1. Offering a dose of escape and a dash of hope, Christian fiction is selling strong during this time of economic adversity. Christian nonfiction is not doing as well:
Karen Ball, executive editor at Southern Baptist-owned B&H Publishing Group, said that people are looking for a way to escape from the bad news of layoffs and [...]

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach spoke with BiblEconomy about the roots of the financial crisis and how we transcend it.
“The collapse of our economy was caused not by an economic crisis but a spiritual crisis called greed, where you become voracious and insatiable. I believe that the Jewish community, and the Jewish religion has unique values that need [...]

Tallahassee legislators are considering repealing the sales tax exemption on religious items as they grapple with an expected $5-6 billion state budget deficit for the 2009-2010 budget year. The House Finance and Tax Council heard testimony this week. Urging the tax exemption stand for the sale of religious items, including Bibles, Florida Baptist Convention legislative consultant Bill Bunkley says [...]

The BBC reports on the Church of England’s “prayer for the current financial situation” published online six months ago and which 40,000 have visited. It begins:
“Lord God, we live in disturbing days: across the world prices rise, debts increase, banks collapse, jobs are taken away, and fragile security is under threat.”
To reduce the decline in [...]

Reuters reports lawmakers killed bill 1098 that would have taken financial oversight of Connecticut’s Catholic churches away from priests and bishops, handing that power to lay officials. Thousands of Catholics demonstrated on Wednesday against the proposal, opposing what they called a threat to the separation of church and state.
“Religious freedom holds a privileged place in American society,” said the [...]

The Salt Lake Tribune reports on the religious debate: should responsible taxpayers who took out affordable mortgages bail out those who didn’t?
Is it ethical for others to foot the bill for your bad financial decisions? And is it ethical to say no to those pleas for help?
The article quotes Mu Soeng, a Buddhist studies [...]

In his Washington Post/On Faith column, “Our Brothers’ Keepers, Not their Guarantors,” Rabbi Brad Hirschfield cites the Cain and Abel story to support bailing out even those who behaved irresponsibly, offering a different take than this famous TV clip arguing the government’s subsidy of “losers’ mortgages” promotes bad behavior.
When God asks him where his brother is, Cain [...]

For those of us who thought government intervention in the private sector was something new, Genesis 47 provides proof the practice is as old as, well, the Bible. It’s also a lesson in the possible perils: why the policy must be undertaken tenderly, and only at the most critical juncture.  
After he and his brothers make up, [...]

Column worth reading by Kristine Frederickson in the Mormon Times on the perils of conspicuous consumption and how now necessity ”has engendered thrift, industry and charitable impulses and actions” prompting a new recognition of the difference between wants and needs, teaching us “to live well on less.”
She says that in 1869 Brigham Young:
…explained that others looked at the [...]

The New York Times is not the first place one would think of going for a talk on religious doctrine, but Stanley Fish has a column in his NY Times blog discussing Christianity and the economy. He looks at two approaches. One is the Protestant linking of thrift and virtue.
But in another popular Christian discourse, there is [...]