Christian’s Library Press recently releasedThe System Has a Soul: Essays on Christianity, Liberty, and Political Lifeby Hunter Baker, a collection of reflections on the role and relevance of Christianity in our societal systems. To celebrate the release,CLP will be giving awaythreecopies of the book. To enter, use the interface below. To get started, all you need to enter is your email address! After that, there are four ways to enter, and each will increase your odds. The contest will end...

For conservatives, a retreat into self-imposed isolation isn’t a responsible option, says Acton research director Samuel Gregg. Instead, he argues, we need more conservatives publicly witnessing that humans are wired to know and freely choose truth, and that this has implications for the political order: At the risk of oversimplification, in one corner are those perhaps best described as “MacIntyrians,” after the philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre and his seminal book After Virtue (1981). They suggest that modern liberalism’s advance in the...

As a 20 year old product design student, Veronika Scott developed an innovative coat/sleeping-bag for the homeless. But one day when she was giving the coats away, a woman came out of a homeless shelter and told her, “We don’t need coats, coats are pointless. We need jobs.” Scott realized the woman was right. So she found a way to provide temporary help and still make a lasting change in people’s lives. ...

Every American, whether native born or naturalized citizen, has an obligation to serve their country. I’ve always believed that to be true, which is why I spent fifteen years serving my country in the Marine Corps. I even served three years as a recruiter, trying to convince other young men and women of the nobility of military service. But even then I believed, as I’ve always believed to be true, that military service is not the only — or even...

Mako Fujimura Acton broadcast consultant, Paul Edwards, took over the WOOD Radio microphone this morning to guest-host West Michigan Live here in in Grand Rapids. He covered a range of topics over the course of his broadcast hour, and spoke with artist Makoto Fujimura, whose 2014 ArtPrize entry, Walking on Water, was exhibited at the Acton Building. Their conversation focused on this piece, written by Mako, on his experience at ArtPrize and how petition does – and does not –...

Religious shareholder activists continuously sing from a counterintuitive hymnal that asserts genetically modified organisms somehow are detrimental to the environment, the financial well-being of panies relying on GMOs and those people who eat foods containing GMOs. For example, religious shareholder activist group As You Sow boasts on its website: As You Sow has organized an investor letter sent to the top 50 corporate opponents of GMO labeling ballot initiatives in California (Proposition 37) and Washington (Initiative 522). The letter to...

Teaching our children about the value and virtues of hard work and sound stewardship is an important part of parenting, and in a privileged age where opportunity and prosperity e rather easily, such lessons can be hard e by. In an effort to instill such virtues in my own young children, I’ve taken to a variety of methods, fromstories to choresto games, and so on. But one such avenue that’s proven particularly effective has been taking in Walt Disney’s Silly...

For a country that talks incessantly about “the economy”, a surprisingly large number of Americans are confused about how an economy actually functions. To help close that educational gap, Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen’s Vulcan Productions and documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock’s Cinelan have produced a series of 20 short films that explain economic issues. “At its core, the vision of this project is to fuse artistry and storytelling with economic expertise to engage the public in a truly informed dialogue...

At the conclusion of the English translation of Niels Hemmingsen’sThe Way of Life (1578) (Latin: Via Vitae)is a series of short prayers. The selection includes one “for the aid of God in the needful businesses of our vocation.” The (modernized)text reads: “Give me understanding, O Lord, and assist my endeavors, that I may faithfully and diligently perform the works of my vocation, to the glory of yourname, the edification of your church, and modity of my neighbor.” Hemmingsen was a...

Today marks the feast day in the Catholic Church of St. John Paul II. His pontificate was extraordinary for many reasons, but one thing St. John Paul II understood well was the need for holiness and engagement of culture by and for the laity. In an address he made in 1987 while visiting the United States and Canada, he spoke of this very thing. It is within the everyday world that you, the laity, must bear witness to God’s Kingdom;...