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...

This isn’t easy to read. It’s stomach-churning. But we must know our enemy, and ISIS is determined to destroy liberty, freedom, culture and families. According to The Daily Beast, ISIS is holding girls and women for one of two purposes: to sell them or to destroy morale by raping and torturing them. These are mostly Yazidi women, being held in Iraq. Reports of what is happening in the prison in e from the women themselves. Some smuggled in cell phones;...

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...

Would you be in favor of a pay increase of 107 percent for your current job? Most of us would be thrilled at having our pay more than double, and would readily support such a change. Imagine if all that was required was to vote for your industry to e unionized. Who wouldn’t support unionization if it resulted in a bigger paycheck? But what if the change came with one caveat: If the pay increase were approved you’d not only...

People who play the lottery with an e of less than $20,000 annually spent an average of $46 per month on lottery tickets. es out to more than $550 per year and it is nearly double the amount spent in any other e bracket. Those who have the least spend an inordinate percentage of their e every year on lottery tickets (estimates vary from 4-9 percent). Yet while it is irrational for those in poverty to waste their limited resources...

More than 100 million Americans are getting some form of “means-tested” welfare assistance, reports Investor’s Business Daily: The Census Bureau found 51 million on food stamps at the end of 2012 and 83 million on Medicaid, with tens of millions of households getting both. Another 4 million were on unemployment insurance. The percentage of American households on welfare has reached 35%. If we include other forms of government assistance such as Medicare and Social Security, almost half of all households...

On Tuesday, the Acton Institute ed Ron Blue to the Mark Murray Auditorium to deliver an address on the topic of “Perpetual Generosity.” In his lecture, Blue draws from his nearly 50 years in the financial services world, with 35 of those working almost exclusively with Christian couples, in order to lay out some basic principles and strategies for developing and wisely distributing wealth. Over this time,he has observed that those who are consistently generous over the long term exhibit...

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...

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...

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...