Yesterday I noted how Americans tend to overestimate the amount of profit earned by corporations. The actual profit margins are so thin that, as Mark J. Perry points out, for the pany all sales revenue from January 1 to December 7 would go to cover the firm’s expenses for the year, and its sales on roughly the last 24 days of December from December 8 to December 31 would represent its profits. For the other industries displayed in the table...

No sooner had your writer reported on the metastasis of the sustainability movement from universities to the munity than it came to his attention that activists were doubling down on efforts to bankrupt the economy and sentence capitalism to the dustbin of history. Because: Social Justice. This latest head scratcher is scheduled to take place in the Acton Institute’s own Grand Rapids’ backyard, and will feature a sustainability event in a Grand Valley State University facility named after an Acton...

When struggling with “work that wounds”— work that’s “cross-bearing, self-denying, and life-sacrificing,” as Lester DeKoster describes it — we can content ourselves by remembering that God is with us in the workplace and our work has meaning. But althoughthese truths are powerful, God has not left us withonlyhead knowledge andphilosophical upgrades. When we give our lives to Christ and choose a path of transformation and obedience, the fruits of the Spirit will manifest in real and tangible ways, despite our...

During Holy Weekthe CEOs of two quintessential Red State and Blue panies—Wal-Mart and Apple—joined together to publicly chastise state legislatures for allowingcitizens to have too much religious freedom. Apple CEO Tim Cook opposed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) passed in Indiana while Wal-Mart CEO Doug McMillon opposed similar legislation in Arkansas.The heads of panies that do business with countries mit actualhuman rights violations on a daily basis were concerned about states protectingreligious believers who might hypothetically—someday, somehow—act in a...

On this edition of Radio Free Acton, we talk with Ryan T. Anderson, William E. Simon Fellow in Religion and a Free Society at the Heritage Foundation, about what exactly we mean when we say “religious liberty.” Is it simply the freedom to worship and order one’s private beliefs, or does it entail something more robust than that? We also discuss Religious Freedom Restoration Act legislation in Indiana and elsewhere, and the media’s open animus toward supporters of such legislation....

The fossil-fuel sustainability and divestment movements began with colleges and universities. Over the past two years, the movements have gained momentum from faith-based activists intent on stranding oil, coal and natural gas in the ground. At the same time, they’re pressing their munities to endorse impossible fossil fuel reduction goals. Progressives in the sustainability and divestment movements must assume that if Big Oil is brought to heel, then Big Renewable will immediately fill the void. Never mind that there exists...

The Kapiolani Medical Center for Women and Children at the University of Hawaii is recruiting teens and women to study the effects of second trimester abortions. Girls as young as 14 are being sought so that researchers can carry out a ‘randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trials,’ to determine the effect of oxytocin’s use on uterine bleeding, meaning that they will either provide or deny intravenous oxytocin to the women. Reports suggest that some doctors are concerned that withholding oxytocin during surgery...

In today’s Acton Commentary, “The Logic of Economic Discrimination,” I take up a small slice of the larger controversy and discussion surrounding religious liberty laws like the one passed recently in Indiana. My point, drawing out some of the implications of observations made by others, including Ryan Anderson and Shikha Dalmia, is that anti-discrimination boycotts depend on discrimination. Or as Dalmia puts it, “what is deeply ironic is that corporate America was able to wield its right not to do...

HilarionMetropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, a high ranking bishop of the Russian Orthodox mented on a new poll that showed a growing number of Russians are viewing the rule of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin in a positive light. ments amount to a verbal cup of black coffee for those intoxicated with Stalin (1878-1953), one of the most murderous dictators in history. Stalin, who blew up Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Savior in 1931, was described by historian Robert Conquest as a...

Just when I think I’ve heard and read everything about the slavery that is human trafficking, something es along. This time, it’s the trafficking of boys and young men for sports. NPR’s Alexandra Starr writes about teens from Nigeria being lured to the U.S. with the promise of basketball scholarships, only to end up homeless on the streets of New York City or in foster care. Then there is this: Last month, the Department of Homeland Security raided the Faith...