Acton Institute Powerblog Archives

Post Tagged 'church and state'

December 12, 2023

Can the State Love God?

The 20th century was an outlier in the history of the human race. For the first time, secularizing movements spanned the globe. In many places, they succeeded by suppressing the political expression of religion. Continue Reading...
December 06, 2021

Religion in the public square strengthens public discourse

Religious expression in the public square is currently challenged by two competing concerns. On the left, some worry that religion is an anti-rational monolith, quietly subverting legitimate expressions of democracy. Others, on the right, worry that religious diversity destroys cultural cohesion, which they see as necessary to democracy. Continue Reading...
August 26, 2019

The ‘King of Israel’: The Caesar strategy or cultural renewal?

President Donald Trump ignited a national debate when he shared a comment referring to him by the messianic title of the “King of Israel.” Whatever this says about President Trump, it unintentionally revealed a great deal about Western Christians’ commitment to salvation by politics, and it brought to the surface a long-simmering question we must answer: Will we pursue cultural renewal through the sustained preaching and incarnation of the Gospel, or will we turn to a secular ruler for deliverance? Continue Reading...
July 17, 2013

God or Gov: Loving Father or Monster Tyrant?

Fr. Benjamin Sember, a Catholic priest, has written a superb piece on the dangers of making the government one’s God: When a society has made the decision to live without God, that society inevitably begins to rely on the Government to do everything that God used to do: to declare what is right and what is wrong, to protect the innocent and punish the guilty, divide the wheat from the chaff and throw the evildoers into maximum security prison, to protect and care for orphans and the widows, to give healing to the sick, and to guarantee stability, security, prosperity, and peace. Continue Reading...
March 12, 2012

Italy’s Tax Man Takes Aim at the Vatican

Kishore Jayabalan, the Acton Institute’s Rome office director, was interviewed by the Zenit news agency in an article titled, “Is Taxing the Church a Real Solution for Italy?” In the article, Jayabalan discusses the history of the Italian state and its imposition of property taxes on the Roman Catholic Church’s land holdings, residences and non-profit businesses. Continue Reading...