Rev. Ben Johnson

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

January 29, 2019

Climate change: Regulations vs. results

Christians believe we should be good stewards of the earth, and for some the issue has taken on apocalyptic dimensions. Yet faith leaders, including the leaders of multiple worldwide Christian communions, have ignored the most effective method for reducing carbon emissions while praising counterproductive policies. Continue Reading...
January 22, 2019

Why the media lynched the Covington kids (and why they’ll do it again)

No one following the news could have missed the media’s misguided hysteria over students from Covington Catholic High School allegedly surrounding and taunting an American Indian activist. However, not only was the erroneous feeding frenzy – which included incitement to violence against minors – predictable, but its repetition is inevitable. Continue Reading...
January 17, 2019

Denmark to American leftists: We’re not socialist

Democratic Socialists have presented Denmark as the elusive nation where socialism has been successful, and thus a model for the policies they would implement in the United States. Bernie Sanders regularly invoked Denmark during the 2016 presidential campaign, and Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez reassured 60 Minutes viewers that her version of democratic socialism would veer more toward Denmark than Venezuela. Continue Reading...
January 11, 2019

Is a no-deal Brexit a ‘moral failure’?

After a long postponement, the UK Parliament has resumed its debate leading up to the “meaningful vote” on Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal. As of this writing, the unpopular compromise is predicted to fail by an historically large margin – and some clerics consider this not just unfortunate but immoral. Continue Reading...
January 10, 2019

In Spain, collectivism is rising on the Right

Spain closed out 2018 by witnessing the rise of a new and growing populist party named Vox, writes Ángel Manuel García Carmona in a new essay for Acton’s Religion & Liberty Transatlantic website: Since 2016, right-wing populist parties have been on the rise in Europe: National Rally (formerly the National Front) in France, the League in Italy, the Party for Freedom in Netherlands, Vlaams Belang in Flanders, and the Alternative for Germany are but a few examples. Continue Reading...