Category: The Working World

Last year, a Compendium of the Church’s social teaching was published by the Pontifical Council on Justice and Peace, and it has just appeared in English. Normally, I’d link to an on-line bookseller, but they don’t have it yet, so I won’t be getting any commissions on it, alas.

A bit of good news: farmers are facing up to water shortages by adopting ‘no-till’ methods that reduce the need for irrigation. I’m glad to hear it. Living within our (environmental) means isn’t as scary as people might think.

A defense lab operated by MIT is getting into the news in a way it never wanted, with a religious-discrimination lawsuit.
A technician at Lincoln Labs claims that his bigoted co-workers harassed him for his Christian faith over a 15-year period, and that supervisors and union reps not only failed to take action, but participated in the mistreatment.
Y’know, if a company gets a reputation for condoning abusive employee behavior and anti-Christian discrimination, it will pay at least some price. Many religious believers who work in the high-tech sector (and there are many) can simply decide never to work there.
This lab, moreover, has a special need to be concerned with its reputation: it depends almost totally on the good will of Congress and the Air Force for its funding. I can imagine that some Congressmen would be outraged at a case of abuse that was ignored by management for fifteen years.