On this episode of Radio Free Acton, Rev. Ben Johnson, Senior Editor at Acton, speaks with Philip Booth, Professor at St. Mary’s University in the UK about what’s missing from the 2015 Papal Encyclical: Laudato Si’. Then, on the Upstream segment, Bruce Edward Walker talks to British jazz legend Norma Winstone about her contribution to Jazz and her newly released album: ‘Descansado – Songs For Films.’ Check out these additional resources on this week’s podcast topics: Read “Property rights and...

Journalist and Harvard alumnus Philip F. Lawler is no stranger to spotting inconsistencies in the Catholic Church. After the Catholic Church’s sex-abuse crisis unveiled in 2002, Lawler released his highly researched book, The Faithful Departed, tracing the Church’s history of corruption while maintaining an “attention to facts” and a “calm tone.” Lawler’s latest book addressing the Catholic Church tackles problems starting in the papacy. In an article written for The Catholic World Report, Samuel Gregg, Acton’s Director of Research, unpacks...

Last week I had an essay exploring Abraham Kuyper’s interactions with Islam, focused particularly on his tour around the Mediterranean Sea in the early years of the twentieth century. As I argue, Throughout his travels, Kuyper was confronted by the diversity, vitality, prehensiveness of the Islamic faith. In Islam, Kuyper sees a world-shaping civilization force, one with the cogency and dynamism to rival Christianity. Kuyper’s reflections remain salient today, as his engagement of and appreciation for the motivating power of...

The UK government has crafted an educational mandate for religious schools that Sohrab Ahmari at Commentary calls “Orwellian.” Under the proposal, all schools would be required to teach children from age 4 and up “age-appropriate” content that includes information about same-sex marriage and transgenderism. Catholics, evangelicals, Orthodox Jews, Muslims, and others with traditional views on sex and gender would have ply. No exceptions. He notes that a senior government adviser stated it is “not OK for Catholic [or other religious]...

President Donald Trump is scheduled to announce new steel and aluminum tariffs from the White House at 3:30 p.m. local time. What is President Trump going to announce? Trade officials have said the president will impose across-the-board tariffs of 25 percent on imported steel and 10 percent on aluminum, which will go into effect between 15 and 30 days from now. He would temporarily exempt Canada and Mexico, according to Trump adviser Peter Navarro, although President Trump has tied this...

A tipped employee engages in an occupation in which they customarily and regularly receives more than $30 per month in tips, according to the Department of Labor. An employer of a tipped employee is only required to pay $2.13 per hour in direct wages if that bined with the tips received at least equals the federal minimum wage. If the employee’s bined with the employer’s direct wages of at least $2.13 per hour do not equal the federal minimum hourly...

“South Africa’s institutionalized national sin of radical and often violent racial segregation, officially known as Apartheid, ended in the early 1990s. Changes in law, however, do not necessarily mean that there is immediate social transformation,” says Trey Dimsdale in this week’s Acton Commentary. “The deep civic wounds that this dark period inflicted on the nation still fester, as evidenced in a March 1 vote by the National Assembly to confiscate white-owned land pensation.” A national policy as thorough and systematic...

“Yeah, well, you know, that’s just, like, your opinion, man” – Jeffrey “The Dude” Lebowski played by Jeff Bridges. ‘Jeff Bridges speaking at the 2017 San Diego Comic-Con International in San Diego, California’ by Gage Skidmore CC BY-SA 3.0 Elizabeth Bruenig, columnist for the Washington Post, yesterday published an opinion piece entitled, ‘It’s time to give socialism a try’. The title is a bit misleading as the piece makes no positive case for socialism but rather chronicles her own and...

Christians have routinely embraced a range of false dichotomies when es to so-called “full-time ministry,” confining such work to the life and vocation of the pastor, evangelist, or missionary. The implications are clear: Those who enter or leave such vocations are thought to be “entering the work world” or “leaving the ministry,” whether for business, education, government, or otherwise. Yet even when we reject such divides, recognizing the depth and breadth of Christian vocation, we still tend to parse which...

International Women’s Day celebrated in Petrograd, 1917. (Source: Wikimedia) Today is International Women’s Day, a century-old international observance of women’s cultural, economic, and social achievements. Here are five facts you should know both about this global celebration: 1. The original observance, held in the United States on February 23, 1909, was created by American socialistgroups and dubbed National Woman’s Day (singular). As scholar Temma Kaplan explains, the event was originally an attempt bysocialists and anarchists to establish a munal tradition....