Dr. Samuel Gregg, Acton’s Director of Research, has e something of a regular guest on Kresta in the Afternoon of late; below you’ll find audio of his two most recent appearances. Leading off, Sam appeared with host Al Kresta on February 15th to discuss Pope Benedict’s concept of the dictatorship of relativism in the context of the HHS mandate debate, and the potential consequences of the death of absolute truth. Listen via the audio player below: [audio: Then, on the...

While working on an article today, I read Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger’s 2005 homily right before the was elected Pope. I wanted to recall a section about truth that cannot be repeated enough. It is especially pertinent in light of the Obama Administration’s promise on the HHS mandate. promise changes nothing. It is political sophistry. It still forces people to act against their conscience and support moral evil. The truth about good and evil cannot be swept away by an accounting...

A week ago, Dr. Samuel Gregg addressed an audience here at Acton’s Grand Rapids, Michigan office on the topic of “Europe: A Continent in Economic and Cultural Crisis.” If you weren’t able to attend, we’re pleased to present the video of Dr. Gregg’s presentation below. ...

Since the North American Free Trade Agreement began to be implemented in 1994, the United States has raised farm subsidies by 300 percent and Mexican corn plain that they have little hope peting in this protected market. In this week’s Acton Commentary (published Feb. 29)Anthony Bradley writes that, “U.S. government farm subsidies create the conditions for the oppression and poor health care of Mexican migrant workers in ways that make those subsidies nothing less than immoral.”The full text of his...

Dietrich Bonhoeffer: There remains an experience of parable value. We have for once learnt to see the great events of world history from below, from the perspective of the outcast, the suspects, the maltreated, the powerless, the oppressed, the reviled – in short, from the perspective of those who suffer. The important thing is neither that bitterness nor envy should have gnawed at the heart during this time, that we should e to look with new eyes at matters great...

Political scientist and criminologist James Q. Wilson, co-author of the influential “Broken Windows” article in The Atlantic Monthly in 1982, which led to shift munity policing, died today at the age of 80. In 1999, Wilson spoke to Acton’s Religion & Liberty about how a free society requires a moral sense and social capital: R&L:Unlike defenders of capitalism such as Friedrich von Hayek and Philip Johnson, who view capitalism as a morally neutral system, you see a clear relationship between...

The New Yorker‘s George Packer believes, “The outcry over Obama’s policy on health insurance and contraception has almost nothing to do with that part of the First Amendment about the right to free religious practice, which is under no threat in this country. It is all about a modern conservative Kulturkampf that will not accept the other part of the religion clause, which prohibits any official religion.” Ross Douthat provides a devastating reply to Packer’s backwards view of religious liberty:...

In his homily on Lent Cardinal George warned that if the HHS Mandate is not changed Catholic schools, hospitals, and other social services will have to be shut down. Take a look at this post at by Ed Morrissey at Hot Air, What if the Catholic Bishops aren’t Bluffing? to see what closing down schools and hospitals would mean. Morrissey writes in his article for the Fiscal Times The Catholic Church has perhaps the most extensive private health-care delivery system...

In the seventeenth-century, the Dutch lawyer, magistrate, and scholar Hugo Grotius advanced Protestant natural-law thinking by grounding it in human nature rather than in the mands of God. As he claimed, “the mother of right—that is, of natural law—is human nature.” For Grotius, ifan action agrees with the rational and social aspects of human nature, it is permissible; if it doesn’t, it is impermissible. This view of law shaped his writings on jurisprudence, which in turn, had a profound influence...

On The American Spectator, Acton Research Director Samuel Gregg observes that, “as evidence for the European social model’s severe dysfunctionality continues to mount before our eyes, the American left is acutely aware how much it discredits its decades-old effort to take America down the same economic path.” Against this evidence, some liberals are pinning the blame on passing fiscal and currency imbalances. No, Gregg says, there’s “something even more fundamental” behind the meltdown of the post-war West European social model....