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Simply defined, populism is the rebellion of mon man against the outsiders. This vague definition reflects the reality that there are populists of numerous different political persuasions; at its heart, populism is a strategy, not an ideology. Populism is dangerous because its antagonistic framework prevents proper dialogue between different groups; promise allows a morally inferior group to force its views on the people. Populism frequently panies US political movements. The Tea Party, Andrew Jackson’s war on the bank, Occupy Wall...

How a Colorado business is welcoming refugees

Debates continue to rage about immigration policy and the best way to manage our range of migrant and refugee crises. Yet much of our solution-seeking seems intently focused on the levers of government. Whatever side of the political divide,we continue to hear Biblical justifications for a range of policy solutions. But however important those political considerations may be, we should remember that our basic ethic of Christian hospitality doesn’t rely or depend on decisions or decrees from the halls of...

How the UN Report on extreme poverty in America goes astray

During the 38th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), on June 18 – July 6, 2018, the UN Special Rapporteur, an Englishman by the name of Philip Alston, presented a report on poverty in the United States, the full text of which may be read here. This report, based on a two-week fact-finding mission to various locations in the United States and interviews with local, state, and federal politicians and civil servants, represents the official UN view...

We can separate church and state, but not religion and politics

All our politics is religious, says Jonathan Leeman. “Neutrality is a bluff, he adds, “We are all sectarians (and conversations in the public square will e more honest when everyone names their ‘sect’). . . . Whoever gets to define which issues are ‘religious’ gets to rigs the game.” Should we therefore conclude that the the U. S. Constitution’s “no religious test for public office” clause is nothing more than an ideological power play? “Not at all,” says Leeman: In...

5 facts about Russian President Vladimir Putin

President Donald Trump met today with Vladimir Putin for a summit in Helsinki, Finland. Here are five facts you should know aboutthe powerful and controversialRussian president. 1.Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin was born in Cold War era Russia in 1952. His mother worked in a factory during World War II, and his father was drafted into the army,where he served on a submarine fleet. During his younger years, Putinwas an atheist. He says he turned to the church after two major accidents...

How politics becomes religion

In his new article for the Catholic World Report, Samuel Gregg, Research Director for the Acton Institute, argues that many in the world today have replaced politics with religion. One result of this is disproportionate outrage and scandal over political events, such as Brett Kavanaugh’s recent nomination to the United States Supreme Court. On the other hand, replacing religion with politics can also lead to a watered-down, “prudentialized” theology that ignores moral absolutes and weakens the bonds of faith. Gregg...

Can Bitcoin solve the classic problems of money?

The digital currency Bitcoin has not only attracted a lot of interest from investors, but it has raised some intriguing economic and financial questions. Economists and other theorists have long grappled with problems such as inflation, counterfeiting or money laundering. When we are talking about money in a digital world, however, we may have specific problems like scarcity and trust issues. Inflation Bitcoin is based on the underlying block chain technology (see this explainer). Each time a user discovers a...

RELIGION & LIBERTY

Adam Smith and the Poor

Adam Smith did not seem to think that riches were requisite to happiness: “the beggar, who suns himself by the side of the highway, possesses that security which kings are fighting for” (The Theory of Moral Sentiments). But he did not mend beggary. The beggar here is not any beggar, but Diogenes the Cynic, who asked of Alexander the Great only to step back so as not to cast a shadow upon Diogenes as he reclined alongside the highway....

Jul 2, 2026

Jesus and Class Warfare

Plenty of Marxists have turned to the New Testament and the origins of Christianity. Memorable examples include the works of F.D. Maurice and Zhu Weizhi’s Jesus the Proletarian. After criticizing how so many translations of the New Testament soften Jesus’ teachings regarding material possessions, greed, and wealth, Orthodox theologian David Bentley Hart has gone so far to ask, “Are Christians supposed to be Communists?” In the Huffington Post, Dan Arel has even claimed that “Jesus was clearly a Marxist,...

Jul 2, 2026

Conversation Starters with … Anne Bradley

Anne Bradley is an Acton affiliate scholar, the vice president of academic affairs at The Fund for American Studies, and professor of economics at The Institute of World Politics. There’s much talk about mon good capitalism” these days, especially from the New Right. Is this long overdue, that a hyper-individualism be beaten back, or is it merely cover for increasing state control of the economy? Let me begin by saying that I hate “capitalism with adjectives” in general. This...

Jul 2, 2026

How Dispensationalism Got Left Behind

Whether we like it or not, Americans, in one way or another, have all been indelibly shaped by dispensationalism. Such is the subtext of Daniel Hummel’s provocative telling of the rise and fall of dispensationalism in America. In a little less than 350 pages, Hummel traces how a relatively insignificant Irishman from the Plymouth Brethren, John Nelson Darby, prompted the proliferation of dispensational theology, especially its eschatology, or theology of the end times, among our ecclesiastical, cultural, and political...

Jul 2, 2026

Creating an Economy of Inclusion

The poor have been the main subject of concern in the whole tradition of Catholic Social Teaching. The Catholic Church talks often about a “preferential option for the poor.” In recent years, many of the Church’s social teaching documents have been particularly focused on the needs of the poorest people in the world’s poorest countries. The first major analysis of this topic could be said to have been in the papal encyclical Populorum Progressio, published in 1967 by Pope...

Jul 2, 2026

C.S. Lewis and the Apocalypse of Gender

From very nearly the beginning, Christianity has wrestled with the question of the body. Heretics from gnostics to docetists devalued physical reality and the body, while orthodox Christianity insisted that the physical world offers us true signs pointing to God. This quarrel persists today, and one form it takes is the general confusion among Christians and non-Christians alike about gender. Is gender an abstracted idea? Is it reducible to biological characteristics? Is it a set of behaviors determined by...

Jul 2, 2026

Mistaken About Poverty

Perhaps it is because America is the land of liberty and opportunity that debates about poverty are especially intense in the United States. Americans and would-be Americans have long been told that if they work hard enough and persevere they can achieve their dreams. For many people, the mere existence of poverty—absolute or relative—raises doubts about that promise and the American experiment more generally. Is it true that America suffers more poverty than any other advanced democracy in the...

Jul 2, 2026

Spurgeon and the Poverty-Fighting Church

Religion & Liberty: Volume 33, Number 4 Spurgeon and the Poverty-Fighting Church by Christopher Parr • October 30, 2023 Portrait of Charles Spurgeon by Alexander Melville (1885) Charles Spurgeon was a young, zealous 15-year-old boy when he came to faith in Christ. A letter to his mother at the time captures the enthusiasm of his newfound Christian faith: “Oh, how I wish that I could do something for Christ.” God granted that wish, as Spurgeon would e “the prince of...

Jul 2, 2026

Lord Jonathan Sacks: The West’s Rabbi

In October 1798, the president of the United States wrote to officers of the Massachusetts militia, acknowledging a limitation of federal rule. “We have no government,” John Adams wrote, “armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, and revenge or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net.” The nation that Adams had helped to found would require the parts of the body...

Jul 2, 2026

Up from the Liberal Founding

During the 20th century, scholars of the American founding generally believed that it was liberal. Specifically, they saw the founding as rooted in the political thought of 17th-century English philosopher John Locke. In addition, they saw Locke as a primarily secular thinker, one who sought to isolate the role of religion from political considerations except when necessary to prop up the various assumptions he made for natural rights. These included a divine creator responsible for a rational world for...

Jul 2, 2026