At The Atlantic, Derek Thompson providessome depressing numbers related to lotteries in America. Here are seven figures you should know from his article: 1. Americans spend more on lottery tickets than on sports tickets, books, video games, movie tickets, and recorded music bined — $70 billion on lotto games in 2014. 2. In five states, people spend more than $600 dollars per person per year on lottery tickets. 3. The poorest third of households buy half of all lotto tickets....

It’s prom season, the time of year when plenty of high school kids eagerly anticipate an invitation to the year’s biggest formal event. It’s no different for the member organizations of religious shareholder activist groups As You Sow and the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility. Both groups have their tuxedos pressed and dresses tailored for this summer’s highly anticipated climate encyclical from Pope Francis, the progressive left’s version of netting either Kate Upton or Ryan Gosling as prom dates. In...

If one decides to destroy the American Dream, there are a few steps that would be necessary. Put Big Government in charge. The average American can’t figure out his or her own dreams, let alone what it would take to make them a reality.Tell Americans that without the government, the American Dream is hopeless.Produce a lengthy document about the American Dream. Leave out the word “freedom,” let alone the idea of freedom.Let people know that “freedom” (without actually using the...

For those in poverty, or those simply facing tough times, churches are often places they turn to for help. It may be organized aid: soup kitchens and food pantries. It may be a gas card given to a single mom who is struggling to get from one pay day to another. But if that es with merely a handout, and no spiritual support, is the church failing the poor? Ross Douthat says so. In his May 16 column for The...

Capitalism is routinely blamed for rampant materialism and consumerism, accused of setting society’s sights only on material needs and wants, and living little time, attention, or energy for muchelse. But what, if not basic food, shelter, and survival, was humanity so preoccupied with before the Industrial Revolution? As Steve Horwitz arguesin a preview of his ing book, Hayek’s Modern Family, our newfound liberty and accelerated activity in the Economy of Creative Service has actually freed us to devote moreto other...

In a new video from Made to Flourish, Tim Keller offers practical guidance to ministers and churches on how they canbetter disciple their peoplewhen es to work and stewardship: There are a lot of very non-Christian philosophies that are dominating a lot of areas of work, and if a Christian isn’t discipled, they’re just going to go along with the spirit of the age. They also will probably be getting less joy of their work. They may actually not be...

Twenty years ago, religious freedom was an issue that almost everyone agreed on. But more recently, support for religious liberty has tended to divide the country along political lines. Most conservatives still consider it the “first freedom” while many liberals believe religious freedom is less important than advancing a progressive agenda and promoting their understanding of “equality.” What gets lost in the discussion, as Jordan Lorence of Alliance Defending Freedom notes, is that sooner or later everyone benefits from religious...

There are a lot of phrases that people assume are in the Bible that are not only not in the text but may not even be biblical (cleanliness is next to godliness, God helps those who help themselves, etc.). There are also a number of biblical ideas that are in the Bible but are attributed to the wrong passage. mon example is use of the biblical phrase “least of these” (Matt. 25:40, 46) to refer to our fellow citizens who...

Prof. Harry Veryser stars in a new video from ISI that explores some of the lessons about private property, rights, responsibilities, and stewardship that can be gleaned from the thought of Thomas Aquinas. For a much more in-depth exposition of the connections between and lessons from Aristotle, Augustine, and Aquinas, check out John Mueller’s Redeeming Economics (ISI, 2010). For more, check out a slate of review essays on Mueller’s book published in Research in the History of Economic Thought &...

“I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” That line was written in 1906 by Evelyn Beatrice Hall to describe Voltaire’s attitude towards a fellow rival French philosopher. For the next hundred years that line was often quoted to express a particularly American ideal of toleration and the importance of free speech. But something changed over the past few decades. Certain offensive speech has been deemed not only utterly indefensible,...