Having everything in common

This CityLab piece explores the long history of the sharing economy, which careful students of the Christian scriptures will remember being mentioned in Acts, when believers were together and had everything in common. Evidently, private property is a fairly new idea. From the CityLab piece: …private ownership may have originated around 11,000 years ago, as humans …

Help a budding businessman in CT

I wrote this for Mother Courant. Nick Glomb wants to open a hot dog stand. He has a business plan. He has a dream. He could use a little help, though.

Uh…

You can read more here. How would a desk clerk know when someone has “pledged allegiance or something to ISIS?”

So in my COMM4500 class we are talking about consumerism

All semester, we’ve been talking about poverty — how to research it and then write about it. You can see the students’ work here. I’m just real happy with what the students have discovered and uncovered (and if that blog gets 10,000 views, I’m buying pizza). We’re talking about fast fashion this week and among …

Is it a Christian’s duty to donate blood and organs?

The General Synod of the Church of England is discussing that even as you read this. I’m an organ donor mostly because I don’t believe I will need my guts where I am going. And it fits into my whole idea of sharing. I do not, however, give blood very often because I’m a big ol’ hairy …

Eid Mubarak and Happy Day 11 of Hillbilly Watch

As Muslims worldwide prepare to end their month of Ramadan fasting this weekend, we wish them a powerful and bountiful Eid-al-Fitr. Meanwhile, we continue the Hillbilly Watch, where our thoughts are with that someone out in Joplin, Mo., who knows something about the mosque burning, and knows that s/he needs to tell authorities, and soon. …

Day 9 of the Hillbilly Watch

While we wait for someone who knows something to talk to authorities about a suspicious fire that destroyed the mosque of the Islamic Society of Joplin, the Joplin Muslims have settled on a local hotel for their Eid al-Fitr to celebrate the end of Ramadan this weekend. Meanwhile, check out the donations that have been …

Day 8 of the Hillbilly Watch

Just sayin’. Check out what a guest columnist in the Joplin Globe had to say on the mosque burning.