RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE | Why did people in the 1970s have to wait in line for gas?

Why does the Syrian refugee debate ignore private charity?

Protesters oppose President Trump’s refugee policy outside 10 Downing Street, London. (Alisdare Hickson. CC BY-SA 2.0) On Monday, President Trump signed a new executive order barring refugees from six majority-Muslim nations that have strong ties to terrorism. This executive order differs from the last one by removing Iraq from the banand eliminating the preferential option for the area’s persecuted Christian minority. Regardless of whether one sees this as a violation of Christian charity or a prudentially wise decision to stem...

‘Economic Wisdom for Churches’: Restoring a biblical economic narrative

The faith-work movement has spurred many churches to begin seeing the bigger picture of God’s design and purpose for economic activity. Yet the church’s role and responsibility in economic discipleship doesn’t end with a basic shift in our thinking. Once we receive the basic revelation of God’s plan for our work and the broader economic order, where do we go from there? Such revelationopens the door to a range of new challenges, whether wrestling with practical questions about work and...

Why we should oppose both Skynet and minimum wage increases

Terminator 2: Judgment Day poster / TriStar Pictures I oppose implementing Skynet and increasing minimum wage laws for the same reason: to forestall the robots. It’s probably inevitable that a T-1000 will return from the future to terminate John Connor. But there is still something we can do to prevent (at least for a time) a TIOS from eliminating the cashier at your local fast food restaurant. For example, Wendy’s is adding customer service machines to at least 1,000 restaurants,...

Why Christians must support economic freedom

Anne Bradley In a new article from West Michigan Christian News, Paul R. Kopenkoskey covers a recent Acton Lecture Series event. The lecture featured, Anne Rathbone Bradley, vice president of economic initiatives at the Institute for Faith, Work and Economics. Titled, “Finding your purpose: Why Christians must support economic freedom,” it looked at the virtues of the free market in achieving prosperity. Bradley, a strong proponent of biblical approaches towards achieving human flourishing, spoke of a position rooted in biblical...

Understanding the President’s Cabinet: HUD Secretary

Note: This is the seventh in a weekly series of explanatory posts on the officials and agencies included in the President’s Cabinet. See the series introductionhere. Department: Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Current Secretary: Dr. Ben S. Carson, Sr. Succession:The HUD Secretary is 13th in the presidential line of succession. Department Mission:“HUD’s mission is to create strong, sustainable, munities and quality affordable homes for all. HUD is working to strengthen the housing market to bolster the economy and...

Why did people in the 1970s have to wait in line for gas?

Note: This is post #23 in a weekly video series on basic microeconomics. If you’re over 40 you may remember back in the 1970s having to wait in long lines to buy gasoline. Some days you were only allowed to buy gas on alternate days (based on whether the last digit of your license plate number was an odd or even number). Why did this happen? As economist Alex Tabarrok explains, when price ceilings were imposed on gasoline, people could...

Defending the bourgeois virtues

In this week’s Acton Commentary, “The middle class in an age of inequality,” I wonder who will defend the bourgeois virtues, if anyone will “speak out in praise of mediocrity, stability, and predictability.” Deirdre McCloskey has spent a great deal of time exploring and extolling the bourgeois virtues. Over the last decade posed a lengthy trilogy of volumes dedicated to these issues: The Bourgeois Virtues: Ethics for an Age of Commerce (2006); Bourgeois Dignity: Why Economics Can’t Explain the Modern...

Christian principles built – and should sustain – these transatlantic companies

As Easter approaches, who could imagine the holiday without Cadbury’s creme eggs (under the original recipe, at least)? Appropriately,the founding of Cadbury’s, whose invention has e a holiday staple on both sides of the Atlantic, grew directly out of its founder’s Christian faith. Its success, and that of many other firms establishedby Quakers, demonstrates that the conversation between economics and religion must be a munication, according to a new article posted by Rev. Dr. Richard Turnbull,the director of theCentre for...

Radio Free Acton: James Poulos on the art of being free

On this edition of Radio Free Acton, we e back John Wilsey – Assistant Professor of History and Christian Apologetics and Associate Director of the Land Center for Cultural Engagement at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary – and hand over the reins of the podcast to him as he talks with author and social theorist James Poulos about his new book,The Art of Being Free: How Alexis de Tocqueville Can Save Us from Ourselves. Poulos shows how Alexis de Tocqueville’s insights...

Explainer: What you should know about the Republicans’ bill to replace Obamacare

Embed from Getty Images Last night Congressional Republicans released two bills (here and here) which together constitute the current plan to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare). Here’s what you should know about the legislation known as the “American Health Care Act” (AHCA). Does this legislation “repeal and replace” Obamacare? Yes and no (but overall, not really). No, the AHCA does pletely repeal Obamacare in toto and it merely replaces some aspects of the current law. But...