Month: March 2013

March 06, 2013

Beyond the State and Market

At Fieldnotes Magazine, Matthew Kaemingk has an excellent article on why Christians should care about intermediary institutions: When presented with almost any social problem (education, health care, poverty, family life, and so on), today’s leaders typically point to one of two possible solutions—a freer market or a stronger state. Continue Reading...
March 06, 2013

Why Culture Matters for Social Mobility

Over the next decade one of the key arguments between progressives and conservatives will be over the significance of income and wealth inequality. Many conservatives cannot fathom how the idea that some people have more money than others is inherently problematic, which is why the discussions seem so alien to us. Continue Reading...
March 06, 2013

Women of Liberty: Joan of Arc

(March is Women’s History Month. Acton will be highlighting a number of women who have contributed significantly to the issue of liberty during this month.) Joan of Arc 1412-1431 The Maid of Orleans Young Joan, by any account, had a plain beginning to an extraordinary life. Continue Reading...
March 06, 2013

Jayabalan: No Rush on Papal Conclave

Detroit News reporter Oralandar Brand-Williams interviewed Kishore Jayabalan, director of Acton’s Rome office, about preparations at the Vatican to elect a successor to Pope Benedict XVI. A date for the conclave, the assembly of cardinals that will elect the next pope, has not yet been set. Continue Reading...
March 05, 2013

They Don’t Deserve It!: The Idolatry of Wealth Inequality

MSNBC.com reports on a video about wealth inequality that has now gone viral, with over 2.2 million views in just a few months. A video made shortly after the 2012 election showing how much greater the disparity actually is, has gone viral in the last few days thanks to links from websites including Reddit and Mashable. Continue Reading...
March 05, 2013

Lawmakers Push for Conscience Rights to be Included in Budget Bill

Fourteen members of Congress—including 13 women—sent a letter to the House leadership today asking that conscience rights be included in the upcoming budget bill. They mentioned specific violations of conscience rights, including the HHS Mandate: “This attack on religious freedom demands immediate congressional action,” the 14 lawmakers wrote. Continue Reading...
March 05, 2013

Lecrae Urges Christians to Move Beyond a ‘Sacred-Secular Divide’

At last fall’s evangelical-oriented Resurgence Conference, Grammy award-winning hip-hop artist Lecrae Moore encouraged the American church to rethink how it engages culture, urging Christians to move beyond what has become a narrow, overly introverted “sacred-secular divide” (HT): We are great at talking about salvation and sanctification. Continue Reading...
March 04, 2013

When Free Speech Died in Canada

When future historians attempt to narrow down the exact point at which the concept of free speech died in Canada, they’ll likely point to Saskatchewan (Human Rights Commission) v. Whatcott, specifically this sentence: Truthful statements can be presented in a manner that would meet the definition of hate speech, and not all truthful statements must be free from restriction. Continue Reading...