Religion & Liberty Online Archives

Public Policy

December 14, 2011

Santa Entrepreneur

In the book God’s Yardstick, Lester DeKoster and Gerard Berghoef write of the blessings of the order of work instituted by God. “We take for granted all the possibilities which work alone provides,” they write, “And we become aware of how work sustains the order which makes life possible when that order is rent by lightning flashes of riot or war, and the necessities which work normally provides become difficult to come by.” Continue Reading...
December 13, 2011

Samuel Gregg: Freedom in a Post-Euro Europe

Acton’s director of research Samuel Gregg is up at Public Discourse, with a piece titled “Monetary Possibilities for a Post-Euro Europe.” With his usual mix of sophisticated economic analysis and reference to deep principles, Gregg considers European countries’ options should the eurozone fail. Continue Reading...
December 12, 2011

Audio: Jordan Ballor on Ecumenical Babel

Acton Research Fellow Jordan Ballor – who also serves as Executive Editor of the Journal of Markets and Morality – took to the airwaves in the Houston, Texas area last night to discuss the ecumenical movement, his book, Ecumenical Babel, and Christian social thought with the hosts of A Show of Faith on News Talk 1070 AM. Continue Reading...
December 09, 2011

Sirico at Georgetown: Good Intentions Depend upon Sound Economics

On Tuesday, Acton’s president, Rev. Robert A. Sirico, joined three other prominent Catholic thinkers for a roundtable discussion of the U.S. bishops’ 1986 letter “Economic Justice for All.” Georgetown Univeristy’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs sponsored the discussion, and Berkley Center director Tom Banchoff moderated the proceedings. Continue Reading...
November 30, 2011

Tony Blair, Actonite?

Greetings from London, which is only partially shut down today due to a public sector strike over the British government’s not-so-temporary austerity plan. The worst fears of extremely long delays at the airports and of possible violence have yet to materialize and let’s hope they never do. Continue Reading...
November 30, 2011

Acton Commentary: OWS and the Lost Sheep

In this week’s Acton Commentary, I examine Jesus’s famous parable of the Lost Sheep in the context of the Occupy Wall Street movement. In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus tells the parable after some people grumble about him eating with “tax collectors and sinners.” Continue Reading...
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...