In his latest column for National Review, Jonah Goldberg notes the difference between being pro-business and pro-market and says the GOP can’t have it both ways anymore: Just to clarify, the difference between being pro-business and pro-market is categorical. A politician who is a “friend of business” is exactly that, a guy who does favors for his friends. A politician who is pro-market is a referee who will refuse to help protect his friends (or anyone else) petition unless petitors...

“Christian discipleship is nothing less than conformity to Christ—as individual believers and as munities,” writes Charlie Self in Flourishing Churches and Communities, CLP’s Pentecostal primer on faith, work, and economics. “The very life of God is in us.” Most of us have heard the Great Commandment and the Great Commission in their basic forms, but understanding the relationship between the two and living out bined imperative can be difficult to wrap our minds around. How do we love the Lord...

Bitcoin is dead, long live Bitcoin. A few weeks ago the IRS killed off any chance that Bitcoin could e a mainstream currency. That’s probably for the best since it clears the way for it to e something much more important: the world’s pletely open financial network. Timothy B. Lee has a superb article explaining why this could be transformative. Lee highlights one particularly helpful innovation: One obvious application is international money transfers. Companies like Western Union and Moneygram can...

Ever-anxious to put another corporate head on a pike, religious proxy shareholders are boasting that their efforts landed them the big daddy of them all – ExxonMobil. Religious investor group As You Sow pats itself on the back that the pany bowed to its pressure to reveal hydraulic fracturing (fracking) risks. According to the Wall Street Journal’s Daniel Gilbert: Exxon Mobil Corp. agreed to publicly disclose more details on the risks of hydraulic fracturing of oil and gas wells, reversing...

The “Christendom Show” really is over in America my friends. It’s a wrap. The culture of American politics is not simply made of up deists, agnostics, and atheists but men and women who are decidedly anti-Christian. To be anti-Christian is not to be merely apathetic or ambivalent toward Christian participation in societal life. Being anti-Christian is to pursue whatever arbitrary measures necessary to ensure that Christians are purged from receiving the same political liberties as other groups. For example, New...

In some parts of the United States, it is legal to hire a surrogate to carry a baby. The surrogate is paid for her services, and then surrenders the baby to the adoptive parents. Shared Conception in Texas (a “surrogacy-friendly” state, according to their website) puts it this way when discussing fees: Sure there are a myriad of ways to make $20,000+ a year! To be honest, when you factor in morning sickness, sleepless nights, swollen ankles, doctor appointments, clinic...

Director of the Istituto Acton in Rome, Kishore Jayabalan, recently issued a video statement on the vital issues that will be addressed at the ing Rome Conference, ‘Faith, State, and the Economy: Perspectives from East and West.” Faith, State, and the Economy: Perspectives From East and West will take place on April 29 in Rome and is free and open to the public. Cardinal Joseph Zen, Bishop Emeritus of Hong Kong, will speak on “the political and economic challenges of...

Michigan Capitol Confidential (CapCon) is reporting today that the city of Grand Rapids, Mich., is selectively releasing what should be public information regarding Acton Institute’s tax status in an on-going dispute between Acton and the city. Grand Rapids city officials gave detailed information about a tax dispute involving the Acton Institute to a select reporter, but not to the nonprofit fighting to prove it is a charitable organization, according to documents received through a Freedom of Information Act request. In...

America has been underwhelmed by Obamacare. Beyond the website glitches and stories of waiting for hours to sign up, we can start assessing the actual program. An April 8 Rasmussen poll finds only 23 percent of Americans call Obamacare a “success,” and 64 percent believe it will be repealed. the White House is in a tough spot; the program was built with the understanding that young people would flock to it, eager to snap up inexpensive health care plans. These...

Creative destruction can be a painful thing, particularly when you’re the one being destroyed. I’ve been-there done-that, and when things hit, I can’t say that I cared too much aboutJoseph Schumpeter and his fancy ideas. Alas, even when we have a firm understanding of the long-term social and economic benefits of such destruction — that whatever pain we’re experiencing is for the “greater good” of humanity — we can’t help but feel unappreciated, devalued, and cast aside. Our work is...