Once again, the Little Sisters of the Poor are having to go to court to defend their religious freedoms against government intrusion. The Little Sisters is an international Roman Catholic Congregation of Religious Sisters that serves more than 13,000 elderly poor in 31 countries around the world. The first home opened in America in 1868, and now there are nearly 30 homes in the United States where the elderly and dying are cared for. A few years ago, the Obama...

French President Emmanuel Macron wants Catholics in his country to be more involved in public life. Samuel Gregg, Acton’s director of research, wonders if France’s secular settlement could be under threat: For a few days this month, France experienced a relapse into the type of anti-Catholic rhetoric that, 100 years ago, would have thrilled half the country and infuriated everyone else. Laurence Rossignol, the former Socialist government minister, denounced Catholics for trying to restrict access to IVF and abortion, and...

‘A view of Blanchard Hall in Wheaton College’ by Liscobeck Public Domain Mark Labberton, President of Fuller Seminary, recently addressed a meeting of Evangelical leaders held at Wheaton College and has released a reconstruction of his remarks. It is an interesting address which spends four paragraphs explicitly addressing questions of economics and economic policy. This section begins by rightly noting that, “It is very hard to read the Bible and ignore God’s heart for the poor and the vulnerable.” In...

During even the first century of its founding, America had produced the world’s “largest capital driven economy.” How was such a young country able to outrun many of its petitors? Founding Father Alexander Hamilton is perhaps the primary figure to have kick-started America’s successful economic landscape. In an article written for The Online Library of Law and Liberty, Samuel Gregg, Acton’s Director of Research, reviewsAlexander Hamilton on Finance, Credit, and Debt, and gives readers a historical glimpse of the financial...

Is there a Christian view of economics? If so, what makes the economic approach different for the Christian? Dr. Victor Claar joined the recent edition of the Christian Libertarian podcast to talk about those issues. ...

A review of Suicide of the West: How the Rebirth of Populism, Nationalism, and Identity Politics Is Destroying American Democracy by Jonah J. Goldberg, Crown Forum, 2018, 442 pp., $28. Suicide of the West is intended as a “serious” work, which it is indeed. But in my opinion it rests snugly on the shelf withGoldberg’s two previous books, Liberal Fascism and Tyranny of Clichés. All three present serious topics in a thoughtful and well-researched manner, but his most recent is...

“It was nearly 50 years ago that an infamous incident finished off the hopes of returning another Kennedy brother to the White House,” says Ray Nothstine in this week’s Acton Commentary.” A film about ‘Chappaquiddick,’ released this month, offers more than a historical retrospective. It reminds us of important truths that lay beneath the tumultuous world of political intrigue.” The movie revisits the details: The late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy drove his car off the Dike Bridge on Chappaquiddick Island,...

As this is being written, Alfie Evans is clinging to life, more than 18 hours after medical personnel disconnected life support and left the 23-month-old child to his fate. “For nine hours, Alfie’s been breathing,” wrote his father, Tom Evans, this morning, following an unbroken succession of “horrendous, scary, heartbreaking hours.” The hospital removed Alfie from a ventilator at 9:17 p.m. last night, but after sustained independent breathing, hospital officials were “forced morally to put him back on water and...

Given the rise of social media and our expansive interconnectedness from globalization, one would think that our social bonds would be stronger than ever. With such an abundance of ways to connect and engage, trade and exchange, how could it possibly be otherwise? But amid the countless blessings of modernity, our expansion of freedom and prosperity has also been panied by new idols of individualism, leading many to pair forts and conveniences with a materialistic or hedonistic focus on the...

Note: This is post #75 in a weekly video series on basic economics. While there have always been inventors and innovators, that number exploded after the eighteenth century. Why has innovation grown so rapidly? Some claim it’s because of institutions such as property rights and rule of law, while others say it was because of a a change in attitude—ordinary people who once celebrated conquerors and kings began to celebrate merchants and inventors. In this video by Marginal Revolution University,...