We at Acton have been among the loudest critics of clergy and other religious leaders who undermine economic freedom (and therefore prosperity, including for the poor) by advocating more extensive government intervention in economic affairs. So we should be the first to applaud when clerics strike a blow for freedom. Kudos to the monks of St. Joseph Abbey in Covington, Louisiana. Monasteries may seem an unlikely venue for capitalist ferment, but in fact they hold an important place in the...

Two of the things I’ve paid some attention to, one more recently and the other as an ongoing area of interest, came together in an Instapundit update yesterday. Glenn Reynolds linked to a video of a NYC cop who “threatens a man taking cell phone video with arrest.” This picks up the attention given here and here to the question of law enforcement and ‘citizen photojournalism.’ But what really struck me about this story was the threat attributed to the...

On his recently launched Ambiguorum Blogis site, Fr. Michael Butler is reviewing Elizabeth Theokritoff’s Living in God’s Creation: Orthodox Perspectives on Ecology (St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2009). Fr. Michael, who joined us for Acton University 2010, examines the author’s exhausted earth meme, beginning with this quote from the book: It is hard to escape the conclusion that with an ever-growing human population, it is not enough for humanity as a whole to do more with less; individually, we must also...

President Calvin Coolidge called Francis Asbury a “prophet in the wilderness.” He has also been called “the bishop on horseback” and “the prophet of the long road” for his prolific treks across the American frontier. The Methodist bishop who was born on August 20, 1745, was the architect of the American Methodist movement. The denomination grew from a few hundred upon his arrival to over 200,000 members at the time of his death. At his death in 1816, the Methodist...

The Detroit News published a new column today by Acton president and co-founder Rev. Robert A. Sirico: Faith and Policy: Free markets, not aid, will help poor nations best Rev. Robert Sirico At the recent G8 and G20 meetings in Toronto, a hue and cry was raised by nongovernmental organizations and other activists about the failure of industrialized countries to make good on promises to raise aid to the developing world. Instead, the activists should have called for a summit...

In a recent article in World magazine, Acton senior fellow Marvin Olasky urged evangelical minister Jim Wallis to drop the pretense of being post-partisan. Olasky, World magazine’s editor-in-chief, went on to assert that (1) Wallis’s organization, Sojourners, received money from the foundation of secular-leftist George Soros, and that (2) Wallis had lent the Sojourners mailing list to the Obama campaign. In an interview here, Wallis appears to deny these charges. But now former Acton research fellow Jay Richards has followed...

It’s always nice to hear from old friends, even when said old friends are unsettling you with tales of insane government spending. When last we heard from former Acton colleague Michelle McAdoo here on the PowerBlog, she was taking Washington by storm with her proposal for an “alternative stimulus.” In the interceding time, she’s gotten married (congratulations!) and now has returned with more tales from the dark and unsettling world of “stimulus.” Enjoy! Update/Clarification: Michelle adds: “just so you know,...

World magazine has an update on the Jim Wallis story that I blogged about earlier this week. A Sojourners spokesman today reversed an earlier Wallis denial and confirmed the organization has received funding from Soros’ Open Society Institute. Sojourners is a leading organization on the religious left founded by Wallis, who is a spiritual adviser to President Obama. Soros is the billionaire financier of Moveon.org, a Democrat-leaning organization that pushes for abortion, atheism, bigger government, and other progressive causes. The...

A constant theme here at the Acton Institute is the idea that good intentions are not enough…they need to be connected to sound practice. In a reflection on fair trade at , D. C. mends Victor Claar’s monograph, ...

This week’s Acton Commentary: Deficits, Debt, and Self-Deception By Samuel Gregg It passed almost unnoticed, but in late July the Obama Administration raised the Federal Government’s budget deficit forecast for fiscal year 2011 to $1.4 trillion. That’s up from February’s forecast of $1.267 trillion. In July alone, the Federal Government’s deficit was $165 billion, of which $20 billion was for interest-payments on debt. The long-term outlook is even worse. The U.S. Government is now borrowing approximately 41 cents of every...