If you’re a gradeschooler you’re probably sitting in a classroom right now thinking there’s no way teachers could possibly make school more tedious and boring.
Well, I have some bad news for you.
According to the New York Times, you may soon be studying the periodic table while playing dodgeball:
Read more on Hey, Teacher, Leave Those Kids Alone (During P.E.)…
On January 31, the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility issued a press release, announcing the organization’s “2013 Proxy Resolutions and Voting Guide.” A quick read of the release and ancillary materials, however, reveals that these resolutions have very little to do with issues of religious faith and everything to do with the progressive political agenda.
The ICCR guide “features 180 resolutions filed at 127 companies” that call on shareholders to “promote corporate responsibility by voting their proxies in support of investor proposals that advance social, economic and environmental justice.”
The ICCR boasts that “nearly one third” of this year’s resolutions (52) focus on lobbying and political spending, with the remainder aimed at “health care, financial and environmental reform.” The release ominously asserts: “Shareholders have a right to know whether company resources are being used to impact elections and public policy, including regulatory legislation.”
Whatsoever the ICCR resolutions have to do with the respective tenets of their member denominations is left to the readers’ imagination. Read more on How Far Does Faith-Based ‘Shareholder Right to Know’ Go?…
When we think of the concept “economic freedom” we often think about essential liberties and the factors that make them possible (e.g., free markets, the rule of law, and property rights). But for Christians economic freedom is not an end unto itself but the means for freeing our resources to use in ways that God intends. Being free of the bonds of economic statism is therefore useless if we use our liberty to enslave ourselves. As Kevin DeYoung asks,
Read more on What You Can Do Right Now to Increase Economic Freedom…
Rick Warren’s Shadow SOTU
Kathryn Jean Lopez, National Review
An Evangelical pastor keeps religious liberty on the agenda.
Benedict’s Coming Revolution Over State-Funded Catholic Charity
Christopher Manion, Crisis
It is no accident that, in the past fifty years, countless Catholic institutions have diluted, ignored, or even defied Catholic teaching, as the amount of government funding they receive has steadily increased.
In this episode of Radio Free Acton, Research Fellow Michael Matheson Miller is joined by Director of Research Samuel Gregg to reflect on the papacy and legacy of retiring Pope Benedict XVI. This is part 1 of a two part podcast.
Read more on Radio Free Acton Podcast: Reflecting on the Legacy of Pope Benedict XVI…
Crony Chronicles, an online resource about crony capitalism, wants to help college students and/or campus groups interested in exposing and eradicating corporate welfare. They are offering free kits for anyone interested.
Read more on Free Student Activism Kits to Help End Cronyism…
On April 19, 2005, Joseph Ratzinger was elected to become the next Pope after John Paul II. Several Acton Institute analysts wrote articles looking ahead to what kind of papacy the world could expect from Benedict XVI. Take a look and let us know how we did. (We’ve added links where they are still available).
Read more on Looking Back: Acton Experts on Benedict XVI’s Election…
It can be tempting to judge the papacy, the world’s longest continuously functioning institution, by its various historical stages that often have little relevance to the modern office. While the Chair of Peter remains the central teaching medium of the Roman Catholic Church, it is safe to say that the challenges faced by Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI are not the challenges faced by Pope Adrian I (772 – 795) or even Pope Leo XIII (1878 – 1903). The papacy is always acting in response to an ever-changing world, while remaining rooted in the truth of the Gospel.
In The Modern Papacy, Acton’s Director of Research Samuel Gregg notes that the “…popes recognizing that the political, social, and religious culture of modernity was one in which Catholicism would be obliged to live, move and have its being.” This engagement between culture and the papacy has been one of critique, or as Gregg says, affirming “what the Church considers to be good in modernity without ignoring its shortcomings.” Read more on The Modern Papacy…
For George Washington’s birthday, Julia Shaw reminds us that the indispensable man of the American Founding was also an important champion of religious liberty:
All Presidents can learn from Washington’s leadership in foreign policy, in upholding the rule of law, and—especially now—in the importance of religion and religious liberty. While the Obama Administration claims to be “accommodating” Americans’ religious freedom concerns regarding the Health and Human Services (HHS) Obamacare mandate, it is actually trampling religious freedom. President Washington set a tremendous example for the way that Presidents should handle such conflicts.
Read more on George Washington’s Example on Religious Liberty…
Digging into the Acton video vault, we’ve reposted on YouTube some of the analysis that Rev. Robert A. Sirico, co-founder and president of the Acton Institute, handled as the on-air expert for BBC News in 2005 and, when not on call from the BBC, Fox News, EWTN and others. The fourth video here is from last week’s appearance on Fox, discussing the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI. Check this resource page for updates on Acton’s ongoing coverage of Pope Benedict’s resignation.
On the 2005 Papal Conclave (BBC America – April 18, 2005)
Read more on Video: Rev. Robert A. Sirico at the 2005 Papal Conclave…
