Acton Institute PowerBlog - Entries from Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Why Did Christian Europe Advance?

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

A long and detailed essay on the topic is available at The Gates of Vienna. A very small sample:

The end of religion, thus, didn’t herald an age of reason; it led to a new age of secular superstition and new forms of witch-hunts.

This will take at least an hour of your time, perhaps more, but it’s worthwhile.

Posted by Marc Vander Maas in General at 12:10 | Leave a comment | Trackback

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christianity, culture, europe, general, islam, science

Acton Media Roundup

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

A couple of Acton media highlights to let you know about for this week:

Last night, Acton’s Director of Programs and Education Michael Miller joined the Drew Mariani Show on Relevant Radio to discuss the concept of just wages in light of the recent UAW strikes and other salary related news stories. You can hear Michael’s conversation with Drew and his callers by clicking here (4.4 mb mp3 file).
Rev. Robert A. Sirico is in today’s Detroit News with an Op-Ed on the current S-CHIP controversy. A sample:
The Catholic Health Association has blasted President Bush for vetoing a program called SCHIP, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. How can anyone be against the health of children? Well, public policy is more complicated than that. When the state gets involved in public health, there are unintended consequences. In fact, there is enough wrong with this program to make it possible to oppose SCHIP in good conscience.
Read the entire article here.

Posted by Marc Vander Maas in News and Events at 09:59 | Leave a comment | Trackback

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acton media roundup, detroit news, michael miller, relevant radio, rev. robert a. sirico

As a quick follow-up to Ray’s post yesterday, be sure to check out the work of Arthur C. Brooks on charitable giving. The spring issue of Religion & Liberty featured an interview with him, and his book, Who Really Cares?, was the basis for a special focus on ABC’s 20/20 (hosted by John Stossel):

John Stossel: “But it turns out that this idea that liberals give more is a myth. These are the twenty-five states where people give an above average percent of their income, twenty-four were red states in the last presidential election.”

Arthur Brooks, Who Really Cares, author: “When you look at the data, it turns out the conservatives give about thirty percent more per conservative-headed family than per liberal-headed family. And incidentally, conservative-headed families make slightly less money.”

Connecting the links between so-called “red” states, conservatism, religiosity, and the south are interesting and instructive exercises.

Posted by Jordan J. Ballor in Effective Compassion at 09:47 | Leave a comment | Trackback

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arthur c. brooks, charity, compassionate conservatism, effective compassion, giving