by Lindy Davies
In 1855 Chief Seattle of the Suquamish tribe in the Puget Sound region gave a speech in response to a request from President Franklin Pierce that his tribe sell its ancestral lands to the government. Continue reading
Category Archives: Spiritual
Morality and Spirituality
by Shirley-Anne Hardy
In a letter to Land and Liberty referring to a discussion of the origin of natural moral laws, Ed Dodson wrote the following:
Henry George could not bring himself to state what is to this writer an important aspect of our liberty which is the right of freedom from religion. Continue reading
Thanksgiving Day: for both Plenty and Logic
by Jeff Smith
As Americans give thanks for the bounty from nature this autumn, we might also want to take note of other gifts from nature to be thankful for. Nature gives us much more than just our food, water, and oxygen. Continue reading
True Christianity and My Own Religious Beliefs
An undated letter written by Joseph Fels in response to a request from the dean of a theological institution requesting a financial contribution. The Dean wrote to Fels, “Having read much of you and your many acts of charity and philanthropy, I write to ask for a donation from you for our institution.” Continue reading
With One Voice
by Lindy Davies
I don’t usually use the “try this” headphones at the big record store, but a new album by Ramsey Lewis caught my eye — with upraised hands of many colors, on the cover — so I had a listen, and from the very start of the joyous processional, “Oh Happy Day,” I was hooked. Continue reading
Seattle, Real and Feigned
by Lindy Davies
Some years ago I came across a text called “We May Be Brothers After All — A letter to President Franklin Pierce from Chief Seattle, ca. 1854”. It was a stirring call to honor and respect the natural world, a message worth spreading. So I copied it and handed it out to many people. Then a New York Times article (April 21, 1992) informed me that the “Seattle Speech” of which I was so fond was a fiction. Continue reading
One As Well As Another
by Herbert S. Bigelow
Herbert S. Bigelow was the pastor of the Vine St. Congregational Church in Cincinnatti around the turn of the 20th century. Despite repeated warnings from superiors in the church, he persisted in giving outspoken single-tax sermons, and developed a strong following. His collection of sermons, The Religion of Revolution, was published in 1916, with an introduction by Mrs. Mary Fels. Continue reading
Father McGlynn and the Holy Office
by Will Lissner
In 1887 Father Edward McGlynn, the beloved priest of the New York Irish and other Catholics, and the learned pastor of St. Stephen’s Church, founded the Anti-Poverty Society. It was to bring him into collision with an authoritarian Aichbishop, Michael Corrigan, Continue reading
Georgism & Distributism: an “Existential” Dialogue
The Vocation of Business: Social Justice in the Marketplace by John Médaille, 2007, Continuum Press, New York. Review by Lindy Davies
Let’s imagine that there exists an idea. Upon examination, it is revealed to be more than just “an idea;” it’s a system — clear, consistent, elegant, useful; indeed, it offers solutions to problems long deemed intractable. If this idea, this body of potentially vital knowledge, is so obscure that scholars in its field see no need to mention it, then does it actually, uhmm, exist? If the voice of God utters a “sovereign remedy” in the wilderness, has it made a sound? Continue reading
A Political Parable
by Herbert S. Bigelow
Herbert Bigelow was the righteous young Pastor of Cincinnatti’s Vine Street Congregational Church in the final years of the 19th Century. He became famous (and infamous) for his sermons, which were uncompromising, both in their excoriation of hypocrisy and in their support of the single tax. Continue reading