Religion & Liberty Online Archives

Public Policy

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

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 17, 2011

Pizza qua Vegetable: Acton Finds the Moral Dimension

Well, that wasn’t a serious title: After an hour of reflection, I am forced to admit that pizza qua pizza is a morally neutral proposition. We might have thought it was politically neutral too, until Congress decided this week that pizza sauce still counts as a serving of vegetables in public school lunch lines. Continue Reading...
November 16, 2011

Occupy Wall St. Embraces The Hollow Men

Acton Research Fellow and Director of Media Michael Miller warned of the dangers of over-managed capitalism.Washington’s foolhardy manipulation of the housing market brought our economy to its knees in 2008, but it seemed the gut-wrenching panic hadn’t had taught us anything. Continue Reading...
November 14, 2011

Abraham Kuyper, Adam, and Doctor Dolittle

This week’s Acton Commentary, “Work, the Curse, and Common Grace,” I examine the doctrine of common grace in the context of our relationship with animals. In particular I use some insights from Abraham Kuyper as appear in the forthcoming translation of his work, Wisdom & Wonder: Common Grace in Science & Art. Continue Reading...
November 10, 2011

Samuel Gregg: Free Market Stars in Debate

Director of Research Samuel Gregg’s thoughts on the debate are up at The Corner. He sees a parallel between the Italian crisis unfolding across the ocean and the problems facing the United States — particularly in Michigan, where this debate was held. Continue Reading...
November 09, 2011

A Fish Story

In this week’s commentary, I draw on some of the insights contained in the forthcoming translation of a section of Abraham Kuyper’s work on common grace, Wisdom & Wonder: Common Grace in Science & Art, to discuss the relationship between work and the natural world after the fall. Continue Reading...
November 01, 2011

Of Trampolines and Foam Pits

A couple weeks ago I engaged CPJ senior fellow Gideon Strauss in a debate at the Christian Legal Society, “Justice, Poverty, Politics & the State: Is There a Christian Perspective?” One of the questioners afterward proposed that the large scale of the poverty problem required an institution equally as large, i.e. Continue Reading...
October 27, 2011

In Philadelphia, A Model School Kindles Hope

For too long government-run systems have dominated American primary and secondary education. As innovations of the past two decades such as charter schools and vouchers prove, parents, children, and society benefit when government promotes rather than stifles educational reform based on choice and competition. Continue Reading...