When disasters strike – as they have repeatedly across the transatlantic sphere this season – government exercises its most essential function: saving lives. Do these heroic actions validate the ongoing intervention of the federal government into local affairs? This hurricane season has given federal officers too many opportunities to provide this service. Hurricanes Harvey, Irene, and Maria tore across the countryside in violent succession. Most recently, Hurricane Ophelia’s 100 mph winds killed three people in the Republic of Ireland and...

Amid modern society’s mon materialistic assumptions about business and economics, Christians have a great deal to contribute when es to reviving and sustaining a transcendent view toward work and calling. Yet in highlighting the centrality of vocation, we risk the adoption of a different set of misaligned priorities and assumptions. For too many, our renewed emphasis on “vocation” is quickly misconstrued as an imperative to “follow your passion” or “live your dreams” — a cozy affirmation of our culture’s hedonistic...

For the past several years I’ve had a near obsession with trying to get Christians to recognize the devastating effects of unemployment. It’s not that believers don’t recognize unemployment as harmful, it’s that we often underestimate just how destructive not having a job is to the individual and munity. Jobs are the most important part of a morally functioning economy. As Rev. Sirico has said, “The Scripture provides an insight into our nature: We are all, man and woman, called...

The number of federal regulations in the United States broke an all-time record last year. A total of 97,110 pages were added to the Federal Register in 2016. The Competitive Enterprise Institute calculates pliance costs and economic impacts of federal regulations at $1.89 trillion. This massive corpus of rules, guidances, and bureaucratic diktats spring from the pens (and keyboards) of unelected officials with little oversight from elected representatives and less from voters themselves. People of faith must scrutinize the outsourcing...

Christianity planted the seed that germinated into Western thought for two millennia. Yet the contributions of the faith, and its practitioners, remain unsung, underappreciated, and unheralded in an ever-secularizing west – a fact remedied in part by the bookGreat Christian Jurists in English History, edited by Hill and Helmholz. The book is reviewed in the latest essay for Religion & Liberty Transatlanticby Stephen F. Copp, Ph.D. Copp’s credentials – as an associate professor and former head of the department of...

Helen J. DeVos (PRNewsfoto/DeVos Family) I was deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Helen DeVos, the wife of Amway co-founder Rich DeVos, in Grand Rapids at the age of 90. She was one of those people who had an incalculable impact in building munities with her generosity and, yes, business acumen. Rich and Helen’s philanthropy has been estimated to exceed $1.2 billion over the years, a testament to their deep faith mitment to be responsible stewards of the...

After the Brexit referendum, the UK stands at a crossroads. Free from the restrictions of Brussels, Great Britain is free to chart its own destiny. Some hope to use that freedom to undermine free markets, that leaving the EU will alleviate pressure for deregulation or privatization. Others see departure from the EU in 2019 as the door to a new vista of trade and innovation. We get an eyewitness account of the latter group in a new essay inReligion &...

In his most recent homily Pope Francis said that amassing wealth—both money and land—while children suffer and die is a morally unacceptable form of idolatry. There’s an “idolatry that kills,” said Francis, that makes “human sacrifices” by those who are hungry of money, land and wealth, who have “a lot” in front of “hungry children who have no medicine, no education, who are abandoned.” From a biblical perspective, Francis is correct. But there is more he needs to say about...

Note: This is post #54 in a weekly video series on basic microeconomics. How are wages determined? Why do most Americans earn so much by global standards? What exactly is meant by ‘human capital’? Do labor unions help workers, and if so, by how much? In this video by Marginal Revolution University, economist Alex Tabarrok answers all these questions and more. (If you find the pace of the videos too slow, I’d mend watching them at 1.5 to 2 times...

One hundred years ago on October 25, the Bolsheviks seized Russia’s Provisional Government under the guidance of Vladimir Lenin. As a result of Lenin’s Marxism, up to 100 million people were killed in the 20th century. Considering the corruption and devastation Communism wreaked upon Russia, it’s important to realize the foreshadowing signs of this ideology because many are flirting with Communism today. In an article written for The Catholic World Report, Acton Research Director Samuel Gregg explains just how damaging...