October 2013 Archives

October 31, 2013

Eurozone Unemployment At Record Levels

“Abysmal.” That’s the word one reporter is using to describe the newly released numbers for Eurozone unemployment and inflation. The Eurozone (which includes 17 nations) is seeing miserable numbers: The ranks of the jobless swelled by 60,000 to a record 19.45 million, according to Eurostat, the European Union’s statistics agency. Continue Reading...

October 31, 2013

Reformation and the Need for Truth

Martin Luther “did more than any single man to make modern history the development of revolution,” declared Lord Acton. (Lectures on Modern History) The Protestant Reformation profoundly changed the trajectory of Western Civilization. Continue Reading...

October 31, 2013

The Good News About Global Poverty

Have you heard the good news about global poverty? The number of people living in abject poverty — defined as living on less than $1.25 per day — has been halved since 1990. Continue Reading...

October 31, 2013

Diversity Is The Basis of Society

In a recent review of Christena Cleveland’s Disunity in Christ: Uncovering the Hidden Forces that Keep Us Apart, Paul Louis Metzger wonders, “What leads people to associate with those who are similar, while distancing themselves from diverse others? Continue Reading...

October 30, 2013

The Interior Freedom To Embrace What Is Coherent, Good, True, Beautiful

Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore is one of the Chairmen of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Committee for Religious Liberty. He recently celebrated what is known as a “Red Mass”, an annual event throughout the church for lawyers, judges, legislators and others in the legal profession, at St. Continue Reading...

October 30, 2013

Gaia’s Vengeance: The Caustic Cliché of Environmentalism

In this week’s Acton Commentary, Ryan H. Murphy asks, “Why don’t we bat an eye when extremists hope a pagan god will smite SUV owners?” TV Tropes, a Wikipedia-style website, catalogs many clichés of fiction, including this, which the site calls “Gaia’s Vengeance.” Continue Reading...

October 30, 2013

There is Still No Tea Party Movement

There was something wrong with Zhang’s dog. The Chinese man had bought the Pomeranian on a business trip, but after he brought it home he found the animal to be wild and difficult to train. Continue Reading...

October 30, 2013

Poet Christian Wiman: Getting Glimpses Of God

Former editor of Poetry magazine Christian Wiman struggles, like many of us, to make sense of suffering and faith. His struggle is poetic: God goes belonging to every riven thing. He’s made the things that bring him near, made the mind that makes him go. Continue Reading...

October 29, 2013

Religious Activists Petition SEC for Greater Corporate ‘Disclosure’

“Byrdes of on kynde and color flok and flye allwayes together,” wrote William Turner in 1545. If he were with us today, the author might construct an interesting Venn diagram representing the activist birds scheduled to testify tomorrow before the Securities and Exchange Commission. Continue Reading...