Acton Institute Powerblog

Promoting free societies characterized by liberty & religious principles

Patterson Stops Too Short In Jena Six New York Times Piece

Orlando Patterson, professor of sociology at Harvard University, penned a challenging piece on Jena 6 and our current racial tensions. I have learned much from Patterson over the years. For example, he was the first person to help me realize that we often confuse issues of race and class in America by assuming the race as the single variable accounting for the cyclical plight of poor blacks. Continue Reading...

Reformed Education and Pentecostal Evangelism

I’ve heard it said from a number of leaders in the Reformed community that there is a great opportunity for Reformed churches to be a positive influence on the growth of Christianity abroad, particularly in places like Africa where Pentecostalism has made such large inroads. Continue Reading...

Myths Christians Believe about Wealth and Poverty

Dr. Jay W. Richards gave an impassioned address at the heavily attended Acton Lecture series yesterday titled, “Myths Christians Believe about Wealth and Poverty.” This topic was especially relevant for me because I graduated from a Wesleyan Evangelical seminary, which constantly preached and proclaimed so many myths Richards addressed, especially “the piety myth.” Continue Reading...

CARE Says ‘No’ to Federal Money

From today’s NYT: “CARE, one of the world’s biggest charities, is walking away from some $45 million a year in federal financing, saying American food aid is not only plagued with inefficiencies, but also may hurt some of the very poor people it aims to help.” Continue Reading...

Environmental Stewardship News Round-Up (cont.)

The following items are the continuation of the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation Newsletter, August 15, 2007: Those first five major developments are themselves worthy of an entire issue of this newsletter, and the last two are significant as well. Continue Reading...

Everything Old is New Again

Here’s an interesting report from the Media Research Center’s Business & Media Institute on the cyclical nature of media coverage on the issue of climate change. We all know about the global cooling craze of the 1970’s, but who knew that the issue goes back more than a century? Continue Reading...

Don’t Cry For Che Guevara

Cuban–American author Humberto Fontova has a new book out titled, Exposing The Real Che Guevara and the Useful Idiots Who Idolize Him. Che worship is something I have been fascinated with for quite some time, especially among the young Americans who are hyper consumers. Continue Reading...

You’ve Heard It Before…

You’ve heard it from us before: Good intentions are not enough. Now hear it from a piece in the Columbia Journalism Review, “The Obscured Continent,” which takes a look at the special issue of Vanity Fair devoted to Africa (HT: Poynter Online). Continue Reading...

Subsidies at Home, Suffering Abroad

In today’s NYT: “Oxfam Suggests Benefit in Africa if U.S. Cuts Cotton Subsidies.” “Eliminating billions of dollars in federal subsidies to American cotton growers each year would reduce American cotton production and exports, raise world prices by about 10 percent and modestly improve the incomes of millions of poor cotton farmers in Africa, according to a new study by Oxfam, the aid group.” Continue Reading...