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The Morality of Intellectual Property Rights
R&L: What significance do intellectual property rights have within a free market economy and what importance did the Founding Fathers place on intellectual property rights in the American economy?Free Market Requires Legal, Moral, and Religious Foundations
R&L: You have spent a large portion of your professional life in the business world. How has your faith informed how you approach your vocation?Christianity the Key to Dignity and Fulfillment at Work
R&L: It is commonly held that it is impossible to be both a faithful Christian and a good businessman. How do you respond to this view? Beckett: This view is indeed common, but it is seriously flawed. Based on that logic, we would have to assume the Apostle Paul was not a good businessman when he was making and selling tents. More likely, he was an exemplary businessman, his products high in quality, fair in price. Can you see the people lined up to buy his tents?Judeo-Christian Tradition Best Basis for Environmentalism
R&L: Although, on its face, the environmental movement seems to be about economics and politics, you have argued that, at root, it is a spiritual movement. Describe the theology at the foundation of environmentalism.
God's gift of freedom must be used to choose the good
R&L: Pope John Paul II, in his Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, noted that, “The individual today is often suffocated between the two poles represented by the state and the market.” You have noted that the way out of this modern dilemma is the strengthening of culture. Could you elaborate?
The Free Society Requires a Moral Sense, Social Capital
R&L: Unlike defenders of capitalism such as Friedrich von Hayek and Philip Johnson, who view capitalism as a morally neutral system, you see a clear relationship between morality and the free market. To your way of thinking, what is the connection between capitalism and morality?John Paul II's Hope for the Springtime of the Human Spirit
R&L: Witness to Hope joins at least two other massive studies of Pope John Paul II’s life, Szulc’s Pope John Paul II: The Biography and Bernstein and Politi’s His Holiness: John Paul II and the Hidden History of Our Time . What makes this biography distinctive?Biblical Worldview Crucial for the New Millennium
R&L: You have described How Now Shall We Live? as “the most significant book” of your career. Why do you feel this way, and what prompted you to write it?Religious Liberty, the Center of Human Dignity
R&L: You have written that “the confession, ‘Caesar is not God,’ sticks in the craw of every authoritarian regime and draws an angry and bloody response.” What is it about this confession that stands Christianity athwart totalitarianism?Tending Creation, Loving Neighbor, Honoring God
R&L: Why did you choose the title, The Virgin and the Dynamo, for your book on religion and environmentalism?The Firm's Godly Service in a Secular Society
R&L: How did you come to be involved in the business world, and what role has your faith played throughout your career?Business Sense Plus Faith Transforms At-Risk Youth
R&L: Much of your work at Harambee involves training young people from your Pasadena neighborhood to design Internet Web pages. How did you become involved in this work, and why? Carrasco: I came to Harambee in 1990 because I was seeking to live out Matthew 25, the parable of the sheep and the goats. All my life that vision of how Christ wants us to treat others had gripped my heart.