Acton Institute Powerblog Archives

Post Tagged 'Religion/Belief'

May 09, 2014

Samuel Gregg: Indivisibility Of Religious Liberty, Economic Freedom

Sam Gregg, Acton’s director of research, makes the case that limiting religious liberty also infringes upon economic growth in The American Spectator. Gregg uses history to illustrate the point. Unjust restrictions on religious liberty often come in the form of limiting the ability of members of particular faiths to participate fully in public life. Continue Reading...
May 08, 2014

An Open Letter Regarding Greece v. Galloway

Katherine Stewart is most unhappy about the recent Supreme Court decision, Greece v. Galloway. The Court upheld the right of the town of Greece, New York, to being town hall meetings with prayer, so long as no one was coerced into participating. Continue Reading...
May 06, 2014

Chinese Government Destroys Church; Denies Persecution

Wenzhou, China, is known as the “Jerusalem of the East” because of its large Christian population, a population that had, until recently, enjoyed the Sanjiang Church for worship. A massive structure, Sanjiang Church took over 12 years to build and was a site of pilgrimage for Chinese Catholics. Continue Reading...
May 05, 2014

Explainer: The Supreme Court’s Ruling on Government Prayer

What was the Greece vs. Galloway case about? The short answer: The constitutionality of saying religiously specific prayers (e.g., praying in Jesus name) at government meetings and functions. The (slightly) longer answer: In the town of Greece, located in upstate New York, the Town Board sessions were opened by a prayer from local clergy, mostly leaders of Christian congregations although in a few instances members of other faith traditions offered the invocation (a Jewish man, a Baha’i leader, and a Wiccan). Continue Reading...
April 28, 2014

Is Knowledge Of Religion Important To Culture?

We Americans are rather ignorant about religion. We claim to be a religious folk, but when it comes to hard-core knowledge, we don’t do well. The Pew Forum put together a baseline quiz of religious knowledge – a mere 32 multiple choice questions – and on average, Americans only got about half of them right. Continue Reading...
April 25, 2014

The Glory of God and the Goal of Good Laws

“The goal of all good laws is first and foremost the glory of God, then the good of one’s neighbor, privately and, most important, publicly.” –Girolamo Zanchi  The following excerpt comes from Thesis 3 (above) of Girolamo Zanchi’s newly translated On the Law in General.  Continue Reading...