On this week’s Acton Line podcast we hear about a church-based ministry that engages with the homeless and poor “relationally, responsibly, passionately.” James Whitford, executive director of Watered Gardens Gospel Rescue Mission in Joplin, Missouri, joins Acton’s Andrew Vanderput in a thought provoking conversation on private charity and the intensely personal nature of the organization’s outreach. In the second segment, Aquinas College economist David Hebert and Acton’s Tyler Groenendal dig into the public’s deep dissatisfaction with America’s political institutions – and Americans’ deep ignorance of how these same organizations work. A 2017 study showed, for example, thatmore than a third of those surveyed (37 percent) can’t name any of the rights guaranteed under the First Amendment.

Check out these additional resources on this week’s podcast topics:

Learn more about Watered Gardens

Learn more about Acton Institute’s PovertyCure initiative

Read “Americans Are Poorly Informed About Basic Constitutional Provisions,” from Annenberg Public Policy Center

Gallup Poll: Congressional Approval Ratings

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