Electric street lamps are expensive. They are expensive to make, to maintain and to illuminate. However, cities are undoubtedly safer with them. So what to do in poorer countries? Liter of Light, an NGO that focuses on illuminating the developing world without electricity, has figured out a way to light streets using soda bottles. In Bogota, Colombia, university students work hard to install these lights: The lights’ beauty lies in theirsimplicity: A3-watt LED lamp is connected to a controller and...

Social justice is a term and concept frequently associated with the political Left, and too often used to champion views that are destructive for society and antithetical to justice. Yet for Christians the term is too valuable to be abandoned. Conservatives need to rescue it from the Left and restore it’s true meaning. True social justice is obtained, as my colleague Dylan Pahman has helpfully explained, “when each member, group, and sphere of society gives to every other what is...

The Pontifical Science Academies has created a website to both educate and fight human trafficking. (Pontifical Academies are academic honor societies that work under the direction of the Holy See and the bishop of Rome, the Pope.) The new website, www.endslavery.va, is one e of Pope Francis’ ecumenical Global Freedom Network held last year. This meeting included a joint declaration against trafficking, signed by Pope Francis and leaders of different munities. The website, #EndSlavery, will include Catholic and Anglican resources,...

Writing at Crisis Magazine, Acton’s director of research Samuel Gregg, recently discussed the significance of the Catholic church in Africa and Cardinal Sarah’s new book. At the 2014 Synod on the family, German theologian Cardinal Walter Kasper, argued that Africans “should not tell us too much what we have to do” regarding challenges facing the modern family. Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, Cardinal Robert Sarah, recently wrote “Dieu ou Rien” (“God or Nothing”) with French journalist Nicolas Diat...

When the city of Seattle recently voted to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour, some critics (like me) snarked that if $15 would help workers why not raise it to $20, $25, or even $30 an hour. Apparently, one CEO in Seattle didn’t realize we were joking. Dan Price of Gravity Payments recently announced that every one of his 120 employees would soon be making a minimum of $70,000 a year—a minimum wage of $33.65 an hour. The...

International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC), the humanitarian relief agency for Orthodox Churches in the United States, is working with the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East to provide emergency medical assistance, hygiene kits, and personal care items to displaced Idlib families who have fled to the Syrian port city of Lattakia. Idlib, in northwestern Syria, was captured by Al-Qaida’s local branch of Islamist fighters in late March. Now there are reports of the Syrian government using chemical...

Millennials are obsessed with entrepreneurship, says Elise Amyx. Some are attracted to entrepreneurship out of necessity, while others want the freedom es with building their own business. And some Christian Millennials want to redeem free enterprise: In part, redeeming capitalism means doing more than just making a profit. Consider Chick-fil-A’s decision to bring chicken sandwiches and waffle fries to people stranded in their cars during a snow storm. Or Whole Foods’ decision to donate 5 percent of its profits to...

“I’m tired all the time.” That’s the lament of one of the working mothers in the video below (from The Guardian), as she describes her life working minimum wage jobs. She and the other women featured are all fighting for an increase in pay to $15 per hour (like Seattle’s recent mandate.) I feel for them. I can’t imagine trying to raise a family on minimum wage salaries. But I have several issues with what I see in this video....

has, for years, been a place for people to buy and sell household items, cars, post ads for apartment rentals … and for human trafficking. Despite the fact that the site allows for the trafficking of men, women and children, law enforcement has been lax in clamping down on the trading in flesh. Even worse, Backpage allows for the use of Bitcoin, which means such transactions are virtually untraceable. Breitbart News reported: A recent court case,Doe LLC, brings the...

AEI’s Arthur Brooks offers up an interesting take on solutions to poverty. He thinks the key lies in “boring things,” and his inspiration is artist Andy Warhol. I often ask people in my business — public policy — where they get their inspiration. Liberals often point to John F. Kennedy. Conservatives usually cite Ronald Reagan. Personally, I prefer the artist Andy Warhol, who famously declared, “I like boring things.” He was referring to art, of course. But the sentiment provides...