Acton Institute Powerblog Archives

Post Tagged 'Laudato Si'

July 15, 2015

Bill McKibben, Climate-Change Opportunists, and the Pope’s Encyclical

I recently enjoyed a brief back-and-forth with 350.org co-founder Bill McKibben in which he claimed that I accused him of lacking religious faith. That most assuredly was not the case. I told him so, but also stood by my initial assertion that he and other environmental activists are cherry-picking Pope Francis’ Laudato Si for religious and moral firepower on climate-change while ignoring those elements that are core Roman Catholic teachings with which they disagree. Continue Reading...
July 15, 2015

An Economics Ode to Joy

In the weeks since the June 18 release of Laudato Si, the discussion has bifurcated into the realms of prosaic, progressive pantheistic pronouncements that Earth requires tender ministrations post haste on one hand. Continue Reading...
July 09, 2015

Does ‘Laudato Si’ Lead Inevitably to Fossil Fuel Divestment?

The unfortunate fallout of Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si continues apace. One wishes the pontiff would’ve released it in four separate installments to avoid misinterpretation and seeming – to this reader, at least – contradictions throughout a somewhat unwieldy 180-some pages in which he alternately praises and disparages human technological improvements over the past two centuries. Continue Reading...
July 08, 2015

CRC Leadership on Climate Change

Would the denominational leadership of the Christian Reformed Church (CRCNA) rather talk about climate change than abortion or marriage? Based on the launch of a denominational “Climate Change Witness Project,” which I explore at Acton Commentary today, I think this is a legitimate question. Continue Reading...
July 06, 2015

Pope’s Encyclical: Eschew Air Conditioning?

I know why Victorian women fainted so much. They were too hot – literally. Wearing layers and layers of clothes, corseted to the point of not being able to breath, attempting to make merry in rooms draped and swathed and festooned with velvet furniture and bric-a-brac. Continue Reading...
June 23, 2015

Patriarch, Pope and a Bishop’s ‘Radical Ecology’

At the Vatican press conference on Thursday for the launch of Pope Francis’ enviromental encyclical, a high ranking Greek Orthodox bishop, Metropolitan John (Zizioulas) of Pergamon, said the document, titled Laudato Si in Latin or Praise be to You in English, comes at a “critical moment in human history” and will “undoubtedly have a worldwide effect on people’s consciousness.” Continue Reading...