Rev. Ben Johnson (@therightswriter) is an Eastern Orthodox priest and served as Executive Editor of the Acton Institute (2016-2021), editing Religion & Liberty, the Powerblog, and its transatlantic website. He has extensively researched the Alt-Right. Previously, he worked for LifeSiteNews and FrontPageMag.com, where he wrote three books including Party of Defeat (with David Horowitz, 2008). His work has appeared at DailyWire.com, National Review, The American Spectator, The Guardian, Daily Caller, National Catholic Register, Spectator USA, FEE Online, RealClear Policy, The Blaze, The Stream, American Greatness, Aleteia, Providence Magazine, Charisma, Jewish World Review, Human Events, Intellectual Takeout, CatholicVote.org, Issues & Insights, The Conservative, Rare.us, and The American Orthodox Institute. His personal websites are therightswriter.com and RevBenJohnson.com. His views are his own.
Posts by Rev. Ben Johnson
August 07, 2017
A pastoral letter recently read in Catholic pulpits across Poland highlights the real and pressing problem of alcoholism. In it, the bishop called for the complete suppression of alcohol advertising and for a significant price increase to reduce consumption.
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August 04, 2017
Every year when the air turns warm and green leaves bud, the same story seems to repeat itself: A motivated young person opens a lemonade stand, only to have police or a local zoning authority close it down because it lacks a business license.
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August 03, 2017
Tax Freedom Day dawns in the U.S. earlier than 26 of the EU’s 28 member states. For two European nations, the date when employees stopped paying taxes and began earning money for themselves and their families came last week.
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August 02, 2017
The trouble with modern politics is not merely that it is tribal. It is that the tunnel vision these tribal allegiances demand blind us to the permanent things.
In Europe, a rhetorical battle wages over Europeans’ self-image.
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July 31, 2017
Christians seeking to be good stewards of God’s creation sometimes find themselves torn. The environmentalist movement tells them that the most destructive force ever unleashed upon Mother Nature is rapacious “neoliberal” capitalism, which they also know has has been the greatest producer of wealth in history.
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July 28, 2017
Images of persecuted Christians have not inflicted less emotional pain for the fact that they have become altogether too commonplace. Their fellow believers, and benevolent people of all backgrounds, have asked what they can do about it.
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July 27, 2017
How popular is populism in Europe? A new study reveals that populist parties have displaced traditional advocates of liberty among European voters. It also reveals the nations where populism attracts the greatest support.
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July 26, 2017
It has become passe to accuse defenders of the free market of selfishness and atomization. Even Pope Francis recently denounced “libertarian individualism.” But Mihail Neamtu, in a new essay for
Religion & Liberty Transatlantic, argues that open markets rely on one specific virtue, best exemplified by fathers and entrepreneurs, which requires them to care for others:
Over nearly half a century, secular academia, pop culture, and the managerial welfare State have undermined an important moral quality of the West: individual responsibility, rooted in inherent human dignity.
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July 25, 2017
An unusual debate – over chlorinated chickens, of all things – is showing how Brexit and free markets can lead the UK and the developing world to greater flourishing.
The debate has been brewing for years.
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July 24, 2017
A vital fact lies buried in the recent IFS study on income inequality: the most effective way to alleviate poverty. This was true even though the IFS study, and UK government statistics, don’t actually measure poverty but rather inequality.
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