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...

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 –...

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...

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...

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...

The Christian life is one filled with risk, driven by active faith in an active God whose ways are higher than our own. In all that we put our hands to, God calls us to turn away from the supposed predictability of our own plans and designs and rely entirelyon Him. Such an orientation transforms each area of our lives, from family and friends to politics to church life and beyond. But for those involved in entrepreneurship and business, the...

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...

It’s easy to say that a “family can be anything you choose.” You can have Molly has two mommies, or Jaxon who splits his time between Dad’s house and Mom’s or some version of “his, mine, ours.” In reality, the traditional family is a necessary economic and sociological element of a strong society. It’s like the game Jenga: you can slide and maneuver things all you want, but eventually, it es crashing down. Jonathan V. Last, writing at The Weekly...

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. ...

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;...