“I was Hungry and You . . . Called your Congressman” is a good report from Kristin Rudolph over at the IRD blog. The article covers Bread for the World president David ments to a group of “emergent Christians” in Washington D.C. From the piece: Beckmann lamented that “very little progress has been made against poverty and hunger” in the US over the past few decades. This, he explained, is because ”we haven’t had a president who’s made the effort”...

For those wanting to read the recently released decision, the Alliance Defense Fund has a copy of the Supreme Court decision on Obamacare. ...

On C-Span2’s BookTV, Rev. Sirico talks about his new book, ‘Defending the Free Market: The Moral Case for a Free Economy’, and argues that moral people should embrace capitalism and the free market. This talk was hosted by the Catholic Information Center in Washington, DC.The next scheduled air times are Saturday, June 30th at 7pm ET and Sunday, July 1st at 6:15am ET. ...

Anytime I can get a progressive/dissenting Catholic magazine/blog like the Jesuit-run America simultaneously to quote papal documents, defend the Magisterium of the Catholic Church, embrace the Natural Law and even yearn for a theological investigation “by those charged with oversight for the Church’s doctrine” of a writer suspected of heresy, I consider that I have had a good day. And to think that all this was prompted by two sentences of mine quoted in a New York Times story on...

Renaissance Center (GM building). Creative Commons: paul (dex) bica via Compfight Some time back I argued that urban farming and the entrepreneurial spirit in Detroit was something that should be embraced rather than dismissed. Detroit mayor Dave Bing has given verbal support for urban munity farms in the past, but in many cases some regulatory hurdles remained and he was somewhat skeptical at times about the importance of large scale urban agriculture projects. But that ambivalence seems to be history,...

This week, 40 pastors and church leaders are gathered to discuss important ideas of integrating faith, work, and vocation into our daily lives. Vocation is integral, not incidental to the missio Dei, the work that God has called us to do each day. The pastors and church leaders represent a diversity of evangelical traditions and geographic locations in the US. Over the next year, this group will meet for face-to-face retreats, field trips and a few webinars with the goal...

We could learn a lot about liberty from our pioneer forebears, argues Meghan Clyne. And an exemplar of this model of freedom and self-reliance can be found on our children’s bookshelves, in the Little House books of Laura Ingalls Wilder: Who in America’s past, then, can show us the way to a mature, sustainable democratic life — one defined not by the rebellious seizure of liberty, but by the consistent and wise exercise of it through a dedication to self-reliance?...

I had the opportunity to speak at the Fortnight for Freedom event held by the Church of the Incarnation in Collierville, Tennessee, on June 21. The venue and the crowd were among the best I’ve ever encountered. Below, you can read my excerpted remarks: On the Question of Religious Liberty If I understand correctly, this is the beginning of the Fortnight for Freedom here at the Church of the Incarnation and around the nation. The need for this special fortnight...

Father Peter Preble, pastor of St. Michael Orthodox Church, and Stephen Kokx, adjunct professor of political science and columnist, both recently reviewed Rev. Robert Sirico’s new book Defending the Free Market: The Moral Case for a Free Economy. Fr. Preble says the book changed his outlook on how to treat the poor. He refers to the third chapter and highlights the book’s emphasis on asking new questions: The most striking of the chapters has to be chapter three, Want to...

Dr. Richard Vedder, the Edwin and Ruth Kennedy Distinguished Professor of Economics at Ohio University and the director of the Center for College Affordability and Productivity, recently addressed the topic of federal aid and the cost of higher education, an issue that has received some attention on the PowerBlog as of late.Vedder critiques federal aid initiatives like the Pell Grant, which today helps the middle class more than the poor, but saw a twofold size increase from 2007 to 2010....