My conversion into a fan of science-fiction began with an unusual order from a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: “Each Marine shall read a minimum of three books from the [Commandant’s Professional Reading List] each year.” Included on the list of books suitable for shaping the minds of young Lance Corporals like me were two sci-fi novels: Robert Heinlein’s Starship Troopers and Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game. I soon discovered what lay hidden in these literary gems. Along...

Everything, and everyone, really is awesome! In today’s Acton Commentary, “Everything Really is Awesome,” I make a connection between the LEGO movie and the latest film release by the Acton Institute, “For the Life of the World: Letters to the Exiles.” My point of departure is the ditty that appears in the LEGO movie, “Everything is Awesome.” Another implication of this connection is that everyone is awesome, in the same way that we recognize with the Psalmist: O LORD, our...

The newest celeb campaign ing out against bullying, getting kids to eat their veggies and to go outside and play) is to stop women from being bossy. Actually, what they seem to want to do is ban the illusion of bossiness; that is, men are leaders and women are bossy. Well, that’s silly. And bossy. (yes, it’s a real website) says: When a little boy asserts himself, he’s called a “leader.” Yet when a little girl does the same, she...

Mark Tooley of IRD highlights a talk by Michael Novak, “Jesus Was a Small Businessman.” Speaking to students at the Catholic University of America, Novak observed: When he was the age of most of you in this room, then, Jesus was helping run a small business. There on a hillside in Nazareth, he found the freedom to be creative, to measure exactly, and to make beautiful wood-pieces. Here he was able to serve others, even to please them by the...

Trending at today’s Aleteia, Michael Matheson Miller discusses Pope Francis and his call to social justice. Miller asks the question, “Do orthodoxy and social justice have to be mutually exclusive?” Miller says there is a “pervasive, false dichotomy between theological doctrine and social justice that has dominated much of Catholic thought and preaching since the 1960s.” Intrigued by the precedent that Pope Francis is setting in this area, Miller says, From his first moments as pope, Francis has urged Christians...

One of the advantages of living in a free society is that parents have multiple options for how they can educate their children, including enrolling them in religious education. Christian education is unique in that teachers can integrate faith and learning in the classroom to unlock academic disciplines from mere materialistic or rational concerns to direct interdependence and collaboration with the providential work of the Triune God in his plan to redeem the entire cosmos. In light this fact, if...

Acton Communications Specialist Elise Hilton joined host Shelly Irwin today on the WGVU Morning Showin Grand Rapids, Michigan to discuss Acton’s ing moderated panel discussion on the issue of human trafficking, Hidden No More: Exposing Human Trafficking in West Michigan. Take a listen to the interview via the audio player below, make sure to listen to the podcast on the topic here, and if you’re able, register for the event that takes place on March 28th right here at the...

“It’s important to talk about liberty, but not in isolation,” says Samuel Gregg, Research Director for the Acton Institute. “Our language should reflect the truth that reason, justice, equality, and virtue make freedom possible.” At some point, for instance, those in the business of promoting freedom need to engage more precisely what they mean by liberty. After all, modern liberals never stop talking about the subject. Moreover, if the default understanding of freedom in America is reduced toJustice Anthony Kennedy’s...

One month ago, I posted a link to a survey asking ten questions about what people look for in a pastor, promising to post the results one month later. The idea was to try to shed some light on the disconnect between supply and demand when es to ministers looking for a call and churches looking for a minister. The first thing that should be said is that, while I am grateful to all who participated, the sample size is...

On Monday, Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) held an all-night, 14-hour pajama party in Washington. In between the truth-and-dare games, hair braiding, karaoke and candy and soda binging, Sen. Reid dropped this bombshell: He’s not a fan of the brothers Koch, billionaires Charles and David. Nor does he think much of anyone who disagrees with him on the issue of climate change. In fact, Reid refers to anyone who doesn’t buy into the whole human-caused global warming shebang as … ahem,...