Today is Flag Day. You probably didn’t know. You probably didn’t care. Unless you’re Boy Scout or a member of the VFW, you probably don’t give the American flag much thought. And you likely don’t have any flags in your home. I don’t either. Not really. What I do have hanging on the walls of my home office are several variations of Jasper Johns’s paintings of the American flag. I have no idea what Johns thought about the works or...

“When I first read the description of Fr. Alexander Torik’s novel Flavian, I was skeptical,” says Rev. Gregory Jensen in this week’s Acton Commentary. “Recently translated from Russian, it is the story of “an unexpected turning point in the life of Aleksei, a quite ordinary city dweller.” A chance meeting with a former classmate turned much in the life of this physics-major-turned-successful-manager upside down, setting Aleksei on a new path with many amazing discoveries along the way.” I couldn’t help...

The fight for religious liberty is only beginning to intensify in America, whether for retail giants, restaurant chains, bakers and florists, sacrificial nuns, or the imminent obstructionson the path paved byObergefell vs. Hodges. Yet even when facing these pressures for themselves, many American Christians still seek to withhold such freedoms from those of differing religiousbeliefs. Forgettingour position of exile,such a stancetrades the first of our God-given freedomsfor narrow self-interest and self-preservation. Suchprofound disconnect was recently on vivid display at the...

This Sunday is the day Americans set aside to honor their fathers. Here are 5 facts you should know about dads and Father’s Day. 1. After listening to a Mother’s Day sermon in 1909, Sonora Dodd of Spokane, Wash. wanted a special day to honer her father, a widowed Civil War veteran who was left to raise his six children on a farm. The first Father’s Day celebration, June 17, 1910, was proclaimed by Spokane’s mayor because it was the...

Poverty Inc.,an award-winningdocumentary thatgrewout of the Acton Institute’s PovertyCureinitiative,is now available on Netflix. Duringthe past yearthe film has been in over300 screenings around the world attended by more than 21,000 people. But now we have an opportunity to spread the key message of the film to a larger audience: the most effective solutions to poverty lie in unleashing entrepreneurs to find new, innovative, and efficient ways to meet people’s needs. Please help us spread the word bytelling your friends, co-workers,...

You don’t necessarily have to be a member of the Libertarian Party to appreciate it. In a new piece for the Federalist, Acton’s director of programs, Paul Bonicelli suggests that there are libertarian questions that voters of all parties should be asking. Libertarians, with a focus on limiting federal power, question the size and scope of the state and its bureaucrats, as anyone supporting individual freedom should. Some of the questions Bonicelli offers are: Does the U.S. Constitution permit the...

The Barna Group recently released a fascinating new study on morality in America. The press release is titled, “The End of Absolutes: America’s New Moral Code.” It summarizes the study: New research from Barna revealsgrowing concern about the moral condition of the nation, even as many American adults admit they are uncertain about how to determine right from wrong. Sounds like a problem. And, indeed, the data does give reason to be concerned. But the framing of at least one...

On this edition of Radio Free Acton, we take a look at the ing referendum in Great Britain which will decide the fate of the UK’s membership in the European Union. Todd Huizinga, Acton’s Director of International Relations and author ofThe New Totalitarian Temptation: Global Governance and the Crisis of Democracy in Europe, joins the podcast fresh from his latest European trip and shares his analysis of the pros and cons for Britain, as well as the reaction in Brussels...

Unclear on how capitalism and/or socialism got started? John Green provides a 12-minute crash course that answers how we got from the British East India Company to iPhones and from Karl Marx to Swedish-style socialism. Warning: Green’s style and digressions can be a bit grating, but overall the material is worth watching. (I’d also mend increasing YouTube’s speed setting to 1.5 or 2 for faster viewing.) ...

What just happened? On MondaytheD.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), sayingthe agency had the legal authority to enact their Open Internet Order (i.e.,net neutrality rules.) What was this case about? Last Spring theCTIA, the trade group that represents the munication sectors, filed a lawsuit with the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals challenging the FCC’s decision to “impose sweeping new net neutrality rules and reclassifying mobile broadband as mon carrier utility.” The CTIA...