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6 quotes: John Henry Newman on Church, state, and economics

John Henry Newman (1801-1890) was canonized as a Roman Catholic saint on Sunday. The former leader of the Anglican Church’s Oxford Movement – who became a cardinal in 1879, 34 years after his conversion – became one of the most influential Christian writers of his day. Prince Charles attended the canonization at the Vatican, saying, “Whatever our own beliefs, and no matter what our own tradition may be, we can only be grateful to Newman for the gifts, rooted in...

‘Belief in Genesis 1:27’ is ‘incompatible with human dignity’: Court

Human dignity, the defining value of the West, grows out of the Judeo-Christian belief that the human race was created in the image of God. However, a British court has officially pronounced this truth, revealed in the opening chapter of the Bible, patible with human dignity.” The case involved Dr. David Mackereth, who worked as a disability assessor for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). During an early evaluation meeting, a manager asked the 56-year-old Christian whether he would...

Review: Turkey’s deportation and annihilation of Christian Armenians, Greeks, and Assyrians (1894-1924)

A Christian missionary working in Turkey, J.K. Marsden, described the roundup of Armenians in the town of Merzifon in the summer of 1915: They were in groups of four with their arms tied behind their backs and their deportation began with perhaps one-hundred or two-hundred in a batch. As we afterward learned, they were taken about twelve miles across the plains to the foothills, stripped of their clothing and in front of a ditch previously prepared, pelled to kneel down...

The intangibles of progress: Has the economy actually improved since 1973?

In assessing the health of our economy, many have been quick to proclaim the worst, whether pointing to flatlining wages or a supposedly static quality of life. Economic progress has halted, they say; thus, something must be terribly amiss with modern-day capitalism. “If you were born in 1973, the median wage went from $17 to $19 an hour in your lifetime,” wrote Sen. Bernie Sanders in a recent tweet. “…The top 1%’s annual e tripled: $480K to $1.45 million. That’s...

Lord Acton and the two types of nationalism

Kai Weiss, Research Fellow at the Austrian Economics Center, has a new essay on Law and Liberty exploring Lord Acton’s thoughts on nationalism: A little-known 1862 work calledNationalityby Lord Acton can perhaps shed new light, too, on the topic. For Acton, there are two types of nationality: the one of 1688, the other of 1789, i.e., English or French nationalism, which “are connected in name only, and are in reality the opposite extremes of political thought.” French nationalism arose during...

FAQ: Queen’s Speech 2019

On Monday, October 14, 2019, Queen Elizabeth II opened a new session of the UK Parliament by delivering her 65th “Queen’s Speech.” Here are the facts you need to know. What is a Queen’s (or King’s) Speech? At the start of a new session of Parliament, the reigning Sovereign delivers a speech setting out the government’s agenda for the ing legislative session. Ceremonial elements date back centuries. Who writes the Queen’s Speech? Ironically, the Queen’s Speech is not written by...

The Chicago Black Sox and baseball’s rule of law

Sports have already been an Acton topic in the past week, so another sports story can’t hurt: 100 years ago this month was the 1919 World Series between the Chicago White Sox and Cincinnati Reds, infamous ever since for the “Black Sox” scandal, in which eight members of the heavily favored Chicago team accepted money from gamblers to throw the series to Cincinnati. The series ended on October 9, 1919, though the reckoning for players involved in the scheme was...

RELIGION & LIBERTY

It Has Never Been About Freedom

　　Editors Note: This is the second essay in a symposium on the Iran War and Americas role in the Middle East. You can read the first essay here. 　　“To the great proud people of Iran, I say tonight that the hour of your freedom is at hand.” So spoke President Donald Trump when he announced the commencement of Operation Epic...

Nov 3, 2026

Thinking in Crisis

　　“Thinking is always in crisis.” Thus observes the narrator of Ian McEwan’s most recent novel, What We Can Know. Set in the year 2119, the novel focuses on its narrator-protagonist who teaches English literature at the British University of the South Downs. The proud British Isles have shrunk to an archipelago of minor islands during the “Inundation of 2042,” and...

Nov 3, 2026

Humanity Lost in Space

　　Americans are falling in love with Project Hail Mary, a movie about an astronaut who finds himself alone at the end of the universe, with perhaps no hope of ever returning among mankind. He then has to figure out how to save mankind in very difficult circumstances, by his wits and his technical know-how. A man a lot like the...

Nov 3, 2026

Colorado’s Zeal for Converts

　　The state of Colorado has made a habit of losing decisively at the Supreme Court of the United States. This term marks the state’s third loss in less than a decade. In all three cases, the Court has held unconstitutional Colorado’s attempts either to compel its citizens to express approval of certain orthodoxies about human identity and sexuality or to...

Nov 3, 2026

Government by Settlement

　　In his piquant memoir, Streetwise, Lloyd Blankfein, former CEO of Goldman Sachs, shares an arresting anecdote about the administrative state. The SEC sued Goldman for allegedly misleading investors about the risks of mortgage-backed securities. Blankfein considered the suit meritless but settled for $550 million. “You can’t litigate against your regulator. It’s like a Star Trek episode: an alien controls the...

Nov 3, 2026

An Egalitarian Faith?

　　Even before 1776, American liberty and equality were expressed in church and civil covenants and compacts, like the 1620 Mayflower Compact. Alexis de Tocqueville makes much of such covenants and compacts in Democracy in America, arguing that religion lies at the core of American character and sustains the American experiment in democracy. Christianity, in his view, is especially well-suited to...

Nov 3, 2026

Why America Stopped Annexing Territory

　　When Donald Trump first suggested that the United States should purchase Greenland, the reaction in Washington was disbelief mixed with ridicule. The United States, it had seemed, long ago settled its borders. Territorial expansion belonged to a different era. 　　Yet in the longer arc of American history, expansion has been quite normal. For much of the nation’s first century and...

Nov 3, 2026

Whats Next in Iran?

　　Editors note: This is the first essay in a symposium on the Iran War and Americas role in the Middle East. 　　The US-Israeli war against Iran was fought for unclear purposes, with a vague strategy, towards an ambiguous end. That does not mean it contributed nothing to US interests. The world is safer with a weaker Iranian regime whose nuclear...

Nov 3, 2026

Allegiance, Birthright, and Citizenship

　　When the Supreme Court, on April 1, heard arguments about birthright citizenship in Trump v. Barbara, the justices focused on jurisdiction. The Fourteenth Amendment provides: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” The extent of birthright citizenship thus turns...

Nov 3, 2026

The Social Wealth of Nations

　　July 4, 2026, marks the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and the colonists’ claim to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” The year 1776 also recalls a quieter but significant anniversary. Adam Smith published An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, giving the modern world a language for thinking about markets, productivity,...

Nov 3, 2026