The Berlin Wall, the monumental symbol of the divide between West and East, between freedom and tyranny, was gone by 1991. But “no man’s land,” was still there, a haunting testament to the division that generated a 45-year-long Cold War. ...
Read MoreAuthor Archives: Kevin Schmiesing
About Kevin Schmiesing
Kevin Schmiesing is director of research at the Freedom and Virtue Institute and a research associate at the Veritas Center for Ethics in Public Life. He has published many books and articles in the fields of Christian social thought and religious and economic history and has served as executive editor of the Journal of Markets & Morality and the Catholic Social Science Review. He talks about Church history as a regular guest on the EWTN global Catholic radio network. He is a native of Ohio, where he currently resides with his wife and children.
Landlords are, it should be obvious, landowners. If tenants are able to occupy landowners’ property without paying the agreed-to fee, the owners’ property rights are violated. Similarly, a restaurant is a privately owned building. The freedom to use that property ...
Read More“Perfect love casts out fear.” Perhaps if we focus less on stamping out the objects of our fears and pay more attention to contributing to the good of others, we’ll find that fear and anxiety and its attendant pathologies—alcohol and ...
Read MoreThe healing groups meet regularly and provide a time for sharing and prayer. They also provide an opportunity for remunerative work. The organization runs a micro-loan program, whereby women can obtain small loans to start businesses such as bakeries or ...
Read MoreTo some extent, this kind of human bias is inevitable and even desirable. The value of loyalty attaches us to a family, tribe, or other group and provides the emotional impetus needed to defend those to whom we are most ...
Read MoreCurrent controversy about the limits of government authority may revolve around masks, shutdowns, and quarantines, but the central issue—the legitimacy and advisability of government mandates—is a perennial one and lies at the heart of all theories of government and society. ...
Read MoreHistory is strewn with the casualties of experiments in pursuing the “perfect society.” Striving for justice is important, but seeking justice in the knowledge that absolute justice will not be achieved in this world tempers our drive in a way ...
Read MoreDespite massive government spending in our nation’s largest cities, black neighborhoods remain disproportionately troubled by crime, poverty, and family dysfunction. Let’s assume for the sake of argument that all of this is the effect of white turpitude: first slavery, then ...
Read MoreThe superiority of personal relationships over impersonal systems extends far beyond commercial transactions. In fact, we should be pushing for “local” in government, education, philanthropy, entertainment, and just about everything else.
Read MoreFor a while, life was good. Joice married and her expanding business supported her growing family. Then the dream seemed to come crashing down. Her husband abandoned her. The civil war destroyed her business. Joice found herself homeless with seven ...
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