindset of talking about things like wealth distribution and rationing. The more materialist and less spiritual we become as a nation, the more inclined we are to fight over the table scraps. If we don’t look to God, we won’t... Read more
By Joseph Sunde Marco Rubio has inspired plenty of chin-stroking over his recent remarks about welders earning more than philosophers. “We need more welders and less philosophers,” he concluded in a recent debate. The fact-checkers proceeded to fact-check, with many quickly declaring falsehood (e.g. 1, 2). Yet the series of subsequent quibbles over who actually makes how much continue to side-step the bigger issue. Though the liberal arts are indeed important and ought not be viewed simply in terms of “vocational training,” mainstream American culture is certainly fond of... Read more
By Joe Carter Dramatic religious shifts over the next few decades will change the distribution of wealth around the globe, according to a new study by the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation. During this period, notes the study, the number of people affiliated with a religion is expected to grow by 2.3 billion, from 5.8 billion in 2010 to 8.1 billion in 2050. The growth in religious populations will also be combined with religious diversity, which will change the makeup of the... Read more
By Dylan Pahman After the Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man to travel to outer space in 1961, Nikita Khrushchev remarked, “Gagarin flew into space, but didn’t see any god there.” The Soviets would not pass up an opportunity to deride religion, even though, reportedly, Gagarin himself was a Russian Orthodox Christian. Americans, by contrast, are the sort of people who need to go to Mars to find God. Director Ridley Scott’s critically-acclaimed blockbuster film The Martian, based on the best-selling novel by Andy Weir,... Read more
By Jordan Ballor The Acton Institute has launched a new 12-volume series of Kuyper’s works, titled Abraham Kuyper Collected Works in Public Theology, the goal of which is to bring more of the primary source materials from this virtuoso theologian and statesman into circulation in the Anglophone world. Mel Flikkema and I are serving as general editors of the series, and I am also serving as a volume editor for the three volumes on Common Grace. You can read more details about the... Read more
By Joseph Sunde Throughout its history, the American economy has transitioned from agrarian to industrial to information-driven. Given our newfound status, manual labor is increasingly cast down in the popular imagination, replaced by white-collar jobs, bachelor’s degrees, and ladder-climbing. Whether due to new avenues and opportunities or a more general distaste for the slow and mundane, work with the hands is either ignored or discouraged, both as vocational prospect and consumeristic priority. Amid this sea of new efficiencies, the art of craftsmanship is at a particular... Read more
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