Rev. Ben Johnson is Senior Editor at the Acton Institute.
Posts by Rev. Ben Johnson
January 02, 2019
Just after the ball drops in Times Square in New York City, it has become a traditional to follow the singing of “Auld Lang Syne” by playing Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World.” No song could better capture the prosperous world that greets 2019, writes Philip Booth, Ph.D., in an essay posted today on the Acton Institute’s
Religion & Liberty Transatlantic website.
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December 28, 2018
Over the last century no movie has been more synonymous with the Christmas season than
It’s a Wonderful Life. It endures, more than seven decades after its release, because it strikes at least five deep spiritual chords in every human heart.
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December 27, 2018
As the West
continues to celebrate the 12 days of Christmas which extend into the New Year,
some 215 million Christians
worldwide face violence or repression. On the day after Christmas, the British
government launched a review of Christian persecution in “key countries” –
especially in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa – and to seek ways the UK can
help those who are suffering.
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December 21, 2018
France’s “yellow vest” protesters oppose the nation’s crushing carbon taxes on fossil fuels, but a deeper issue stoking discontent remains unexplored. Without addressing that issue, President Emmanuel Macron’s concessions to the gilet jaunes protesters “will certainly not resolve France’s underlying economic problems,” writes Professor Philip Booth in a new essay for
Religion & Liberty Transatlantic titled, “Gilet jaune: the uprising of a generation.”
Arguably, we are beginning to see the results of the disastrous decisions to set up “pay-as-you-go” pension and healthcare systems after the Second World War.
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December 20, 2018
Charles Dickens wrote in
Oliver Twist that “very sage, very deep” British leaders “established the rule that all poor people should have the alternative … of being starved by a gradual process in the [poor]house, or by a quick one out of it.” If one were to believe a recent UN report on poverty, the fate of the poor remains Dickensian.
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December 18, 2018
French highways found themselves clogged with indignation during the fifth week of the
gilets jaunes (“yellow vest”) protests. How should Christians think about these demonstrations? Are their means and ends moral or immoral?
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December 12, 2018
Prime Minister Theresa May will face a confidence vote today between 6 and 8 p.m. local time (1 to 3 p.m. Eastern time). The result is expected no later than 9 p.m.
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December 10, 2018
If the average person had to describe a capitalist, he might name “Dickens’ unredeemed Scrooge, or Gordon (‘Greed is good!’) Gecko from the movie
Wall Street.” However, the real patron saint of venture capitalism may well be the great Jewish theologian and philosopher Moses Maimonides, writes Laurie Morrow, Ph.D., in a Hanukkah meditation for Acton’s
Religion & Liberty Transatlantic website.
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December 07, 2018
On Friday, December 7, Angela Merkel’s ruling Christian Democrats elected Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer as party leader. “AKK,” as she is known, is liberal on economic issues, conservative on social issues, and once called for the Roman Catholic Church to ordain a “quota” of female clerics.
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December 03, 2018
This year Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Lights, runs from the evening of Sunday, December 2, to Monday, December 10. Here is what you need to know.
What is the history of Hanukkah? Continue Reading...
