ResearchLinks – 09.21.12

Book Note: “As If God Existed” Maurizio Viroli. As if God Existed: Religion and Liberty in the History of Italy. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2012. Religion and liberty are often thought to be mutual enemies: if religion has a natural ally, it is authoritarianism–not republicanism or democracy. Continue Reading...

Hobby Lobby’s Billionaire CEO Says ‘God Owns It’

Forbes recently ran a profile of Christian billionaire and Hobby Lobby CEO David Green. According to Forbes, Green is “the largest evangelical benefactor in the world,” giving “at upwards of $500 million” over the course of his life, primarily to Christian ministries. Continue Reading...

Why Religious Liberty Should Be the Moral Center for American Diplomacy

In his magisterial work on the twentieth century, Modern Times, historian Paul Johnson highlights how in the 1920s Germany transformed from being “exceptionally law-abiding into an exceptionally violent society.” A key factor, according to Johnson, was an erosion of the rule of law and partisan acceptance of political violence against groups disdained by the State. Continue Reading...

Economists and Clergy

Tyler Cowen fielded an interesting topic on his blog last week, focusing on economists who are (or were) clergy. There’s an interesting list, including notables like the Salamancans, Paul Heyne, and Heinrich Pesch. Continue Reading...

Samuel Gregg: Mitt de Tocqueville

Writing in National Review Online, Acton Research Director Samuel Gregg weighs in on Mitt Romney’s remarks about the “47 percent”: Ever since the modern welfare state was founded (by none other than that great “champion” of freedom Otto von Bismarck as he sought, unsuccessfully, to persuade industrial workers to stop voting for the German Social Democrats), Western politicians have discovered that welfare programs and subsidies more generally are a marvelous way of creating constituencies of people who are likely to keep voting for you as long as you keep delivering the goods. Continue Reading...

Samuel Gregg: Islam and the Closing of the Secular Mind

Writing in the American Spectator, Acton’s Director of Research Samuel Gregg says the “enlightened” Western mind can no longer think seriously or coherently about religion: Given the decidedly strange response of the Obama Administration and much of the Western commentariat to the violence sweeping the Islamic world, one temptation is to view their reaction as simple incomprehension in the face of the severe unreason that leads some people to riot and kill in a religion’s name. Continue Reading...

Ray Nothstine on Relevant Radio

Ray Nothstine, Associate Editor at the Acton Institute and Managing Editor of Religion & Liberty, appeared on Relevant Radio’s “On Call” today to discuss political messianism, Calvin Coolidge, and school choice. Continue Reading...

European Cities Propose Taxing Catholic Church

Financially strapped politicians in Europe think they may have found a way to tap into a new source of revenue: tax the Catholic Church. Rubio, a city council member in Alcala, is leading an effort to impose a tax on all church property used for non-religious purposes. Continue Reading...