The American Spectator published a mentary by Acton Research Director Samuel Gregg. mentary was also picked up by RealClearReligion. Christians in a Post-Welfare State World By Samuel Gregg As the debt-crisis continues to shake America’s and Europe’s economies, Christians of all confessions find themselves in the unaccustomed position of debating the morality and economics of deficits and how to e them. At present, these are important discussions. But frankly they’re pared to the debate that has yet e. And the...

Returning from a conference earlier this week, I had the chance to speak with Garreth Bloor, a student at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, about his engagement with politics, the role of religion and civil society, and “Mama Africa’s” story of microfinance success. In the interview Garreth mends “The Call of the Entrepreneur” and Lessons from the Poor. ...

The Acton Institute and Kuyper College are partnering to produce a first-ever English translation of Abraham Kuyper’s seminal work Common Grace (De gemeene gratie). The three-volume project will be published through Acton’s recently acquired imprint, Christian’s Library Press, and the first volume is slated to appear in the fall of 2012. More details are appear below and at the Kuyper translation project page. You can sign up at the page to be kept up-to-date as the project progresses. There you...

The Detroit News published Dr. Don Condit’s mentary on Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) in today’s paper. The ACOs are designed to manage costs under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare. Medicare beneficiaries will be “assigned” to 5,000 patient-minimum organizations to coordinate their care. While HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius talks about improvement in care, the politically poisonous truth is that Medicare is going broke and ACOs are designed to save money. The words “rationing” or “treatment...

Shane Claiborne and Jim Wallis are posing the question, “What Would Jesus Cut?” in an effort to skew the federal budget debates toward the usual big government solutions favored by the religious left. Recently, Claiborne wrote an article for the Huffington Post, exploring the idea of withholding a portion of his taxes to demonstrate his disapproval of military spending. He announced that he is going to withhold 30 percent of his taxes to protest all U.S. defense spending. Mark Tooley,...

Jim Wallis: Paul Ryan is A Bully & Hypocrite Not so long ago, the Rev. Jim Wallis was positioning himself as the Chief Apostle of Civility, issuing bland pronouncements about all of us needing to get along. His “A Christian Covenant For Civility,” barely a year old, is now looking more tattered than a Dead Sea Scroll. Of course, he took up the civility meme back when he was hoping to brand the Tea Party as a horde of un-Christian,...

Our Sunday Visitor, the Catholic newspaper, interviewed Acton Research Fellow Kevin Schmiesing for a story about the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that threw out a lawsuit against an Arizona tax-credit program that helps private schools. Here’s mentary from Kevin (the full story is now behind the OSV paywall). Kevin E. Schmiesing, a Catholic historian and research fellow at the Acton Institute, a free-market think tank, agreed that the Supreme Court ruling is a hopeful sign for school choice advocates,...

mentary this week focuses on the how the rise in prices at the pump is impacting the poor. Currently, in many areas of the country a gallon of gas is now priced over $4. I also argue that we need a more coherent energy ing from leaders in Washington. Part of the argument against drilling in ANWR (Arctic Refuge) over a decade ago was that the oil wouldn’t hit the market for 10 years. That’s a very shortsighted way of...

In this week’s Acton Commentary, “Do Less with Less: What the History of Federal Debt and Tax Leverage Teaches,” I reflect on how the federal government has lived beyond its means for decades. This reality is especially important to recognize as we approach Tax Day this year as well as in the context of debates about how to address the public debt crisis. There are many who think we need to raise taxes in order to close the historic levels...

It sounds draconian and contrary to the beliefs of many humanitarian organizations, including the United Nations which declared water as a basic human right in 2010. However, if we expect to take the correct steps forward to solve the global water crisis, then water must be treated as modity not a basic human right. In his book, The Mystery of Capital, and also in an essay published in the International Monetary Fund, Hernando de Soto explains why capitalism has failed...