There is a lot of talk about “closing the gap” and ing e inequality.” Some of it is pure socialism: Redistribute! Redistribute! Others look for ways to create jobs and help people create new financial opportunities for themselves. But what about the simple gift of friendship? At The American Conservative, Gracy Olmstead suggests that friendship can bridge e gaps, and creates safety nets for people in ways government and even private agencies cannot. We all have close friends and family...

Acton Institute President Rev. Robert A. Sirico joins host Dennis Miller on The Dennis Miller Show to discuss President Obama’s recent visit in Rome with Pope Francis, and the differences between the current president’s relationship with the Roman Pontiff and that of Reagan and Pope John Paul II. They also discuss the PovertyCure initiative, after which Dennis declares “Bobby Sirico” to be a “good cat,” which is high praise ing from the former host of SNL’s Weekend Update. The audio...

Although religion and politics are not supposed to be discussed in pany, they are nearly impossible to ignore. We try to do so in order to avoid heated, never-ending arguments, preferring to “agree to disagree” on the most contentious ones. It’s a mark of Lockean tolerance, but there are only so many conversations one can have about the weather and the latest hit movie before more interesting and more important subjects break through our attempts to suppress them. This is...

Cultural progressives often talk about something called “hegemonic masculinity.” By this progressives and feminists mean the standards we use to determine what an ideal man is in a particular culture. Michael Kimmel and Amy Aronson, in The Gendered Society Reader, describe American hegemonic masculinity this way: In an important sense there is only plete unblushing male in America: a young, married, white, urban, northern, heterosexual, Protestant, father, of college education, fully employed, of plexion, weight, and height, and a recent...

. Sure, times were tough, but at least people were more sensitive and caring. And our government was much better at taking care of people. Not like now when people are losing government hand-outs left and right. No, the days of the Great Depression were good. There was a time in our history when the poor and unemployed experienced a passionate government. During the Great Depression the federal government not only provided safety nets in the form of relief, food...

In a fascinating essay in Mosaic, Charles Murray examines the spirit of innovation in America. He asks, As against pivotal moments in the story of human plishment, does today’s America, for instance, look more like Britain blooming at the end of the 18th century or like France fading at the end of the 19th century? If the latter, are there idiosyncratic features of the American situation that can override what seem to be longer-run tendencies? The author of Human plishment:...

During the 20th century, the option for the poor or the preferential option for the poor was articulated as one of the basic principles of Catholic social teaching. For example, in Octogesima Adveniens (1971), Pope Paul VI writes: In teaching us charity, the Gospel instructs us in the preferential respect due to the poor and the special situation they have in society: the most fortunate should renounce some of their rights so as to place their goods generously at the...

Acton’s Director of International Outreach, Todd Huizinga, recently discussed the situation in Ukraine with WGVU’s Patrick Center and Calvin College’s assistant professors of political science, Becca McBride. For West Michigan residents, the interview will be airing tonight at 8:30 PM on the WGVU Life Channel and then again Sunday morning at 10:30 AM on WGVU-HD. For some background on what’s been going on Ukraine, see the panel discussion, ‘Ukraine – The Last Frontier of the Cold War’. ...

“If a society regards governmental manipulation of money as the antidote to economic challenges,” writes Acton research director Samuel Gregg at Public Discourse, “a type of poison will work its way through the body politic, undermining justice and mon good.” Money: it’s on everyone’s mind sometimes. In recent years, however, many have suggested there are some fundamental problems with the way money presently functions in our economies. No one is seriously denying money’s unique ability to serve simultaneously as a...

The following es from “Theology That Works,” a 60-page manifesto on discipleship and economic work written by Greg Forster and published by the Oikonomia Network. Given our tendency to veer too far in either direction (stewardship or economics), and to confine our Christian duties to this or that sphere of life, the diagram is particularly helpful in demonstrating the overall interconnectedness of things. As Forster explains: In most churches today, stewardship only means giving and volunteering at church. But in...