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How a Christian restauranteur navigated the pains of a pandemic

As “executive stewards,” Christian business owners are called to weigh market forces and seek a profit, but we are also tasked with stewarding much more. Read More… The pandemic-era lockdowns caused immeasurable pain to countless businesses, with restaurants experiencing disproportionate levels of pain and suffering. According to the National Restaurant Association, food-service industry sales “fell by $240 billion in 2020 from an expected level of $899 billion,” and by the end of 2020, “more than 110,000 eating and drinking places...

Are billionaires evil?

Our attitudes about the ultra-rich largely depend on our views about wealth and how it’s created. By viewing the market through a lens of collaboration and growth, we can more clearly and accurately assess the contributions of the wealthy. Read More… Criticizing billionaires has e a popular cultural trend, based on anti-rich sentiment that was recently exacerbated by a ProPublica report that leaked the tax returns of the 25 wealthiest Americans. The report’s findings were interesting but not particularly surprising,...

A country for old men: Why American communities need the elderly

For those in their twilight years, work has not reached its culmination, but its exaltation. munity life continues to decline, America needs the leadership of older generations. Read More… America is facing a crisis munity. The prevalence of social media is threatening human relationships. Religious detachment is leading to declining civic participation. Politicians and central planners are increasingly expanding their reach in munities. As the nation desperately searches for solutions to the problem, our leaders may be overlooking our nation’s...

Brandt Jean’s ultimate act of forgiveness

Mathew 5:7 says “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.” Brandt Jean’s display of forgiveness and call to Christ for Amber Guyger is a powerful alternative to retribution. Displays of Christ-like mercy promote justice as love. Read More… The killing of Botham Jean continues to make headlines after Amber Guyger, an off-duty police officer who mistook Jean for an intruder in her apartment, then shot and killed him, has asked an appeals court to toss her murder...

In celebrating American liberty, let’s not forget the role of religion

Religion is critical to a free society because it provides the moral and ethical structure to guide people to act as they ought in a state where the government allows them to act as they want. Read More… On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress officially endorsed the Declaration of Independence. Parades, public readings, and bonfires ensued. These spontaneous celebrations developed into the Independence Day traditions that Americans still enjoy today. The United States has retained many of these festivities...

Lessons from the Puritans for a post-COVID world

As we think about how to rebuild from the COVID-19 pandemic and all of the social ills it revealed and exacerbated, the Puritans offer a model for cultural renewal. Read More… America is still slowly reopening and recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, lockdowns, and restrictions. Over the past year, our nation’s divisions were amplified. Polarization reared its ugly head, manifesting deep-seated hostilities across and among families, churches, and political parties. In the wake of such conflict, one wonders: How can...

Why the NCAA’s new NIL rules are a win for economic liberty

The NCAA’s new rules represent a paradigm shift in college sports and are sure to bring more economic and social empowerment to the lives of student athletes. Read More… On June 21, the Supreme Court of the United States issued a ruling that changed college athletics as we know it. In an opinion by Justice Neil Gorsuch, the court concluded that the NCAA imposed rules that “are not reasonably necessary to distinguish between college and professional sports.” Gorsuch continued by...

RELIGION & LIBERTY

Double-Edged Sword: The Power of the Word

Luke 2:48–50 When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.” “Why were you searching for me?” he asked. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” But they did not understand what he was saying to them. The mission of Jesus throughout the Gospels is focused on the will and passion of the...

Sep 3, 2026

The evidence of things not seen: an interview with Vernon L. Smith

In June 2016, Vernon Smith gave an Acton University Lecture titled “Faith and the Compatibility of Science and Religion.” After giving this lecture, he was gracious enough to sit down with Victor Claar to go into some of the specifics of his lecture, as well as his vast experience in economics, including experimental economics. Vernon L. Smith was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 2002 for his groundbreaking work in experimental economics. He has the George L....

Sep 3, 2026

Winning Hearts, Minds and Souls

This issue ofReligion & Libertyfeatures an article on Arthur Koestler’s classic novel Darkness at Noon, which reminds us of the soul-crushing apparatus of the Soviet state under Stalin in ways, perhaps, that nonfiction could not. An interview with Nobel prize-winning economist Vernon Smith reveals that science, free markets and religious faith aren’t patible. All are prescient in ways I shall explain below. As I put pen to paper for 2016’s last issue ofReligion & Liberty, news broke of a...

Sep 3, 2026

Why money matters

In his first epistle to St. Timothy, the Apostle Paul includes a warning about money: Those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. But you, O man of God, flee...

Sep 3, 2026

Utopias denied: Arthur Koestler’s Darkness at Noon at 75

Back in the 1970s and early 1980s, public broadcasting aired a television series titled “Meeting of the Minds,” created, produced, written and starring the multitalented polymath Steve Allen. As a high school student, yours truly monopolized my family’s farmhouse Magnavox each week to witness the panel of historical characters (portrayed by actors) arguing philosophy, history, science and culture in their own words. One can imagine a similar experience seated across the table from Arthur Koestler, an author whose personal...

Sep 3, 2026

Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton

I cannot spare myself or others. My Maker has pointed out this duty to me and has given me the ability and inclination to perform it. Known to most as “Eliza” and to her husband and panions as “Betsey,” Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton is a forgotten founding mother. Eliza is best known as the widow of Alexander Hamilton, despite outliving him by half a century. Her story is hard to piece together as she chose to erase herself from history,...

Sep 3, 2026

Ukraine—on its own terms

Review of Serhii Plokhy’sThe Gates of Europe:A History of Ukraine (Perseus Academic, 2015). It is hard to get objective information about Ukraine. This isn’t just because the initial frame through which most of us encountered Ukraine presented her as a territory of Imperial Russia or the Soviet Union. Nor is it simply a result of the confusion about facts and intentions that always exist when one country invades or annexes part of another. Both of these e into play,...

Sep 3, 2026

What can we expect from Acton in 2017?

Every year we want to expand and improve our event offerings. In 2016, we held more than 25 events, including lectures in our auditorium, film screenings, receptions around the United States and conferences throughout the globe. Next year will be even busier. We already have nine Acton Lecture Series events planned for the winter and spring of 2017. You can expect great discussions on topics like free trade, C. S. Lewis and more. These lunchtime Thursday proceedings are the...

Sep 3, 2026

Servant leadership in a Louisiana kitchen

Good leadership involves a lot more than ordering underlings around, and one prominent businesswoman, Cheryl A. Bachelder, has built her career on being a different sort of leader. In early June 2016 Bachelder discussed her views on leadership, business, faith and more with Religion & Liberty’s Sarah Stanley at the Popeyes’ headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. Bachelder has a long list of plishments. She’s currently the CEO of Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, which she joined in November 2007 after serving as...

Sep 3, 2026

Editor’s Note

The final issue ofReligion & Libertyfor 2016 will explore a breadth and depth of topics, including the “ten dollar founding father,” why we need those dollars, the danger of a utopian dream and more. For the main feature, Victor Claar interviews Vernon Smith, who won the Nobel Prize for economics in 2002. He describes the relationships among many things we might not think are connected, especially the interplay between economics, science and religion. Bruce Edward Walker revisits the 1941...

Sep 3, 2026