In his recent announcement that he was running for president, Sen. Ted Cruz’s said “our rights e from man, e from God Almighty.” That raised some eyebrows in our secular culture. For example, Meredith Shiner, a Yahoo reporter, tweeted:”Bizarre to talk about how rights are God-made and not man-made in your speech announcing a POTUS bid? When Constitution was man-made?” The idea that the “unalienable Rights” mentioned in the Declaration of Independence e from God is considered obvious to many...

J.C. Huizenga Photo from Mlive Employees of the Huizenga Automation Group got a great surprise earlier this week. According to Mlive, after selling pany, owner J.C. Huizenga gave away $5.75 million in bonuses to his employees at two panies that were part of the Automation Group. Huizenga acknowledged that his success was due to the work of his employees so he wanted to share his profits with them: “We all worked together at J.R. Automation and Dane Systems” and panies...

“States and municipalities craft laws that reflect local cultures, and this proximity to the people has market consequences,” says James Bruce in this week’s Acton Commentary. “Let’s call it free-market federalism, the encouragement of local markets by permitting states and municipalities to frame, as much as possible, the laws by which munities engage merce.” In a spirited defense of decentralization, Abraham Kuyper argues that a central government can only supplement local governments and families. Put another way, the central government...

It monplace in Christian circles, whether Orthodox, Roman Catholic, or Protestant, to appeal in public discourse to the inviolable good of human dignity. Today at Ethika Politika, I seek to answer the question, “What does human dignity look like in real life?” It is fine to talk about it in the abstract, but what does it look like on the job or as a parent? I write, Real, flesh-and-blood human persons do not evoke our respect as naturally as an...

On this week’s edition of Radio Free Acton,Burt and Anita Folsom discuss their latest book, Uncle Sam Can’t Count.Weexamine whether the government has a good track record in subsidizing industry and innovation, and look at some of the unforeseen consequences of subsidies in society. You can listen via the audio player below, and then be sure to check out the video of Burt’s Acton Lecture Series address as well. ...

While it may not seem like it when you’re standing at the checkout line at the grocery store, food is cheaper now that it was half a century ago. “We are purchasing more food for less money, and we are purchasing our food for less of our e,” says Annette Clauson, an agricultural economist. “This is a good thing, because we have e to purchase other things.” A recent report published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture shows how the...

Bill Dalgetty’s Hope for the Workplace, Christ in You is rich with stories of people in business who are struggling to integrate their faith and work lives. Weaving biblical parables with dozens of real life stories gleaned from his experience as president of Christians in Commerce International, Dalgetty points—usually explicitly and sometimes in a more nuanced way—to universal truths of human conscience. Dalgetty, a career attorney and executive for Mobil Corporation, is sensitive to corporate America’s overly PC culture. He...

When we hear about church “outreach ministries,” we often think of food pantries, homeless shelters, munity events. But while these can be powerful channels for service, many churches are beginning to look for new ways to empower individuals more holistically. For some, this means abandoning traditional charity altogether, focusing their ministry more directly around recognizing the gifts and strengths of others. For others, like Evangel Ministries in Detroit, it involves a mix of many things, but with a particular emphasis...

If there’s one area of the faith-work conversation that’s lacking in exploration and introspection, it’s the role of spiritual discernment in the day-to-day decisions of economiclife. It’s one thing to orientone’s heart and mind around thebig picture of vocation and stewardship — no small feat, to be sure — but if economics is about the intersection of knowledge and human action, what does it mean to serve a God whose thoughts are higher than our thoughts?Before and beyondourquestions about ethics...

Robert Putnam says our children are in a state of crisis. Those who live in poverty or near-poverty seemed to be doomed to stay there. Those born into families with money will likely go on to enjoy the lives that money affords. His book, Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis, follows a number of individuals, tracking a list of factors, including the ability to move up or down the economic spectrum. One pivotal factor is marriage: Highly correlated is...