With Lecrae’s Anomaly album claiming number the one spot on Billboard’s Top 200, the rapper e under fire for his ments about the inconsistency of those who rightly protest police abuse yet do not protest forms of rap music that glorify violence in general. The es, in part, because some people believe that to call blacks living on the margins of society to moral virtue, in the midst of their protests about injustice, is “blaming the victim.” However, when we...

This afternoon I delivered the Constitution Day lecture at Cooley Law School in Grand Rapids. The school did an excellent job promoting the event and I was thankful for an opportunity to speak about our founding documents and introduce Acton ideas and thought to law students. Much of my discussion centered upon Calvin Coolidge’s notion that there is a “finality” and rest within our founding principles. When we endeavor to move beyond the principles of our founding; we begin to...

Christian’s Library Press has now releasedMatthew, the third primer in itsOpening the Scripturesseries. You can purchase it on Amazon today. Written by Dutch Reformed pastor and preacher Cornelis Vonk, and translated by Nelson D. Kloosterman, the volume provides an introduction to the book of Matthew. Like others in the series, it is neither a mentary nor a collection of sermons, but rather an accessible primer for the average churchgoer. Matthew focuses heavily on the Gospel itself, providing an accessible interpretation...

Chelsen Vicari If you’re familiar with the Acton Institute and with the discussions that take place here on the PowerBlog, you’ll know that Acton has had a lot to say about the Religious Left.(For instance,here’s an example from 2008featuring Acton President Rev. Robert A. Sirico). This is to be expected, considering that the way we approach economics and society generally are often very different, and lead to very different ideas on how to build a stronger society and solve the...

What is the Ebola crisis? Over the past six months, the Ebola virus has been spreading through several countries in Africa. The result is a potential epidemiological, humanitarian, and global security threat. “The Ebola epidemic in West Africa has the potential to alter history as much as any plague has ever done,” saysMichael T. Osterholm,director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. President Obama said he has “directed my team to make this...

Last week in Washington, D.C., AEI’s Values and Capitalism initiative hosted their inaugural Evangelical Leadership Summit. The summit was a nonpartisan conversation among leading evangelical writers, pastors, parachurch leaders, business executives, artists, and policymakersthatfocused on “concrete paths to enhancing human flourishing.” Summit panels emphasized distinct contributions to human flourishing made by the church, universities, the arts, Christian relief-and-development organizations., local antipoverty initiatives, and more. Click each link below to watch a video of the panel sessions: What does a healthy...

“All that exists is God’s gift to man, and it all exists to make God known to man, to make man’s munion with God…God blesses everything He creates, and, in biblical language, this means that He makes all creation the sign and means of His presence and wisdom, love and revelation.” -Alexander Schmemann, from For the Life of the World (the book) The following clip is an excerpt from the first episode of For the Life of the World: Letters...

Constitution Day is celebrated in America every year on September 17, the anniversary of the day the framers signed the document. Here are five facts you should know about the U.S. Constitution. 1. The Constitution contains 4,543 words, including the signatures and has four sheets, 28-3/4 inches by 23-5/8 inches each. It contains 7,591 words including the 27 amendments. It is the oldest and shortest written Constitution of any major government in the world. 2. Thomas Jefferson did not sign...