Religion & Liberty Online Archives

International Affairs

May 21, 2018

Can human rights be repealed by majority vote?

This Friday, May 25, Irish voters will decide in a national referendum whether to repeal Article 8 of the Constitution, which “acknowledges” the rights of all living human beings in Ireland, including unborn children, and encourages lawmakers to enact “laws to defend and vindicate that right.” Continue Reading...
May 17, 2018

Socialism is fueling assaults on churches: Report

Violations of religious liberty, including physical assaults against church buildings, increased in 2017, according to a report from a watchdog based in Spain. Socialists perpetrated many of these attacks – which ranged from vandalism to attempted fire-bombings with Molotov cocktails – to protest both the Roman Catholic Church’s stance on social issues and its impact on economics. Continue Reading...
May 16, 2018

Karl Marx: Father of Catholic social teaching?

First, the chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences said, “Right now, those who are best implementing the social doctrine of the Church are the Chinese.” Now, Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Germany has credited Karl Marx with helping craft Catholic social teaching. Continue Reading...
May 10, 2018

The forgotten Catholic founders of economics

Many people acclaim Adam Smith as the father of economics. Others trace the origins of economics to the eighteenth century Physiocrats, while others look back far as Aristotle. “The real founders of economic science actually wrote hundreds of years before Smith,” wrote Lew Rockwell at Mises.org. Continue Reading...
May 07, 2018

FAQ: New Karl Marx statue cheered by EU and China

On the 200th anniversary of Karl Marx’s birth, his hometown unveiled a new statue donated by the Chinese government. The event drew praise from EU and German politicians, as well as outrage from pro-liberty thought leaders across Europe and around the world – especially those who had lived under Communist regimes. Continue Reading...
May 03, 2018

This board game reveals the horrible truth about socialism

John Elliott and his friends at Diogenes Games created Socialism: The Game as a free-market lampoon of the board game Monopoly. The rules of the interminable Parker Brothers/Hasbro favorite teach children a distorted version of the free market (and its length gives adults a foretaste of Purgatory). Continue Reading...
May 01, 2018

Emmanuel Macron and the problem with ‘European values’

Last week French President Emmanuel Macron came to the United States for a two-day summit with President Trump and an address before Congress. As Acton senior editor Rev. Ben Johnson notes at The American Spectator, Macron’s speech before Congress reveals a deep fissure within the West about its most fundamental values—a fracture that comes as the West faces powerful challenges from outside its borders: Macron’s speech to Congress represents one set of values: the statist orientation of the bureaucratic EU elite. Continue Reading...