December 2015 Archives

December 03, 2015

Audio: Rev. Robert A. Sirico on the Free Market and Environmental Stewardship

Today at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome, the Acton Institute has organized a half-day conference called “In Dialogue With Laudato Si’: Can Free Markets Help Us Care For Our Common Home?” Continue Reading...

December 03, 2015

Frankenfish? No, It’s Just a Salmon

My many mentors over the course of my lifetime thus far have advised me, to a person, to be more optimistic and less cynical. The glass, they told me, always should be perceived as half-full regardless the circumstances. Continue Reading...

December 02, 2015

Should Faith-Based Refugee Resettlement Groups Be Debt Collectors?

Over the past few months there has been a lot of discussion about refugees and resettlement. But not much is said about the logistical problems the refugees have to overcome. For example, how exactly do they get to the United States? Continue Reading...

December 02, 2015

Black Friday and the Moral Goodness of the Market Economy

“The real question is not does morality inform the market,” says Rev. Gregory Jensen in the second entry of this week’s Acton Commentary, “but whose morality informs the market.” Consumer disapproval of Black Friday has caused a drop in demand. Continue Reading...

December 02, 2015

The Perversion of the Establishment Clause

“Nothing in the Constitution has been so judicially perverted from its original intent as the establishment clause,” says Zack Pruitt in the first entry of this week’s Acton Commentary. “The same clause went from protecting the people from a tyrannical state-run church to punishing those who dare to voluntarily pray on government property.” Continue Reading...

December 01, 2015

Why the ‘Proto-Communism’ of Early Christians Doesn’t Work for Modern Society

“There are solid grounds for believing that the first Christian believers practiced a form of communism and usufruct [i.e., the right to enjoy the use and advantages of another’s property short of the destruction or waste of its substance],” wrote Peter Marshall in Demanding the Impossible: A History of Anarchism. Continue Reading...

December 01, 2015

How a College Is Partnering with Churches to Boost Employment for the Disabled

Contrary to popular perceptions, people with disabilities are equipped with unique skills and creative capacity, giving them a powerful role to play in the world economy, whether as restauranteurs, goldsmiths, warehouse workers, marine biologists, car washers, or Costco employees. Continue Reading...

December 01, 2015

Video: Marina Nemat on Finding Faith in an Iranian Prison

On November 19, the Acton Institute was pleased to welcome Marina Nemat to the Mark Murray Auditorium as part of the 2015 Acton Lecture Series. Marina was born in 1965 in Tehran, Iran, in what was at the time a relatively secular and free nation. Continue Reading...