We’ve all seen the pictures: a little African boy wearing nothing but an dirty, over-sized t-shirt emblazoned with the logo of a U.S. sports team, or a little African girl, dressed in rags and pitifully surrounded by flies. As you might imagine, Africans don’t particularly appreciate the rest of the world viewing them this way. Frustrated by the constant images of poverty and disaster, a new Twitter movement started by young Africans shows that the continent is much more diverse...

A French translation of Samuel Gregg’s The American Spectator article on Pope Francis’s eco-encyclical was published earlier this week in Nouvelles de France. Gregg is the Acton Institute’s director of research, and the article, titled “Laudato Si’:Well Intentioned, Economically Flawed,” was translated by Emmanuel d’Hoop de Synghem. Peu avant la publication de l’encyclique du Pape François, Laudato Si, la plupart mentaires focalisaient sur les implications et les liens qu’a cette encyclique avec le débat sur le changement climatique. Une tentative...

Surely, there is not one social conservative or conservative Christian that has not been shaken by the events in our nation over the last week or two. It seems as if everything we know and believe to be true has been cast aside and trampled upon. Should we take the Benedict option? The Buckley option? Should we just put our heads down and go quietly about our lives, hoping no one notices us? The New York Times’ David Brooks has...

“Whenever government assumes a greater role in a societal or cultural debate, expect both intended and unintended consequences,” says Zack Pruitt in this week’s Acton Commentary. “The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to make same-sex marriage a constitutional right under the Fourteenth Amendment will generate huge conflicts – in some cases unforeseen – with the First Amendment right to the free exercise of religion.” Until this constitutional showdown is ultimately decided, the campaign on the part of some same-sex marriage advocates...

As American prepare to celebrate the 239th anniversary of the founding of our nation, enjoy this rendition of “American the Beautiful.” Performed by the choir of Hillsdale College, under the direction of James A. Holleman and Debra Wyse, it is both a visual and musical reminder of why so many of us dearly love our nation. ...

“The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to make same-sex marriage a constitutional right under the Fourteenth Amendment,” says Zack Pruitt in today’s Acton Commentary, “will generate huge conflicts—in some cases unforeseen—with the First Amendment right to the free exercise of religion.” Fortunately, some legislators are already attempting to do something to prevent such conflicts. Even before the recent Supreme Court ruling, Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) and Rep. Raúl Labrador (R-ID) introduced legislation to clarify and strengthen religious liberty protections in federal...

Pope Francis will begin a tour of Ecuador, Bolivia and Paraguay on Sunday, returning to the continent of his birth for the first time since his election in 2013 and visiting areas of extreme poverty. Peter Johnson, the Acton Institute’s external relations officer, told the Associated Press that the pontiff’s criticism of the free market neglects to account for the economic improvements made in Latin America in the last decade. The three countries on Francis’ tour all have made economic...

The state of Michigan is in the midst of something of an infrastructure crisis. We’re consistently ranked as among the states with the worst roads in the nation, something of an embarrassment for what used to be the automotive capital of the US. This infrastructure challenge isalso no doubt part of a legacy of astate with one of the more troubled economies in the nation over the previous decade. (In spite of all this, Michigan remains a beautiful state with...

The Acton Institute’s seven-part film series, For the Life of the World: Letters to the Exiles, was created for a wide-ranging Christian audience, whether Baptist or Catholic, Orthodox or Presbyterian. As Andy Crouch says in his review, “this series is marvelously catholic, in the small-c sense,” appealing across political and theological divides while still proclaiming a specific vision of creativity, beauty, and service in the Christian life. But while the series is highly enjoyable for any viewer, it is particularly...

This weekend marks the 143rd birthday of the best president you (probably) don’t know: Calvin Coolidge. Most presidents are judged by what they do in office. For instance, they are expected to “do something” about the economy even if their actions are counterproductive and detrimental. Coolidge took a different approach: he preferred to do “nothing”—to take as much inaction as possible. The liberal journalist Walter Lippman once wrote, “There has never been Mr. Coolidge’s equal in the art of deflating...