Acton Institute PowerBlog - Entries from Thursday, October 5, 2006

So many ways…

Thursday, October 5, 2006

...to go with this one, folks!

In Malibu, talk of septic tanks, leach pits and the ubiquitous foul stench known as the “Malibu smell” is hardly new. After rainstorms, officials often must post signs on Malibu beaches urging swimmers and surfers to steer clear because of health dangers.
Celebrity residents Pierce Brosnan and Ted Danson are among many who have championed the cause of better water quality...
In May, Malibu suffered a black eye in the annual statewide beach survey released by Santa Monica-based Heal the Bay. Escondido Beach “was the most polluted beach in the history of our report card,” said Mark Gold, Heal the Bay’s executive director.

If there’s a more practical example of a mote in ecology today, I’m not sure what it would be. (hat tip)

Posted by Don Bosch in Environmental Stewardship at 15:00 | Leave a comment | Trackback

Anyone familiar with the history of conservative thought and politics in the United States knows that there have always been tensions among various strains of the “movement,” not least that between traditional Christians and secular libertarians. See, for example, George Nash’s The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America.

(To simplify severely, the Acton Institute can be seen as straddling this tension, often taking up policy positions that are shared by libertarians but hewing to Christian tradition with respect to the existence of objective moral norms, etc.)

It is within this context that one might consider Andrew Sullivan’s new book, The Conservative Soul. In one sense, Sullivan’s views are simply another instance of the ongoing tension between religious conservatives and libertarians. But then Sullivan is a special case because he considers himself Catholic (though hardly a traditional one). He also stretches his connection to conservatism to the breaking point (or past?) by characterizing anyone who accepts the possibility of knowing any truth with certainty as “fundamentalist.”

The basis for my comment is this scathing review by Mark Gauvreau Judge.

Posted by Kevin Schmiesing in General at 10:52 | Leave a comment | Trackback

Defined tags for this entry:
andrew sullivan, conservatism, libertarianism

How Long Will Our Prosperity Cycle Last?

Thursday, October 5, 2006

Mark Whitehouse reported in the September 25th issue of the Wall Street Journal that the living standards of average Americans will have to be adjusted downward in coming years because a larger share of our national debt is going to debt-service. He writes,

That means Americans will have to work harder to maintain the same living standards---or cut back sharply to pay down the debt.” Catherine Mann, a senior fellow at the Institute for International Economics notes, “Our net international obligations are coming home to roost. It’s as if on our personal MasterCards we have run up large obligations and never had to make personal payments. You can’t believe that is going to last forever.

I am not a professional economist but such news makes me wonder how we will really handle these things as a nation when the spend-spend-spend spigot is finally turned off. The pay day is coming, maybe sooner than later. Our prosperity is always one really bad cycle from a serious implosion and then the country will either adjust corporately, and grow stronger morally and spiritually, or it will begin to break down in ways that could be alarming over the long term. Let us pray that we learn how to adjust sooner than later. Churches that spend so much on themselves, and their upwardly mobile lifestyles, should take note. The kingdom calls for sacrifice and frugality, not lavish expenditures on empire building.

John H. Armstrong is founder and director of ACT 3, a ministry aimed at “encouraging the church, through its leadership, to pursue doctrinal and ethical reformation and to foster spiritual awakening.”

Posted by John H. Armstrong in Business and Society at 07:53 | Leave a comment | Trackback