Religion & Liberty Online Archives

Christian Social Thought

November 11, 2015

Gertrude Himmelfarb ‘Threads the Needle’ on Lord Acton Biography

Biographers suffer from a myriad of temptations. Gertrude Himmelfarb, in her bibliography to the newly republished Lord Acton: A Study in Conscience and Politics, recalls how Acton’s first biographer, Ulrich Noack struggled mightily to reconcile contradictions and tensions in Acton’s thought and in doing so lost much of the man himself. Continue Reading...
October 29, 2015

China Ends One-Child Policy, Still Limiting Births

The BBC reported today that China is ending its one-child policy, providing the following overview: Introduced in 1979, the policy meant that many Chinese citizens – around a third, China claimed in 2007 – could not have a second child without incurring a fine In rural areas, families were allowed to have two children if the first was a girl Other exceptions included ethnic minorities and – since 2013 – couples where at least one was a single child Campaigners say the policy led to forced abortions, female infanticide, and the under-reporting of female births It was also implicated as a cause of China’s gender imbalance Before everyone celebrates, China did not, however, eliminate all limits but changed the limit to two children. Continue Reading...
October 29, 2015

What Christians Should Know About Consumption

Note: This is the latest entry in the Acton blog series, “What Christians Should Know About Economics.” For other entries in the series see this post. The Term: Consumption What it means: Consumption is the use of goods and services by households. Continue Reading...
October 23, 2015

Are You Pro-Union or Pro-Minimum Wage?

During CNN’s Democratic debate, presidential candidate, senator from Vermont, and self-proclaimed socialist Bernie Sanders promised that if elected he would work to “raise the [federal] minimum wage to $15 an hour.” Continue Reading...
October 20, 2015

How Should Christians Think About Socialism?

Calling a political candidate a “socialist” used to be a political slur. In almost every U.S. election over the past hundred years there have been conservatives who have claimed a major political party candidate running for president was—whether they admitted it or not—a socialist. Continue Reading...