• • Texas Faith: How do we create a common good today? 
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Egoism  | Once there was a sense among the moneyed, be it Roosevelts, Tafts, or Bushes, that those who benefited most from the American ethos had an obligation to serve - militarily, politically, financially. More recently, we have been inundated with the ethos of Ayn Rand, the “virtue of selfishness” argument, that has now been firmly concretized in our tax code, our interpretations of the Bill of Rights.      View blog reactions

• • Texas Faith: Greed, gluttony and Wall Street’s collapse 
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Capitalism  |Egoism  | At times we talk about "The Market" (often capitalized) as if it were some kind of all-seeing, all-wise deity. Along side of this, we have embraced Ayn Rand's rhetoric of the "virtue of selfishness". Both the deification of economics and the valorization of greed as a form of ethics have their defenders among Christians and Jews. I myself, however, find Biblical and Jewish sources less than unequivocal about our entitlement to acquire and possess without restraint.      View blog reactions