Joe Carter

Joe Carter is a Senior Editor at the Acton Institute. Joe also serves as an editor at the The Gospel Coalition, a communications specialist for the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, and as an adjunct professor of journalism at Patrick Henry College. He is the editor of the NIV Lifehacks Bible and co-author of How to Argue like Jesus: Learning Persuasion from History's Greatest Communicator (Crossway).

Posts by Joe Carter

Welfare Spending Equals $47,000 and a Ford Fiesta Per Family

When it comes to proving support for those in poverty, a significant number of economists, politicians, and pundits support direct transfer of money—just giving the poor cash. There are many moral and practical reasons I think that option is a suboptimal means of aiding the poorest of our neighbors. Continue Reading...

Beyond the State and Market

At Fieldnotes Magazine, Matthew Kaemingk has an excellent article on why Christians should care about intermediary institutions: When presented with almost any social problem (education, health care, poverty, family life, and so on), today’s leaders typically point to one of two possible solutions—a freer market or a stronger state. Continue Reading...

Why Culture Matters for Social Mobility

Over the next decade one of the key arguments between progressives and conservatives will be over the significance of income and wealth inequality. Many conservatives cannot fathom how the idea that some people have more money than others is inherently problematic, which is why the discussions seem so alien to us. Continue Reading...

Lawmakers Push for Conscience Rights to be Included in Budget Bill

Fourteen members of Congress—including 13 women—sent a letter to the House leadership today asking that conscience rights be included in the upcoming budget bill. They mentioned specific violations of conscience rights, including the HHS Mandate: “This attack on religious freedom demands immediate congressional action,” the 14 lawmakers wrote. Continue Reading...

When Free Speech Died in Canada

When future historians attempt to narrow down the exact point at which the concept of free speech died in Canada, they’ll likely point to Saskatchewan (Human Rights Commission) v. Whatcott, specifically this sentence: Truthful statements can be presented in a manner that would meet the definition of hate speech, and not all truthful statements must be free from restriction. Continue Reading...

The Faulty Moral Arithmetic of the GOP

Arthur Brooks, president of the American Enterprise Institute, has an op-ed in today’s Wall Street Journal that every conservative should read—and heed: Conservatives are fighting a losing battle of moral arithmetic. Continue Reading...

Avoiding the Fate of Europe

At The American Spectator, Jackson Adams reviews Samuel Gregg’s new book, Becoming Europe: Economic Decline, Culture, and How America Can Avoid a European Future: “Europe” is a concept Europeans are still getting used to. Continue Reading...

Samuel Gregg on Catholics, Welfare, and the Sequester

Should Catholics be concerned about the looming budget cuts? The National Catholic Register asked several Catholic leaders and thinkers, including Acton’s Samuel Gregg, for their response to the sequester: Re-establishing fiscal discipline and welfare reform are necessary components to securing the common good, a key principle in Catholic social teaching, said Samuel Gregg, author of the new book Becoming Europe: Economic Decline, Culture and How America Can Avoid a European Future. Continue Reading...

Are More Black Men in Jail Than in College?

In 2002, the Justice Policy Institute released the report “Cellblocks or Classrooms” in which they claimed, “Nearly a third more African-American men are incarcerated than in higher education.” Since the report was issued a broad range of people—from NBA star Charles Barkley to President Barack Obama—have repeated the claim. Continue Reading...