Good now, sit down, and tell me, he that knows, Why this same strict and most observant watch So nightly toils the subject of the land, And why such daily cast of brazen cannon, And foreign mart for implements of war; Why such impress of shipwrights, whose sore task Does not divide the Sunday from the week; What might be toward, that this sweaty haste Doth make the night joint-labourer with the day: Who is’t that can inform me? –Marcellus,...

George J Marlin, Catholic author and editor, recently reviewed Samuel Gregg’s latest book, Tea Party Catholic at The Catholic Thing. He begins by saying that he knows many members of the Tea Party who are religious, but “because they do not have a consistent public philosophy that serves as the foundation of their civic activism,” they tend to “go off half-cocked and in different directions.” However, he is confident that Tea Party Catholic will “help fill this void:” Gregg, an...

Pope Francis has released his first apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium(The Joy of the Gospel). An apostolic exhortation …is published to encourage the faithful to live in a particular manner or to do something, e.g., post synodal documents offered to the church in summary of a previous synod and hoping the faithful will do something helpful for the life of the church… Acton’s Director of Research, Sam Gregg, takes a look at Evangelii GaudiumatNational Review Online.First, Gregg points out that this...

CBS This Morning’s Charlie Rose and Sharyl Attkinsson report that a woman who once touted the Affordable Care Act as “NancyCare” is now forced to drop insurance for her eight employees, and let them fend for themselves on HealthCare.gov. It isn’t going well. In the report, White House spokesman Jay Carney tells reporters that, “This conversation doesn’t apply to you” when asked how the Affordable Care Act will affect small business owners like Nancy Clark. As Charlie Rose says, “Another...

Imagine the horror of losing friends and family members. Fleeing your homeland. Scrambling to survive in a refugee camp that is over-crowded and under-sourced. You are now prey for bounty-hunters. The price: your kidney. Your eye. Syrian refugees trying to survive in Lebanon are finding themselves in this wicked “market place.” The young man, who called himself Raïd, wasn’t doing well. He climbed into the backseat of the car, in pain, careful not to touch any corners. He was exhausted...

Picking up where we left offlast time(in verse 9 of I Samuel 8), the prophet Samuel’s sons have given God’s system of judges a black eye with their corrupt behavior. Not wishing to be upstaged in the “Let’s Disappoint God” department, the people of Israel decide they want to up-the-sin-ante by rejecting God’s order and demanding a monarchy. It’s now time for Samuel to share with the people what is in store for them should they refuse to course-correct. In...

Earlier this month, the Fairfield Mirror reported on a speech given at Fairfield University in Connecticut: Many consumers are content in turning a blind eye to the injustices that save them cents on their dollars. While it may be challenging to understand the social responsibilities that affect the world’s most powerful corporations, one group of investors is constantly directing these corporations to increase their social responsibility: the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility. Senior economics major Arturo Jaras Watts and Fairfield...

In this week’s Acton Commentary, “Tyranny Is the True Enemy,” I explore the latest film installment of the Hunger Games trilogy, “Catching Fire.” I pick up on the theme that animates Alissa Wilkinson’s review at Christianity Today, but diverge a bit from her reading. As she writes, a major aspect of this second part of the series has to do with fake appearances and real substance, and the need to “remember who the real enemy is.” Wilkinson is upset with...

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a pair of cases that challenge the HHS mandate requiring many panies to insure contraceptive and abortifacients. The Obama administration asked the high court to review the issue after a federal appeals court in Colorado found in favor of Hobby Lobby, an Oklahoma-based crafts franchise. The court bine the Hobby Lobby case with lesser-known case involving Conestoga, a pany that lost earlier bids for relief from the mandate. If you haven’t been following...

Over the past year, public discussion about the Affordable Care Act has led many Christians to question the proper roles of government and business in providing healthcare. Too often, though, the question left unexamined is what role the church should have in responding to the medical needs of munity. Throughout the history of the church, Christians have been actively involved in the provision and funding of health and medical resources. But for the past 50 years, these functions have been...