February 2011 – Religion & Liberty Online

February 28, 2011

Public Radio Claims Hide Actual Costs

I’m blogging a recent piece I did for NRO on National Public Radio funding but first a quick note on the net neutrality debate. House Speaker John Boehner told a meeting of the National Religious Broadcasters association, meeting in Nashville over the weekend, that “the last thing we need, in my view, is the FCC serving as Internet traffic controller, and potentially running roughshod over local broadcasters who have been serving their communities with free content for decades.” Continue Reading...

February 28, 2011

Free Universal Health Care is Expensive, Tricky

Despite a promise of “complete and fair coverage of health care for everyone for free,” the Greek state-controlled system is broken and corrupt, the Athens daily ekathimerini.com reports. Predictably, Greeks have taken it upon themselves to build a private health care sector: Despite hikes in Greece’s health spending between 2000 to 2008 being among the highest of all OECD countries, this has not been matched by growing life expectancy rates, the report added. Continue Reading...

February 28, 2011

Catholics and Unions: Framing the Debate

The Catholic Herald, the official newspaper of the Diocese of Madison, Wis., recently published a column by Dr. Constance Nielsen on the principles held by the Catholic Church concerning unions. Continue Reading...

February 25, 2011

Rev. Sirico: Church Changes How it Deals with Organized Labor

Rev. Robert A. Sirico is interviewed by Joan Frawley Desmond, a reporter for National Catholic Register, in today’s paper: Father Robert Sirico, president of the Acton Institute, a free-market think tank, suggested that the bishops’ response to the union protests marked a new era of episcopal leadership and a more nuanced understanding of economic realities in the United States. Continue Reading...

February 25, 2011

Rev. Sirico: Catholics vs. Gov. Walker?

On CatholicVote.org, Kathryn Jean Lopez interviews Rev. Robert A. Sirico about various bishops’ statements concerning the budget battles and labor union protests in Wisconsin: Kathryn Jean Lopez: The archbishop of Milwaukee issued a letter a few days ago on the rights of workers, noting that “hard times do not nullify the moral obligation each of us has to respect the legitimate rights of workers.” Continue Reading...

February 24, 2011

Unions and Catholic Social Teaching

The issue of labor unions has recently been a cause of much heated debate. Throughout the United States, there are many states facing budget shortfalls and are trying to rejuvenate struggling economies. Continue Reading...

February 24, 2011

Acton’s ‘The Call of the Entrepreneur’ premieres in Italian Diocese of La Spezia

The original Article Who’s Responding: “The Call of the Entrepreneur” in La Spezia was written by Francesco Bellotti for the Italian newspaper “Avvenire” (translation and editorial contributions from Michael Severance): “The Christian entrepreneur is not the person who goes about wealth creation all week and then leaves a nice offering at church on Sunday. Continue Reading...

February 23, 2011

Voluntary Association and Union Politics

In light of the recent events in Wisconsin and the statement published by the state’s Catholic bishops, we’re republishing this 2005 article from the Acton Commentary archives: Voluntary Association and Union Politics By Charles W. Continue Reading...

February 23, 2011

Does Ethanol Production Promote Sound Stewardship?

After taking a look yesterday at economic consequences of rising food prices along with the affects ethanol may have on the rising food prices, a moral perspective must also be taken into account. Continue Reading...