Month: January 2013

January 22, 2013

Why is Justice Scalia Wearing Sir Thomas More’s Hat?

At most inaugural events the sartorial buzz is about what designer dress the First Lady is wearing. But yesterday everyone was more interested in a Supreme Court Justice’s hat. Many people were left wondering: Why is Antonin Scalia wearing a renaissance era painter’s hat? Continue Reading...
January 22, 2013

Gandalf’s Good Stewardship

I’m reading through the Lord of the Rings trilogy with my son, and there’s a striking exchange between Gandalf and Denethor in The Return of the King. Gandalf has just arrived with Pippin from Rohan, and the two have been admitted into an audience with the Steward of Gondor. Continue Reading...
January 21, 2013

Samuel Gregg: ‘Political Detroitification and economic Europeanization’

National Review Online invited Acton Research Director Samuel Gregg to contribute to a roundup of opinion on the inauguration of a second term in office for President Barack Obama. Gregg, the author of the just-published Becoming Europe: Economic Decline, Culture, and How America Can Avoid a European Future, was also featured yesterday on Ed Driscoll’s blog on Pajamas Media. Continue Reading...
January 21, 2013

Rick Warren on Hobby Lobby Lawsuit: ‘Every Business is Either Moral or Immoral’

In response to the Hobby Lobby lawsuit, Rick Warren, author of The Purpose Driven Life and pastor of Saddleback Church, has released a statement at The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty: …The government has tried to reinterpret the First Amendment from freedom to PRACTICE your religion, to a more narrow freedom to worship, which would limit your freedom to the hour a week you are at a house of worship. Continue Reading...
January 21, 2013

MLK Day Recommendations

While The civil rights movement was led by Christians, it is easy to forget how many believers—particularly in the South—did not support the efforts of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. On this day set aside to honor the civil rights leader we should read his best work, “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, and reflect on how his words are applicable to us today. Continue Reading...
January 21, 2013

Do Plants and Animals Have Civil Rights?

Earlier this month I attended the First Kuyper Seminar, “Economics, Christianity & The Crisis: Towards a New Architectonic Critique,” in Amsterdam. One of the papers presented was from Jan Jorrit Hasselaar, who discussed the inclusion of non-human entities into democratic deliberation in his talk, “Sustainable Development as a Social Question.” Continue Reading...
January 19, 2013

Lance Armstrong’s Shame

It seems yet again (and again) that we find ourselves scratching our heads about the lives of well-known athletes asking the question, “what happened?” Lance Armstrong has managed to anger people all over the world by his confession on Oprah Winfrey’s television network that he participated in a culture of deception using an host of performance enhancing drugs while winning seven Tour de France titles then followed that by several years of passionate denials. Continue Reading...