In a new analysis in Crisis Magazine, Acton Research Director Samuel Gregg examines “the shifting critiques” of the pontificate of Benedict XVI including the latest appraisal that the world is losing interest in the Catholic Church particularly because of its declining geopolitical “relevance.” But how do some of these critiques understand relevance? On one reading, it parisons with Benedict’s heroic predecessor, who played an indispensible role in demolishing the Communist thug-ocracies that once brutalized much of Europe. But it’s also...

In a discussion on Charles Murray’s new book Coming Apart, Ross Douthat includes a brilliant observation about what he dubs the “persistent advantage of private virtue“: Finally, Murray makes a very convincing case . . . for the power of so-called “traditional values” to foster human flourishing even in economic landscapes that aren’t as favorable to less-educated workers as was, say, the aftermath of the Treaty of Detroit. Even acknowledging all the challenges (globalization, the decline of manufacturing, mass low-skilled...

One of the most problematic aspects of the U.S. educational system is the persistence of the achievement gap. White students generally perform better on tests than black students. Rich students generally perform better than poor students. And students of similar socioeconomic background perform differently across classrooms and school systems. The effect is not only felt on the individual level—low school performance has been linked to crime, low earnings and poor health—but on our country’s economy. The consulting firm McKinsey &...

Amy Wright, a 20-year-old MBA student at the University of Mobile, on the Millennial generation’s need for a hero—and for personal responsibility: We, the Millennials — a generation that is roughly defined as those born between the late 1980s and early 2000s — have been raised through a time of political turmoil. Consequently, my generation understands that it takes personal responsibility to preserve a free society in a tumultuous world. As we step into adulthood, we realize that preserving freedom...

A look at religious liberty, the HHS Mandate, and political discourse. Read More… Concerning the HHS mandate, somehow getting lost in the shuffle is the primacy of religious liberty. Mollie Hemingway offers a good post at Ricochet on the media blackout. Certainly, political partisanship and lust for power is clouding the centrality of the First Amendment. I recently heard two women chatting in a public place about this issue. They had convinced themselves that Rick Santorum wanted to snatch their...

He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. —Matthew 5:45b (NIV) This morning, did you greet the sun with thankfulness to God that he sent the warmth and light at the end of a long night? Did you consider that the sun rose for everyone whether they were God’s people or not? God cares for his creation on a daily basis. mon grace. Through the idea mon...

The Washington Post recentlyreported on what looked like an interesting development in education reform going on in California: The national battle over the best way to fix failing schools is ripping through this desert town like a sandstorm, tearing apart munity that is testing a radical new approach: the parent takeover. Parents here are trying to e the first in the country to use a trigger law, which allows a majority of families at a struggling school to force major...

Galatians 2:10 reads, “All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I had been eager to do all along.” This is the conclusion to the Jerusalem Council, in which Paul and the leaders in Jerusalem are reconciled and unified, and where is decided that Paul and Barnabas “should go to the Gentiles, and they [James, Peter, and John] to the circumcised” (v. 9). The concluding point that both groups are to keep in...

In an Acton Commentary last month, Jordan Ballor presented a helpful explanation of the differences between “capitalism” and “corporatism”, a capitalist system that has been corrupted: The main dynamic of the market system is the relationship between the producer and the consumer. Corporatism, by contrast, brings to the fore the role of the “managerial state,” in which the government takes on an increasingly larger task in telling producers what they should produce and consumers what they should consume. This can...

Last week, in reply to a post by Jacqueline Otto, I wrote an article asking What is a Christian Libertarian? Ms. Otto has written an additional reply entitled, “Four Things Christian Libertarians Believe.” To address Mr. Carter’s doubts, and to counter Mr. Teetsel’s unbelief, here is my layman’s attempt to articulate four of the fundamental beliefs held by Christian libertarians that synthesize their faith with their political ideology. For a more developed understanding, please visit Norman Horn’s website: While I...