"The opposite of a just and right situation in this field is unemployment, that is to say the lack of work for those who are capable of it. It can be a question of general unemployment or of unemployment in certain sectors of work. The role of the agents included under the title of indirect employer is to act against unemployment, which in all cases is an evil, and which, when it reaches a certain level, can become a real social disaster." Read more
New lectionary: We preach from nothing but 1 John until this poll on race produces better results. Which will happen first: U.S. gets offshore wind? Or Miami sinks beneath the waves? Ari Kohen on rich and famous con artists. Bishop Paprocki exorcising Catholics out of the Diocese of Springfield. Doug's Wager. Read more
So here we have a situation in which the contrast between possible outcomes is vast. The actions needed to produce the more favorable outcome are straightforward, noncontroversial, non-ideological, nonpartisan and not just inexpensive, but profitable. Yet in most cases like this we end up with the less desirable result -- families are displaced and financially ruined and a stable community is replaced with a new development that likely won't live up to its investors' inflated expectations. Read more
Here's a Christmas tradition at this blog, Anne Lamott's "Advent Adventure," which I link to every year as a reminder that there's no difference between any of us and those shepherds, drunks and unclean scum. This is what Christmas means: Emmanuel, God become one of us, a stranger on a bus, a shepherd, a whiskey priest ... Read more
In the spirit of Robert Earl Keen's song, of families like the one he describes, and of everyone who can't afford $114K to buy a partridge-infested orchard and hire leaping Lords, here is my own annual version of the Christmas Price Index -- the Keen Family CPI. Read more
It seems unfair that some people are still stuck at work today, so here's a song from Dolly Parton and a painting from Henry Ossawa Tanner and a bunch of links to fun stuff to read between now and 5 o'clock. Read more
Santa Claus is comin' to chat roulette. "Pro-life" means jailing gay people in Uganda. A "silly smear" dies, but they always live on as zombie lies. Religious persection. Mike Huckabee to "let the Lord decide" if he should run for president. "Apocalypse is the cry of the helpless." Read more
What you'll need, instead, is a way of expressing that disapproval that also conveys your refusal to accept the actuality of the unacceptable thing -- a way of saying that the thing you're disapproving of isn't really even a thing at all. And this is what American evangelical Christians are stumbling to communicate with that awkward locution: "I don't believe in homosexuality." Read more
So obviously, that debate nearly 20 years ago was seen as controversial for Christian family radio. Because of Ron Sider. He's a pacifist, urges rich people to give money to feed the hungry, and he once voted for McGovern. It was quite a bold move, then, for this radio station to ask a fine, upstanding pillar of the white evangelical community like Larry Pratt to agree to debate such a dangerous, fringe character. Read more
"Come now, you rich people, weep and wail for the miseries that are coming to you. Your riches have rotted, and your clothes are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be evidence against you, and it will eat your flesh like fire." Read more
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In