Religion & Liberty Online Archives

Public Policy

April 30, 2012

Fair Trade or Free Trade?

Is ‘fair trade’ more fair or more just than free trade? While free trade has been increasingly maligned, The Fair Trade movement has become increasingly popular over the last several years. Continue Reading...
April 27, 2012

The Next Civil Rights Movement

During last year’s Acton University—have you signed up for this year yet?—Nelson Kloosterman gave a lecture on the subject of school choice and private education. In the latest issue of Comment magazine, Kloosterman expands on his claim that parental choice is “the next civil rights movement“: Let me begin with some contextualizing comments designed to set up the discussion that follows. Continue Reading...
April 26, 2012

Politics, Ideology, and the Gospel

Earlier this week the Christian Post published an article with some statements from me about evangelical (and more broadly Christian) debates about the federal budget proposals. In the piece, “Evangelical Christians Agree, Disagree on Budget Priorities,” I said that The Church, the Christian faith, is not to identify with a single political order, or structure, party or platform. Continue Reading...
April 25, 2012

Can Business Make You Holy?

Andreas Widmer, entrepreneur, former Swiss guard, and contributor to PovertyCure, has published an article at First Things, titled “Can Business Save Your Soul?”  It is Widmer’s take on the statement by the Pontifical Council for Peace and Justice regarding the role of business (see commentary on this by Acton’s Kishore Jayabalan here). Continue Reading...
April 23, 2012

College-Age Millennials Are Losing Their Religion

Younger Millennials (ages 18-24) report significant levels of movement from the religious affiliation of their childhood, mostly toward identifying as religiously unaffiliated, according to a new survey from the Public Religion Research Institute and Georgetown’s Berkley Center. Continue Reading...
April 20, 2012

Envy and Economics

“Charity rejoices in our neighbor’s good,” said Thomas Aquinas, “while envy grieves over it.” Unfortunately, grieving over our neighbor’s good has become a dominant part of recent economic discussions (“income inequality,” the “Buffett rule,” the “99%”). Continue Reading...
April 17, 2012

The Paradox of Public Education

Schools are controlled by the government, but they serve specific communities with niche needs, says Paul T. Hill, founder of the Center on Reinventing Public Education. Is there a way that education be publicly funded but privately managed? Continue Reading...
April 17, 2012

Profits, Service, and Tax Day

“When conducting Business as Mission, the primary purpose has to be to expand the Kingdom of God,” said Joseph Vijayam, founder and managing director of Olive Technology, a Colorado Springs-based information technology services provider. Continue Reading...