Latest Posts

July 24, 2017

How did money-lending stop being a sin?

“Moneylending has been taboo for most of human history,” notes Alex Mayyasi. “So how did usury stop being a sin and become respectable finance?” Today, a banker listening to a theologian seems like a curiosity, a category error. Continue Reading...
July 24, 2017

Work too much? You might have the ‘Proletariat Touch’

Two weeks ago, a group of scholars from around the world gathered in Notre Dame, Indiana for Holy Cross College’s Labor and Leisure Conference. Among the many present was scholar Joseph Zahn, who presented his paper, “The Status of Leisure in the Human Person: Whether Leisure is a Virtue?” Continue Reading...
July 21, 2017

Explainer: What you should know about civil asset forfeiture

Earlier this week, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the Justice Department would be reinstating the Equitable Sharing Program, a controversial policy related to civil asset forfeiture. Several states have been making it more difficult to apply such forfeitures so this allows state and local law enforcement to explicitly circumvent state forfeiture restrictions. Continue Reading...
July 21, 2017

The kind of ‘tolerance’ the West needs

In the modern lexicon, “tolerance” stands alongside “equality” as an unquestioned and absolute good, a cornerstone of transatlantic values. True tolerance has brought the West unparalleled prosperity. But what kind of “tolerance” should we advance, and what other cultural concepts must support it? Continue Reading...
July 20, 2017

NBC’s Sunday Night with Megyn Kelly profiles Boys’ Latin Charter School

In June, Sarah Stanley, managing editor of Acton’s Religion and Liberty, wrote an article on Boys’ Latin of Philadelphia Charter School. Her piece, titled “Every man is the architect of his own fortune,” interviews the co-founder and CEO of Boys’ Latin, David Hardy, who started the school in 2007 with the belief that teaching Latin and enforcing a strict code of conduct could provide a better future to young men from low-income communities. Continue Reading...
July 20, 2017

What motivates America’s new socialists?

Is America having a “socialist moment”? There are currently more people who say they prefer socialism to capitalism (37 percent) than identify as evangelical Christians (32 percent). What is driving people who don’t even know what socialism means to prefer it to free enterprise? Continue Reading...