Latest Posts

Is Capitalism Killing War?

Last year Steven Pinker, a cognitive scientist at Harvard, published the intriguing book The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined. While some of his assumptions and conclusions about the overall decline of violence are questionable, he does seem to be correct about the decline of warfare over the past several decades. Continue Reading...

The Red Cross’ Haitian Boondoggle

Disaster relief and aid to developing nations is big business. Really big. While the documentary “Poverty, Inc.” examines whether this business helps or hurts, it’s very clear from this NPR/ProPublica story that the Red Cross did not help Haiti. Continue Reading...

Religious Freedom and the Common Good

What is the best test of the common good? How do you know if you have a society characterized by the flourishing of persons in community? Andy Crouch argues that we should look at the flourishing of the most vulnerable. Continue Reading...

Was St. Francis of Assisi An Eco-Warrior?

With the newest papal encyclical due out soon, and with its purported title to be Laudato si’ [Praised Be You] from St. Francis of Assisi’s great prayer, The Canticle of the Sun, Acton’s director of research Samuel Gregg takes a closer look at this saint. Continue Reading...

Neil Young, Starbucks and the War on GMOs

Our religious shareholder activist buddies in As You Sow and the Interfaith Center for Corporate Responsibility can welcome Neil Young in their ill-advised battle against genetically modified organisms. Seems ol’ Shakey – as Young is known to his friends, family and hardcore fans – has released a song that could’ve been written from all the GMO falsehoods and scare tactics spread by AYS and ICCR, including: More than 60 percent of all processed foods available today contain GE ingredients such as soy, corn, or canola; and because in the U.S. Continue Reading...

EcoLinks 06.03.15

Podcast: U.N. Secretary General Wants to “Join Forces” With Catholic Church? Chris Manion, Population Research Institute Ban Ki Moon, Secreatary General of the United Nations, wants to “join forces” with the Catholic Church to save the planet. Continue Reading...

Now Available: ‘The Mosaic Polity’ by Franciscus Junius

CLP Academic has now released The Mosaic Polity, the first-ever English translation of Franciscus Junius’ De Politiae Mosis Observatione, a treatise on Mosaic law and contemporary political application. The release is part of the growing series from Acton: Sources in Early Modern Economics, Ethics, and Law. Continue Reading...