Acton’s Director of Media Michael Matheson Miller joined host Dave Jaconette this morning on WJRW Radio in Grand Rapids, Michigan for an interview touching on a number of subjects including 3rd world poverty, Kony 2012, entrepreneurship in the developing world, and even a discussion of the HHS mandate issue.

Read more on Audio: Miller on Kony 2012 & HHS Mandates…

I love the scene in the movie, A Beautiful Mind, where it portrays John Nash finding his truly original idea. He isn’t in a library, classroom or lab. No, he is out with his friends in a bar, trying to figure out how to get a group of women to pay attention to him and his buddies. Out of that problem, he discovered a principle that could be applied to situations of much more significance and went on to continue thinking and contributing to mathematics and economics. To him, it probably felt like a normal day, but then the idea came.
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If only we would use public policy to generate working-class jobs at good wages, some progressives argue, the problems of the new lower class would fade away. But as social scientist Charles Murray explains, there are two problems with this line of argument:
Read more on Why Economics Can’t Explain the Problems of the New Lower Class…

The Acton Institute is pleased to announce that Eric Metaxas, author of the New York Times #1 bestseller, Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy will be the keynote speaker for our 22nd Annual Dinner.
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“If Christians want to advance the common good,” says D.C. Innes in a a review of the new documentary With Liberty or Justice for All, “they should turn to their own hearts, not the government.”
Read more on What Jeremiah and Ezekiel Can Teach the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street…

He was an aristocratic Brit, kidnapped by pirates at the age of sixteen and sent to Ireland where he was sold into slavery. Six years later he escapes, becomes a priest, returns to Ireland, and faces off against hordes of Druids. Because of his work, thousands of Irish pagans came to know Christ and Ireland became one of the most Christian nations in Europe

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As society becomes more secularized, the calls for churches to pay their “fair share” become more vocal. Erik Stanley, senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, explains why churches should remain exempt from paying taxes:

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Cardinal Timothy Dolan recently gave a speech in which he provided a helpful summary of Catholic Social Justice in seven “givens” and seven “oughts.”
Read more on Seven “Givens” and Seven “Oughts” of Catholic Social Justice…

Source: Wikimedia Commons. Public Domain.

Today marks the feast day of St. Benedict of Nursia, one of the fathers of Western monasticism. One of his most famous dictums was ora et labora: “pray and work.” His Rule served as the standard community rule for monasteries in the West for hundreds of years.

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The Journal of Markets & Morality is planning a theme issue for the Spring of 2013: “Integral Human Development,” i.e. the synthesis of human freedom and responsibility necessary for the material and spiritual enrichment of human life. According to Pope Benedict XVI,

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