The penitential season of Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, Feb. 17, and runs until Easter. The season is traditionally viewed as a time of personal spiritual reflection for Christians. In recent years that lens has broadened to include a focus on helping others. Is that outward charity affected by the widespread economic pain of the [...]
Most nonprofits are used to coping with tight budgets, and faith-based nonprofits live even closer to the edge. But the current recession is testing the capabilities of nonprofit managers and the commitment of donors to an extraordinary degree. Many fear that disappointing results during the upcoming holiday giving season could be devastating.
The federal minimum wage takes another jump this month, in what proponents say is a step toward economic justice for society’s most vulnerable workers. But with unemployment nearing 10 percent and teen joblessness twice as high, others argue that a delay would have been wiser — and more righteous than putting additional jobs at risk.
Pope Benedict XVI released his third encyclical, “Caritas in Veritate,” on Tuesday, July 7. The encyclical — an authoritative teaching document from the pope — applies Benedict’s ideas and the Catholic social justice tradition to the economic crisis. It also comes out as the G-8 summit convenes in Italy.
Religious teachings are full of warnings about money, if not outright suspicion of the ways of commerce. But in this recession, congregations are increasingly showing members how to navigate the choppy economic seas – and they’re finding this new type of aid in big demand.
After politics, money is probably the most sensitive topic in religion, and one that gets much less media coverage than many other issues. Yet money is also the fuel that runs religion in the United States, and donating is a basic tenet of every religious tradition. How much believers donate to their faith communities, or [...]
When Hurricane Katrina hit in late August 2005, faith groups had a profound effect on rescue and recovery efforts. A year later, people of faith say Hurricane Katrina permanently changed much more than the Gulf Coast: It changed the way religious groups help and heal in the wake of disaster. Interviews with religious leaders revealed [...]
Since President Bush established the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives in 2001, similar offices have been opened in eight federal departments, two federal agencies, 30 state governments and dozens of cities. The government’s effort to provide more opportunities for religious organizations to receive federal funding for social services has generated thousands of pages in [...]
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