Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
Acton Line podcast: Are we in a revolutionary moment?
Acton Line podcast: Are we in a revolutionary moment?
Aug 25, 2025 6:24 AM

Since late May, many parts of the United States have grappled with unrest. Anger over George Floyd’s death sparked protests, with looting and violent riots breaking out, as well. Protesters have also been defacing and tearing down statues across the country, including statues of Confederate leaders, as well as monuments to George Washington, Ulysses S. Grant, and even abolitionists. The Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ), also dubbed the Capitol Hill Organized Protest (CHOP), was a six-block area in Seattle where thousands of protesters declared total liberation from policing or government authority after police abandoned the Seattle East Precinct. Many are calling this a revolutionary moment — but is it really? If so, what’s driving it, and how are Christians called to respond to the upheaval? Acton’s Director of Research, Samuel Gregg, weighs in.

Read: “America’s two warring views of race,” by Rev. Ben Johnson

Read: “Shaun King and the advent of cultural iconoclasm,” by Rev. Ben Johnson

Read: “When police get it wrong (repeatedly): The rule of law and police reform,” by Anthony Bradley

Learn more about Anthony Bradley’s work

New to the Acton Line podcast? Subscribe here! We also mend starting with these episodes:

Do you have feedback for the Acton Line podcast team? We want to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]. If you like Acton Line, don’t forget to leave a rating and review on the Apple podcast app!

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
Clarence Thomas on the harmony of faith and reason
In the Christmas season, the secular West begrudgingly nods toward its faithful past. Yet amidst the darkness, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas joined with one the nation’s most distinguished colleges to highlight patibility of faith and reason. Justice Thomas spoke at the dedication of Hillsdale College’s Christ Chapel on October 3, 2019. Thomas told the students that a university chapel joins two of the institutions on which liberty relies: Christ Chapel reflects the College’s conviction that a vibrant intellectual environment...
Christmas consumerism: Spending for the glory of God?
The Christmas shopping season is well underway—and with it, a peculiar blend of hyper-generosity and hyper-consumerism. Indeed, while many celebrate the social and spiritual glories of gift-giving and merriment, others are quick to warn about the steady creep of materialism and self-indulgence. Over at Made to Flourish, Matt Rusten explores these tensions, asking, “Does worshipping the Christ of Christmas necessarily conflict with the proliferation of shopping and festivities during the holiday season?” plaints are many, as Rusten aptly summarizes: “The...
The government funds U.S. farmers – and their competitors
When government es sufficiently large, its impact on private citizens is not just harmful; it’s self-contradictory. U.S. policy toward dairy farmers offers a poignant example. Joseph Sunde recently explored one aspect of U.S. agricultural policy: The Food and Agriculture Act of 1977, signed by new President Jimmy Carter, intended to artificially raised the price for dairy products (and led to a 500-million-pound stockpile of “government cheese”). Government intervention in the market, which inevitably confuses price signals, forced U.S. consumers to...
Acton Line podcast: Breaking down Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society with Amity Shlaes
On May 22nd, 1964, Lyndon B. Johnson launched his program for a “Great Society” in a speech at the University of Michigan. “The Great Society rests on abundance and liberty for all,” Johnson began. “It demands an end to poverty and racial injustice, to which we are mitted in our time. But that is just the beginning.” 84 bills later, Johnson’s war on poverty was in full effect, expanding to sectors in education, medicine, housing, and many more. Did the...
Slavery, Shmi Skywalker, and Star Wars
As the final installment of the final trilogy of the Star Wars saga opens today, it’s worth thinking about where this blockbuster franchise and cultural phenomenon started. And by that I mean where the story of Anakin Skywalker started in Episode I: The Phantom Menace. I got to revisit some of this as the earlier movies have been playing on repeat on cable TV leading up to today’s opening. The part I noticed as I flipped through the channels was...
Explainer: What was in the Queen’s Speech of December 2019
On Thursday, December 19, 2019, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II delivered her 66th Queen’s Speech. The speech – which followed her last Queen’s Speech by just two months – set out the policy agenda of the newly emboldened Prime Minister Boris Johnson for this term of Parliament. For an explanation of the Queen’s Speech, which opens every session of Parliament, see this article. Today’s speech, which made reference to more than 30 pieces of legislation, touched on the following topics:...
The gift of the Incarnation
All of life is God’s gracious gift. This graciousness applies not only to ourselves and our neighbors, each of whom is made in His image and likeness, but applies as well to the whole of creation which was entrusted to the human family’s care and cultivation (Gen. 1:26-31). This gracious gift, both of ourselves and the creation, was marred by our own disobedience, born of ingratitude, and resulted in our separation from that gracious Giver. Sin and death are the...
Turning points in Catholic social teaching
In a recent Acton Line podcast I began by asking Father Robert Sirico the very large question, what is Catholic social teaching and why is it important today? He answered that the Church has always had a social teaching but that when we usually discuss Catholic social teaching today we begin with Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical Rerum Novarum. George Weigel’s latest book, The Irony of Modern Catholic Historysheds much historical and theological light on just why that is. Francesca Murphy,...
Acton Line podcast: Behind China’s drive for global domination
During Christmastime in China in 2015, 1,700 churches were torn down or vandalized, a result of the Chinese government growing increasingly hostile to Christianity. In 2018, The Chinese government raided and shut down churches ahead of Christmas and detained pastors and members caught celebrating. From reports of labor camps in the country to growing surveillance through technology, China is increasingly cracking down on freedom. This is all laid out in a new book, titled Deceiving the Sky: Inside Communist China’s...
Wine caves or fox holes?
The sixth Democratic primary debate featured seven presidential hopefuls and four references to wine caves. The candidates’ rhetoric should bring the issue of wealth and political power into greater clarity than a Swarovski crystal. The term “wine cave” lit up the internet after Senator Elizabeth Warren used cabernet as a cudgel against South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg. “Mayor Pete” held a closed-door fundraiser at the Hall Rutherford wine caves of California’s Napa Valley, giving her a line of populist attack...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved