I do not believe Marie Harf is an eloquent speaker, but I did think her “jobs for ISIS” remarks made some sense. We know that in American cities, for instance, if young men do not have education and jobs, they get into mischief. The kind of mischief that includes gangs and drugs and violence. Why would we expect that young men in Libya, Iraq, and elsewhere would be any different? Apparently, I’m not the only one. While others have sneered...

When Botswana gained independence from the British in 1966, the nation was the third-poorest in the world. Then, for three decades it was the world’s fastest growing economy. Today it’s in the top 15 richest countries in Africa. What accounts for the miraculous turnaround? As the Daily Signal notes, the country embraced democracy, free markets, and the rule of law. ...

The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the International Organization for Migration has just published the prehensive study regarding the health of human trafficking victims. The study, which looked at men, women and children, reveals that victims of both labor and sex trafficking have severe plex health concerns. The study was carried out in Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam, working with people who had been rescued and were entering programs for victims of human trafficking. Researchers asked participants about...

Graeme Wood’s excellent piece in The Atlantic has justly been making the rounds for the past week or so. It is well worth reading with a number of insights and points that strike at the heart of the contemporary conflict between modernity and religious violence. mend “What ISIS Really Wants” to your reading. (Rasha al Aqeedi’s “Caliphatalism,” which looks more closely at the situation in Mosul, makes a panion read.) One of the elements of Wood’s piece that stuck out...

Human trafficking is increasingly gaining public awareness. Law enforcement, social workers, first responders – all are beginning to receive training regarding human trafficking. And that’s all very good. But it’s hardly enough. It is much easier to help a person in a high-risk situation avoid trafficking than to try and put a human being back together after they’ve been brutalized by traffickers. munities, church and charitable organizations must all learn what situations in their own areas put people at risk...

My parents should have been jailed for child neglect. At least that’s what would be their fate if I were growing up today. Fortunately for them (and for me), I was a child during the 1970s, a time when kids were (mostly) free to explore the world. At age seven I was allowed to wander a mile in each direction from my home. By age nine I was exploring the underground sewers and drainage system of Wichita Falls, Texas. When...

Eleven years ago this week, the Supreme Court handed down a ruling in Locke v. Davey that continues to have a detrimental impact on religious liberty. But the seeds for that ruling were planted 140 years ago, in another attempt to curb religious liberty. When James Blaine introduced his ill-fated constitutional amendment in 1875, he probably never would have imagined the unintended consequences it would have over a hundred years later. Blaine wanted to prohibit the use of state funds...

Do government regulations squelch marketplace innovation? A new study from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Nathan Goldschlag and George Mason University’s Alex Tabarrok says, “Not really.” According to Ryan Young at the Competitive Enterprise Institute: …the underlying institutions of social cooperation, market exchange, and dynamism are strong enough that federal regulation has, according to Goldschlag and Tabarrok’s analysis, so far been unable to squelch them. Just as a balloon pressed on one end pushes air to the other end, people will...

Over the past two decades there has been an increased interest and promotion of the Biblical meaning of work and the Christian view of vocation. Many groups have contributed to this revival, including the Acton Institute (last year we launchedOikonomia, a blog at Patheos’Faith and Work Channel, dedicated to providing resources specific to the intersection of faith, work, and economics). While the faith and work conversation has been exceedingly fruitful, it has also been rather limited to what can be...

Your faithful correspondent last week exposed the fossil-fuel divestment endgame of religious shareholder activists. As You Sow President Danielle Fugere sees her group’s activities as awareness-raising exercises for climate change, but AYS’s alignment with environmentalist and divestment firebrand Naomi Klein suggests they’d settle for nothing less than nationalizing panies. This week, I’m happy to report another group frequently called to task in this space, the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, opposes the AYS divestment onslaught. Reporting in last week’s Wall...