Month: February 2006

February 08, 2006

A Tocquevillian in the Vatican

With the publication of Deus Caritas Est, Pope Benedict XVI is warning that an all-encompassing government would be unable to provide the one thing that people really need — loving, personal concern. Continue Reading...
February 07, 2006

What would Lord Acton say?

Writing in Canada’s Macleans magazine, Mark Steyn modifies a famous saying of our namesake: As Lord Acton almost said, all power corrupts but Liberal power corrupts very liberally. Since it’s a Canadian publication, the capital “L” refers to the party that was booted out of power in the recent elections. Continue Reading...
February 07, 2006

A case for conversation

Here’s a convincing op-ed piece by William Romanowski, who teaches film studies at Calvin College, “Missing the big picture.” He writes in USAToday about the ambivalent impact of the upswing of religiously-oriented movies coming from Hollywood. Continue Reading...
February 07, 2006

Windy city Wal-Mart

What might a big city Wal-Mart look like? Until now, such a question was only answerable through some imaginative speculation. Wal-Mart has announced plans to open the first store within Chicago’s city limits in the Austin neighborhood this summer. Continue Reading...
February 06, 2006

Acton ad campaign update

Acton is wrapping up a three-month project that had print advertisements running in several publications: WORLD, Crisis and the Michigan Catholic. The idea is to get people thinking about the economic consequences of trade policies and the power of entrepreneurial creativity. Continue Reading...
February 06, 2006

When we’ve been wronged

When I see things like this going on, I ask myself, “What makes Christianity different? What makes me different?” Here are some guidelines for a Christian response to slander, hatred, and persecution: “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Continue Reading...
February 03, 2006

The Mohammed cartoon controversy

The European press and the blogosphere have been full of stories over the last few days about the controversy started by the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten. There’s enough material out there that readers of the Acton blog don’t need a full run-down here. Continue Reading...
February 03, 2006

Evangelicals cool toward global warming

After a year of lobbying by vice-president for governmental affairs Rev. Richard Cizik, the National Association of Evangelicals has backed off of attempts to formulate specific policy recommendations to the federal government on global warming. Continue Reading...
February 03, 2006

The rest of the story

More from the State of the Union: “…the number of children born to teenage mothers has been falling for a dozen years in a row.” That’s a good thing. But there’s still a marriage crisis, and part of it is related to birth rates among unmarried women: Births to unmarried mothers reached a record high of almost 1.5 million and made up 35.7% of all births in 2004. Continue Reading...
February 02, 2006

A ‘Salt’ Assault

The Feb. 6 edition of NEWSWEEK features a story on the debate program at Liberty University, in a bit by Susanna Meadows, “Cut, Thrust and Christ: Why evangelicals are mastering the art of college debate.” Continue Reading...