Rev. Ben Johnson (@therightswriter) is an Eastern Orthodox priest and served as Executive Editor of the Acton Institute (2016-2021), editing Religion & Liberty, the Powerblog, and its transatlantic website. He has extensively researched the Alt-Right. Previously, he worked for LifeSiteNews and FrontPageMag.com, where he wrote three books including Party of Defeat (with David Horowitz, 2008). His work has appeared at DailyWire.com, National Review, The American Spectator, The Guardian, Daily Caller, National Catholic Register, Spectator USA, FEE Online, RealClear Policy, The Blaze, The Stream, American Greatness, Aleteia, Providence Magazine, Charisma, Jewish World Review, Human Events, Intellectual Takeout, CatholicVote.org, Issues & Insights, The Conservative, Rare.us, and The American Orthodox Institute. His personal websites are therightswriter.com and RevBenJohnson.com. His views are his own.
Posts by Rev. Ben Johnson
November 01, 2018
Of all the speeches at the Acton Institute’s 2018 annual dinner, perhaps the one that combined the greatest emotional impact and intellectual heft into the fewest minutes came from Margarita Mooney.
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October 31, 2018
Have you ever been disappointed by the candy you received from trick-or-treating? Not a sucker for jawbreakers? Think Smarties are dumb? Do Jolly Ranchers leave you sour? You now have two options: Either one will maximize your happiness and benefit others – one of them aiding soldiers overseas.
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October 30, 2018
Americans tend to see Sweden as a democratic socialist utopia, although the nation changed course decisively two decades ago. A White House report, “The Opportunity Costs of Socialism,” debunked the notion of enduring Nordic socialism, and now PBS has aired a documentary produced by a Swedish free-market leader intended to dispel popular American falsehoods about his home country.
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October 29, 2018
“Austerity is coming to an end,” Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond announced as he unveiled a budget laden with significant spending increases before the UK Parliament this afternoon. Here are the facts you need to know:
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October 23, 2018
One of the dangers of forming a modern identity around achievement is what Rev. Tim Keller calls “the success-failure whiplash.” Succeeding in one area can cause people to believe they have the skills and inner qualities to do anything, and everything, alone – that they are omnicompetent.
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October 22, 2018
A new study confirms that creeping tribalism has Americans bitterly divided, acrimonious, and dismissive of others based on political differences. Behind this animosity lies a spiritual principle that Rev. Timothy Keller touched on during his address at this year’s Acton Institute annual dinner.
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October 17, 2018
Why do young people throughout the West have an increasingly positive view of socialism? The answer has been ferreted out between the lines of a survey recently conducted for the Charles Koch Institute.
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October 15, 2018
Since the War of Independence, the American self-image has set individual liberty against oligarchic power. Abraham Lincoln encapsulated this when he described the American experiment as a government “of the people, by the people, for the people.”
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October 12, 2018
One of the leading philosophers of our time says Western culture will have to be handed down outside the ivory towers and college lecture halls – and he has strong reason to believe that its promulgators will be successful.
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October 11, 2018
The term “social justice” has a richly developed history in Christian thought, with application for every level of society. However, activists with less-than-heavenly aims have invoked the phrase to justify their activism, from Fr.
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