While working on an article today, I read Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger’s 2005 homily right before the was elected Pope. I wanted to recall a section about truth that cannot be repeated enough. It is especially pertinent in light of the Obama Administration’s promise on the HHS mandate. promise changes nothing. It is political sophistry. It still forces people to act against their conscience and support moral evil. The truth about good and evil cannot be swept away by an accounting...

He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. —Matthew 5:45b (NIV) This morning, did you greet the sun with thankfulness to God that he sent the warmth and light at the end of a long night? Did you consider that the sun rose for everyone whether they were God’s people or not? God cares for his creation on a daily basis. mon grace. Through the idea mon...

On February 16th, Acton Institute President Rev. Robert A. Sirico spoke to an audience in Phoenix, Arizona, delivering an address entitled “The Moral Adventure of the Free Society.” We’re pleased to bring you the audio of that address via the audio player below: [audio: ...

One of the justifications for the HHS mandates (amended now to require panies to provide contraceptives free of charge) has been purely economic. The idea is that the use of contraceptives saves panies (and by extension the rest of us) money, as it is less expensive to pay for condoms or birth control pills than to pay for a pregnancy and birth. Of course the calculus e up with such a conclusion is flawed in myriad ways. But even if...

In a discussion on Charles Murray’s new book Coming Apart, Ross Douthat includes a brilliant observation about what he dubs the “persistent advantage of private virtue“: Finally, Murray makes a very convincing case . . . for the power of so-called “traditional values” to foster human flourishing even in economic landscapes that aren’t as favorable to less-educated workers as was, say, the aftermath of the Treaty of Detroit. Even acknowledging all the challenges (globalization, the decline of manufacturing, mass low-skilled...

Last week, in reply to a post by Jacqueline Otto, I wrote an article asking What is a Christian Libertarian? Ms. Otto has written an additional reply entitled, “Four Things Christian Libertarians Believe.” To address Mr. Carter’s doubts, and to counter Mr. Teetsel’s unbelief, here is my layman’s attempt to articulate four of the fundamental beliefs held by Christian libertarians that synthesize their faith with their political ideology. For a more developed understanding, please visit Norman Horn’s website: While I...

Unless you’re a nostalgic Gen-Xer or a parent of a small child, you probably haven’t given much thought to the Care Bears. But since their debut in 1981, they’ve popped up everywhere. Although they were originally characters created for a line of greeting cards, the Care Bears have since appeared in a TV series, two TV specials, five feature films, several music albums, a video game, and ic book series. Books in which they’ve appeared have sold over 45 million...

In an Acton Commentary last month, Jordan Ballor presented a helpful explanation of the differences between “capitalism” and “corporatism”, a capitalist system that has been corrupted: The main dynamic of the market system is the relationship between the producer and the consumer. Corporatism, by contrast, brings to the fore the role of the “managerial state,” in which the government takes on an increasingly larger task in telling producers what they should produce and consumers what they should consume. This can...

A look at religious liberty, the HHS Mandate, and political discourse. Read More… Concerning the HHS mandate, somehow getting lost in the shuffle is the primacy of religious liberty. Mollie Hemingway offers a good post at Ricochet on the media blackout. Certainly, political partisanship and lust for power is clouding the centrality of the First Amendment. I recently heard two women chatting in a public place about this issue. They had convinced themselves that Rick Santorum wanted to snatch their...

Amy Wright, a 20-year-old MBA student at the University of Mobile, on the Millennial generation’s need for a hero—and for personal responsibility: We, the Millennials — a generation that is roughly defined as those born between the late 1980s and early 2000s — have been raised through a time of political turmoil. Consequently, my generation understands that it takes personal responsibility to preserve a free society in a tumultuous world. As we step into adulthood, we realize that preserving freedom...