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A Prayer for Governing Authorities

Following up on a prayer offered earlier today, in the spirit of our mandate to “pray continually,” I pass along the following from the NIV Stewardship Study Bible’s Exploring Stewardship feature, “Governing Authorities–Stewards of Public Life” on p. 1482 (Romans 13:1-4): ‎Lord God, ruler of all, I thank you for instituting authority and government, and I pray that good will be done and evil contained. I thank you for my country and praise you for the times when order is...

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RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE

The Complicity of Silence

A second reporter has been killed by ISIS, Steven Sotloff. Women are being sold off as “brides.” Teen girls are raped repeatedly. Thousands are murdered. There are plenty of news reports, but in some quarters, the silence is deafening. Kathryn Jean Lopez asks what can we do, what must we do, in the face of evil, at National Review Online. I don’t want to have on my conscience that I plicit in something as horrendous as this simply by being...

Should Prisons Be Purgatorial?

“If Christians cannot help prisoners find meaning behind bars,” wonders Stephen H. Webb, “how can they expect the Gospel to find an audience among those never convicted of a crime?” At First Things, Webb argues that revival of Christianity will e when we reform America’s prisons: Prisoners are test cases of how Christians deal with sinners in extremis. I don’t just mean passion for the imprisoned can serve as a corroboration of Christian charity, although that is surely true. I...

Why We Need To Get ‘Community’ Right

What is a munity?” What are the boundaries of munity or organization? And – most important – why munity important? Andy Crouch, writer, musician and Acton University plenary speaker, says we need to ask and answer these questions. He begins his discussion with the recent Supreme Court decision regarding Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Woods. While the decision was sound, Crouch says it speaks to something beyond the law: It reminds us that fewer and fewer of our neighbors understand how...

Orthodoxy and Economic Liberty

In the most recent issue of The City, I have an essay on Orthodoxy and ordered liberty. I argue that Orthodox theological anthropology, which distinguishes between the image and likeness of God and two forms of freedom corresponding to them, fits well with the classical understanding of ordered liberty. In particular, I examine these freedoms with regards to the family, religious liberty, political liberty, and economic liberty, arguing that the Orthodox ascetic tradition has much to offer to modern Christian...

Video: Todd Huizinga on Russia and Ukraine.

Todd Huizinga, Acton Institute’s director of international outreach, was a guest analyst recently on Newsmakers, a public affairs program produced by WGVU television in Grand Rapids, Mich. Episode description from Aug. 22: “As tensions heighten between Russia and Ukraine, what is Russian President Vladimir Putin’s worldview and what role does Ukraine play in it? How has the shoot down of Malaysia Airline flight 17 killing 298 on board changed the dynamics of the conflict? We explore the internal and external...

Black Ribbon Day and the Victims of Communism

Lord Acton’s famous dictum, “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely,” has been proven true time and time again throughout history, most vividly in totalitarian systems. The worldwide destruction caused munism is perhaps the prime example. According to The Black Book of munist regimes, inspired by Marxist-Leninist ideology, are responsible for nearly 100 million deaths (and counting). However, in contemporary times there seems to be a tendency to ignore this reality. In The Daily Beast article, “Communism’s Victims...

Radio Free Acton: Jordan Ballor on the Dignity of Our Work

In this week’s edition of Radio Free Acton, Paul Edwards es Acton Institute Research Fellow Jordan Ballor to the microphone for a discussion on the dignity of our work. Is it more Christian to be a minister than a muck farmer? Does the work of the farmer have spiritual value? Ballor and Edwards explore these questions and more in this podcast, which you can listen to via the audio player below. And if you haven’t done so already, check out...

RELIGION & LIBERTY

Faith is the Cross

Sitting in fortable chair in a warm home makes it easy to forget how close religious persecution really is. The twentieth century saw the most martyrs in recorded history, and the twenty-first century is off to a bloody beginning. As I write this, the world mourns the deaths of 21 Coptic Christians in Libya at the hands of the Islamic State group. The remarkable writer Flannery O’Connor once said in a personal correspondence, “What people don’t realize is how...

