Religion & Liberty Online Archives

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November 23, 2011

On Blue Laws and Black Friday

In this week’s Acton Commentary, “Blue Laws and Black Friday,” I argue that the increasing encroachment of commercial activity into holidays like Thanksgiving are best seen as questions of morality and the limits of the economic sphere of existence. Continue Reading...
November 23, 2011

Wisdom & Wonder At Hearts & Minds Books

We are excited about our friend, Byron Borger at Hearts & Minds Books, carrying Wisdom & Wonder, “the long-awaited, freshly-translated, newly-produced, collection of newspaper pieces that Dr. Kuyper wrote so many years ago.” Continue Reading...
November 23, 2011

Occupy Business Careers?

In a recent BBC article, Sean Coughlan reports a novel idea from Oxford academic Will Crouch, He argues that someone becoming an investment banker could create sufficient wealth to make philanthropic donations that could make a bigger difference than someone choosing to work in a “moral” career such as an aid charity. Continue Reading...
November 23, 2011

Safety Nets and Incentives

Over at the Economix blog, University of Chicago economist Casey B. Mullin takes another look at some of the recent poverty numbers. He notes the traditional interpretation, that “the safety net did a great job: For every seven people who would have fallen into poverty, the social safety net caught six.” Continue Reading...
November 22, 2011

Samuel Gregg: Eurocracy Run Amuck

At National Review Online, Acton Research Director Samuel Gregg observes that “much of Europe’s political class seems willing to go to almost any lengths to save the euro — including, it seems, beyond the bounds permitted by EU treaty law and national constitutions.” Continue Reading...
November 22, 2011

A Failure to Govern?

It seems that the supercommittee (the US Congress Joint Select Committee on Defict Reduction) has failed to agree on $1.5 trillion in cuts over the next decade. In lieu of this “failure,” automatic cuts of $1.2 trillion will kick in. Continue Reading...
November 18, 2011

Samuel Gregg: Europe Can’t Face Economic Reality

On the blog of The American Spectator, Acton Research Director Samuel Gregg looks at how Europe refuses to address the root causes of its unending crisis: Most of us have now lost count of how many times Europe’s political leaders have announced they’ve arrived at a “fundamental” agreement which “decisively” resolves the eurozone’s almost three-year old financial crisis. Continue Reading...
November 17, 2011

The King James Bible and its Unmatched Influence

I remember in a seminary class a student ripped into all the flaws and translation mistakes that mark the Authorized 1611 version of the King James Bible. The professor, of course well aware of any flaws in the translation, retorted that it was good enough for John Wesley and the rest of the English speaking world for well over three centuries. Continue Reading...
November 16, 2011

Distributism’s Fixed, False Beliefs

Picking up the comment thread from this post. pauldanon says: “Because distributism is people-centred, things like medicine would be a priority. There’d need to be infrastructure for that, but nothing like the grotesque infrastructure we presently have for shipping frivolous imported goods around the country.” Continue Reading...