Rev. Ben Johnson is an Eastern Orthodox priest and served as executive editor of the Acton Institute from 2016 to 2021. His work has appeared in a wide variety of publications, including National Review, the American Spectator, The Guardian, National Catholic Register, Providence, Jewish World Review, Human Events, and the American Orthodox Institute. His personal websites are therightswriter.com and RevBenJohnson.com. You can find him on X: @therightswriter.
Posts by Rev. Ben Johnson
September 01, 2020
Like his fellow Hong Kong citizens, Jimmy Lai faces a date with destiny. A Chinese judge will decide on Thursday whether the Catholic dissident publisher goes to jail for up to five years over trumped-up intimidation charges.
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August 28, 2020
The birth of a child is life’s greatest joy – unless a dictator is asking you to have children to increase his personal power base, and he has destroyed the economy so badly that you can’t feed yourself.
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August 27, 2020
Kellyanne Conway likely gave her last public speech in her role as White House adviser on Wednesday night at the Republican National Convention. The Conway clan’s political divisions mirror the growing bitterness that has become ingrained in families nationwide as America becomes more politicized, more secular, and less tolerant of philosophical diversity.
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August 25, 2020
The 42nd Republican National Convention, the first virtual convention in GOP history, commenced on Monday in Charlotte, North Carolina. Its lineup of speakers highlighted the fact that the American dream is an enduring reality for minorities and immigrants, the harms that teachers unions inflict on students (and some teachers), and the incompatibility of socialism with Christian teaching.
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August 19, 2020
Senator and presumptive Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris will address the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday night. As the convention plans to nominate the oldest presidential candidate in U.S. history, Harris’ views and record hold greater significance than any running mate since Harry Truman in 1944.
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August 19, 2020
The 2020 Democratic National Convention’s only viral moment to date accomplished something rare in any political season: It taught sound economic policy. The image of a masked Rhode Island delegate holding a platter of calamari during Tuesday night’s state roll call overshadowed the fact that he promoted the state’s official appetizer while praising deregulation.
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August 17, 2020
Why would a movement dedicated to black advancement want to dismantle the family, when fatherlessness is associated with every social malady from poverty and crime to delinquency and low self-esteem? Is the racially tinged socialism promoted by Black Lives Matter compatible with the U.S.
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August 17, 2020
Jimmy Lai, the Hong Kong-based entrepreneur and dissident, says he would gladly be arrested again, because advocating for human freedom is part of his character. And until China respects the freedom embedded in human nature, peace will not return to his formerly free province – or the world.
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August 12, 2020
The attorney general of New York state, Letitia James, fired a shot across the bow of the National Rifle Association last week, filing a lawsuit to “dissolve” the nation’s largest gun rights organization “in its entirety.”
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August 07, 2020
The onslaught of the coronavirus global pandemic suspended the normal working of the economy, but it proved two less-noted truths: The family affects everything, including the economy; and a rising population saves lives.
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