Editor’s note

The Houston-based Prison Entrepreneurship Program (PEP) treats convicted criminals as if they were “raw metal in the hands of a blacksmith— crude, formless, and totally moldable.” PEP puts prisoners through a rigorous character training and business skills regimen to prepare them for a productive, even flourishing, reentry to life after incarceration. Ray Nothstine took part in PEP’s “pitch day” presentations where prisoners present their start-up dreams before a panel of business people and investors. In the main feature of...

How can I more deeply engage with Acton if I don’t live in West Michigan?

Acton has been blessed with a wonderful building in the heart of downtown Grand Rapids where we host dozens of events each year. Despite our presence in munity, most of Acton’s constituents live outside of West Michigan. If you’re one of those individuals, there are plenty of ways to engage with the institute or share Acton’s mission and message in your munity. Our online PowerBlog (blog.acton.org) features new blogposts daily, but you can also keep up with Radio Free...

Molding men, shaping futures: An interview with Bert Smith

The vast majority of prison ministries focus on evangelism and engage with inmates much as they would with any other mission project. The Houston-based Prison Entrepreneurship Program (PEP), which receives no state funding, is receiving national and international accolades for its unique integration of entrepreneurial skills and character transformation. Prisoners e to the program are treated much as a blacksmith takes a “crude, formless, and totally moldable” piece of metal and turns it into something useful, even beautiful. (See...

The burden of the Christian

Charles Malik is not a household name among educated Christians who stand for a free and virtuous society. Some may vaguely recall his name from his involvement in the formative period of the United Nations and the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. But his name is often overshadowed either by more familiar personages, such as Eleanor Roosevelt, or by the way in which the Universal Declaration was used to justify a 1974 charter “to promote the...

What to expect at our university

For an adequate formation of a culture, the involvement of the whole man is required, whereby he exercises his creativity, intelligence, and knowledge of the world and of people. Furthermore, he displays his capacity for self-control, personal sacrifice, solidarity and readiness to promote mon good. Thus the first and most important task is plished within man’s heart. – Pope John Paul II, Centesimus Annus In about a month, we will be enjoying Acton’s annual assemblage, Acton University. We chose...

'Prison Entrepreneurs: From Shark Tank to Redemption'

Shortly after the day’s guests arrive at the East Texas prison, and well before they begin to mix with the inmates, they hear a low rumbling noise in the distance. As they make their way closer to the prison gymnasium, the low rumbling grows into a constant and thunderous clamor. For those making their first visit to the Cleveland Correctional Center, located 45 minutes north of Houston, the roar of the inmates’ husky voices is disconcerting—maybe even intimidating—as they...

Nature, markets, and human creativity

A review of Free Market Environmentalism for the Next Generation by Terry L. Anderson and Donald R. Leal. (Palgrave Macmillan, January 2015). Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew in his statementfor the 2015 World Water Day makes a number of assertions that, while inspired by morally good ideals, are morally and practically problematic. Chief among them is his assertion “that environmental resources are God’s gift to the world” and so “cannot be either considered or exploited as private property.” While certainly not...

Isabel Paterson

In the Liberal Tradition Whoever is fortunate enough to be an American citizen came into the greatest inheritance man has ever enjoyed. He has had the benefit of every heroic and intellectual effort men have made for many thousands of years, realized at last. Journalist, philosopher, and literary critic Isabel Paterson may have faded into obscurity in the last few decades, but she is one of the greatest classical liberal thinkers of her time. She is lauded as one...

Double-edged sword: The power of the Word - John 19:33-34

John 19:33-34 But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. One of the remarkable things about the risen and ascended Christ is that he still bears the marks of his death and suffering for humanity. Christ has truly made the Cross eternal with his physical body. Even when our...

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