On Monday, President Obama came out stronglyfor the concept of net neutrality, saying that “an open Internet is essential to the American economy, and increasingly to our very way of life.”What exactly is net neutrality? And why should Christians care? What is net neutrality? Net neutrality (short for “network neutrality”) refers to both a design principle and laws that attempt to regulate and enforce that principle. The net neutrality principle is the idea that a public information network should aspire...

Wasn’t toil introduced into human labor as a punishment from God? Yes and no, says Dylan Pahman in this week’s Acton Commentary. Our life is plagued by imperfection and the tragedy of our mortality, but nevertheless God says to Adam, “you shall eat,” that is, “you shall have the means to sustain your life.” Work ought not to be so toilsome — toil, in that sense, is a bad thing — but given that our lives are characterized by sin,...

Recently, Acton President and Co-founder Rev. Robert Sirico spoke with Joe Wooddell, professor of philosophy and vice president for academic affairs at Criswell College. They discuss the concept of classic liberalism, Lord Acton, the Institute, and what led to the creation of Acton’s largest event of the year, Acton University. If you’re new to Acton or want to learn more about Acton University, this is certainly a helpful resource. Registration for Acton University 2015 opens on Monday, November 17. Listen...

F.H. Buckley speaks at the Acton Institute On this edition of Radio Free Acton, I was privileged to speakwith F. H. Buckley, Foundation Professor at George Mason University School of Law and author of a number of books, his latest being The Once and Future King: The Rise of Crown Government in America. The story of American Government is the story of the rise of presidential power, which has seen its fullest, and – for those who believe in the...

LBJ’s so-called “war on poverty” kicked off a trajectory of public policy that has shown a remarkable tendency to create more of the same — affirming cycles of dependency, disintegrating relational capital, and over-elevating material tinkering to the detriment of the permanent things. Yet somehow the prevailing narrative still holds that those same sickly policies are the best we can hope for, and anyone who disagrees is an enemy of the poor. If moneyshall be transferred from Person X to...

The most persecuted and victimized people in the world today are Christians in the Middle East. Middle East expert Raymond Ibrahim lays out the grim details, and wonders why this human rights tragedy of our time is largely ignored by the Western media. ...

“Thank you for your service,” they say, as they shake our hands and pat our backs. We smile and thank them for their gratitude and try to think of something else to talk about. These encounters with strangers happen from time to time, though always on Veteran’s Day. It’s the one time we can count on civilians—a group from which we came but can never fully return—to think about us. On Veteran’s Day, they think of the men and women...

It’s one of those stories that makes anyone with an iota of sense scratch their head and wonder ironically, “What could possibly go wrong?” India’s government has long been pushing for its citizens to have smaller families. In that quest, the government pays medical personnel for each subject they can round up and get to a government-run sterilization hospital. (Poor people preferred, by the way.) The government will also pay poor folks to be sterilized. Currently, nine women are dead...

Those schoolgirls captured by Boko Haram? Most are still missing. A boys’ school was bombed. Boko Haram says it wasn’t them, but the people don’t believe them. In Nigeria, for many people, life is about staying one step ahead of Boko Haram, trying to safeguard their children from getting swept up in the claws of this evil entity. In neighboring Adamawa state, almost 9,500 displaced people now live in a giant camp — one of five for displaced people in...

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.“ -John 1:1-3 In Episode 5 of For the Life of the World, Evan Koons wonders about the purpose of knowledge. “Is it about power?” he asks. “Man’s conquest of nature? …ameans for securing a healthy nest egg for retirement?” As he...