For most musicians, the prospect of a longand stable career in the arts is a lifelong dream. For those who actually “make it,” aspirationscan shift in surprising ways. For Jars of Clay, a popular rock band who achieved success in the 1990s — and wrote the music for Acton’s film series,For the Life of the World—that vocational reckoning came late in their careers. After 20 years of full-time work in the music industry, they decided that in order to stay...

Former Indiana Governor and current Purdue University President Mitch DanielsIf it seems your writer is obsessing over genetically modified organisms in this space, it’s only because the progressive side of the equation won’t let it go. Team Anti-GMO includes the radicalized religious shareholder activists of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility and As You Sow. Whether it’s misrepresenting the science or ignoring pletely, these groups celebrate every GMO labeling initiative and perform handstands every time a mits to producing organic...

“Americans’ instinctively refuse to recognize as legitimate any international organization, law or treaty that claims any authority over Americans above the U.S. Constitution,” says Todd Huizinga in this week’s Acton Commentary, “particularly if that organization, law or treaty contradicts the Constitution or violates Americans’ constitutional rights.” In the American system, it is because sovereignty rests in the people that the U.S. government does not have a right to transfer sovereignty to any other organization, government or group of governments. But...

The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments todayin a casefrom religious nonprofit groups challenging thefederal government’s contraceptive/abortifacient mandate. Here is what you should knowabout that case. What is this case, and what’s it about? The case the Supreme Court will hear, Little Sisters of the Poor Home for the Aged v. bines seven challenges to the Health and Human Services’ (HHS) contraceptive/abortifacient mandate. To fulfill the requirements of the Affordable Healthcare Act (aka ObamaCare) the federal government passed a regulation...

Conservatives and liberals both tend to believe that they alone are motivated by love while their opponents are motivated by hate. How can we solve problems with so much polarization? In a recent TED talk, AEI president Arthur Brooks shares ideas for what we can each do as individuals to break the gridlock. “We might just be able to take the ghastly holy war of ideology that we’re suffering under and turn it into petition of ideas,” says Brooks. ...

Do you remember the story about colonial Americans experimenting with socialism? Probably not. It’s a tale that rarely finds its way into the textbooks of high school and college students. Indeed, I had been out of school nearly 20 years when I first heard about it. If your not familiar with this part of American history, this short video by Larry Schweikart will fill you in on explains what happened when the early settlers who arrived at Plymouth and Jamestown...

Acton’s Director of International Outreach Todd Huizinga has been quite busy since therelease of his bookThe New Totalitarian Temptation: Global Governance and the Crisis of Democracy in Europe.Last week Thursday, he continued to talk about this topic in an Acton Lecture Series address that we’re pleased to share with you today on the PowerBlog. Additionally, we’ve posted audio of Todd’s hour-long appearance last night on WBZ Boston’s “Nightside” show with host Dan Rea after the jump. ...

The Little Sisters of the Poor,an international congregation of Catholic women religious who serve the elderly poor in over 30 countries around the world, have been given a difficult choice: violate your conscience or pay $70 million a year in fines. For the past few years the Obama administration has been attempting to force the Little Sisters — and other nonprofit religious organizations — to help provide their employees with free access to abortion-inducing drugs, sterilizations, and contraceptives. But on...

What is Holy Week? Holy Week is the week before Easter, a period which includes the religious holidays of Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday. Holy week does not include Easter Sunday. When did Holy Week get started? The first recording of a Holy Week observance was made by Egeria, a Gallic woman who made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land about 381-384. In an account of her travels she wrote for a group of women back...

In the Detroit News, Rev. Robert A. Sirico, co-founder and president of the Acton Institute, offers mentary on the two-year battle with the city of Grand Rapids over the institute’s exempt status under state property tax law (see the March 15 Acton news release, “Acton Institute Prevails in Property Tax Dispute with City of Grand Rapids” for background). In his opinion piece, Rev. Sirico writes: We were assured earlier from then-City Attorney Catherine Mish that it all wasn’t political, but...