“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” –Jeremiah 29:11 Jeremiah 29:11isa popular verse among many of today’s Christians, as Evan Koons humorously points out in a new article at Q Ideas. “Christians love this verse,” he writes. “It has all the ideas and values we crave: prosperity, safety, security, hope, longevity. It’s the verse we most associate with...

Ross Douthat ofThe New York Times (and plenary speaker at Acton University 2014) talks about diversity and dishonesty, focusing on the recent resignation of Brendan Eich at Mozilla and the decision by Brandeis University to withdraw an honorary degree from human rights activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Douthat’s problem isn’t so much that these things happened; it’s that those charged with publicly discussing the issues seem so bent on lying. In both cases, Mozilla and Brandeis, there was a striking difference...

If you really care about e inequality, notes John Goodman, you need only focus on one thing — the inequality of educational opportunity: The topic du jour on the left these days is inequality. But why does the left care about inequality? Do they really want to lift those at the bottom of the e ladder? Or are they just looking for one more reason to increase the power of government? If you care about those at the bottom then...

Christian’s Library Presshas just released a new translationof Abraham Kuyper’s Scholastica IandII,two convocation addresses delivered toVrije Universiteit(Free University) during his two years as rector (first in 1889, and then again in 1900). The addresses are published under the title Scholarship,and demonstrate Kuyper’s core belief that “knowledge (curriculum) and behavior (pedagogy) are embedded in our core beliefs about the nature of God, humanity, and the world,” as summarized by translator Nelson Kloosterman. To celebrate the release,CLP will be giving away three...

More than at any time in the last hundred years, Christians (at least in those in America) are beginning to recognize that, as Greg Gilbert and Sebastian Traeger say, “our jobs are an arena in which God will work in us and through us to make us more like Jesus and to glorify himself.” Yet it’s often easier to recognize this truth in the abstract while failing to understand how it could be true for our own jobs. Say, for...

A prominent Catholic bishop recently told development experts at a UN meeting that the family is the time-tested “building block” of a charitable and economically prospering society. He said healthy, stable families allow “intergenerational solidarity” to take root in cultures, where the young gratuitously care for their elders, and vice versa, out of a fundamental Christian moral duty and capacity for human love. Archbishop Francis A. Chullikattfrom Bolghatti, India, made these remarks as the Holy See’s Permanent Observer, when seeking...

Elise Hilton speaks at San Chez Bistro in Grand Rapids, Michigan – April 8, 2014 On Tuesday evening,Acton Communications Specialist Elise Hilton led a great discussion on the topic of “TheReal War On Women” at Acton On Tap, held at San Chez Bistro in Downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan. Beginning in 2010, the phrase “War on Women” mon in political discussions in the United States. Primarily, it has been used by those on the left who believe that there is an...

What is Holy Week? Holy Week is the week before Easter, a period which includes the religious holidays of Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday. Holy week does not include Easter Sunday. When did Holy Week get started? The first recording of a Holy Week observance was made by Egeria, a Gallic woman who made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land about 381-384. In an account of her travels she wrote for a group of women back...

A failed charter school and someone looking to start a charter school in Kansas can only look to Kansas City, Mo., and wonder what impact high-performing public charter schools may have for kids in the state. ...

[Note: ‘7 Figures’ is a new, occasional series highlighting data and information from a variety of surveys and reports.] 1. The average federal tax rate for all households (tax liabilities divided by e, including government transfer payments) before taxes is 18.1 percent. 2. Households in the top quintile (including the top percentile) paid 68.8 percent of all federal taxes, households in the middle quintile paid 9.1 percent, and those in the bottom quintile paid 0.4 percent of federal taxes. (Quintiles...