Source: AP Bakers, florists, and photographers who refuse to use their creative talents to serve same-sex weddings have been fined and have had their business threatened because they refuse to violate their conscience. Many Americans—including many Christians—even argued that private business owners should be forced to violate their conscience when such practices are considered discriminatory. But how far are they willing to defend their views? Would they, for instance, punish a baker for refusing to make a cake with anti-gay...

As Luis de Molina (1535-1600) writes in A Treatise on Money ing): It is clearly evident that petty exchange is useful to the republic, as it is often that men need coins of a lesser value in order to buy the things they need daily, or to give alms, or for other such things in which the coinage of a higher value is of no use. ...

One of the most important important socio-economic factors in America is also one of the least talked about: social mobility. Social mobility is the ability of an individual or family to improve (or lower) their economic status. The two main types of social mobility are intergenerational (i.e., a person is better off than their parents or grandparents) or intragenerational (i.e., e changes within a person or group’s lifetime). While there is no truly adequate gauge to measure such opportunities, we...

In the Wall Street Journal, Acton Institute President and co-founder Rev. Robert A. Sirico discusses the pope’s ments. “If the pope got up and read the phone book, it would grab headlines,” Sirico quipped. ...

Today at Think Christian I reflect on President Obama’s State of the Union message last night. I think it was perhaps the best speech I have heard him give in terms of delivery and general tone. There are numerous things that one might quibble with in a speech of that length, of course. My TC piece is an attempt to help us to put into proper perspective political promises and policy proposals. I look particularly at the question of economic...

I have a can’t miss prediction: tonight, when President Obama gives his seventh State of the Union address, he will describe the state of the union as “strong.” (I’ve made this prediction on this blog the past two years, so I’m hoping for a trifecta of prescience tonight.) Admittedly, predicting that the state of our union will be described as “strong” is about as safe a bet as you can make when es to politics. Over the last hundred years...

In its eighth annual survey, the Think Tanks & Civil Societies Program at the University of Pennsylvania put the Acton Institute among the top organizations in social policy, advocacy, conferences and overall excellence. The 2014 Global Go-To Think Tank Index published by the Think Tanks & Civil Societies Program, which has a database of more than 6,500 organizations, ranks the world’s leading think tanks in a variety of categories and across a wide political spectrum. The rankings piled with the...

Rule of law isn’t an attention-grabber. There are no celebrities touting social media campaigns for rule of law, no telethons with your favorite pop star to answer the phone and take your money, no website where you can buy t-shirts and water bottles to show your support. Most people don’t even know what “rule of law” means. The rule of law, I think, is best understood by considering its opposite, which is the rule of men. The rule of men...

I have plenty of hesitations about heeding various calls to “work-life balance,” mostlybecause they tend to dismiss or downplay the reality that “work” is often a lot less work than “life.” Parents of young children have a keen sense of all this, of course. Indeed, it’s the reason so many of us would prefer to retreat to the “workplace” when the dirty diapers and toddler tantrums begin to beckon. Thus, if we really hope to “balance” these things out —...

A lot of people have a vision for the developing world. Some want to create jobs. Some want to increase aid. Some want more mission trips. Yaopeng Zhou and Marc Albanese literally want to change the vision of the developing world. These two men are aware that vision care in the developing world is hard e by. People with vision problems – even ones that are easily corrected – often cannot access eye care. There are not enough doctors, and...