Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
Is a no-deal Brexit a ‘moral failure’?
Is a no-deal Brexit a ‘moral failure’?
Sep 8, 2024 1:03 AM

After a long postponement, the UK Parliament has resumed its debate leading up to the “meaningful vote” on Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal. As of this writing, the promise is predicted to fail by an historically large margin – and some clerics consider this not just unfortunate but immoral. Rev. Richard Turnbull analyses that argument, and the status of Brexit, in a new essay written the Acton Institute’s Religion & Liberty Transatlantic website.

Rev. Turnbull writes:

In the upper chamber, the House of Lords, the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby said on January 9 that a “no deal” Brexit would be a “moral failure,” and a second referendum might be required. Demands for a “second referendum” to reverse the initial Brexit vote inspired me to share some observations with readers of Religion & Liberty Transatlanticabout the nature of sovereignty and self-determination, where the Brexit debate stands, and the morality of economic freedom.

Rev. Turnbull – who is both ordained in the Church of England and the director of the Centre for Enterprise, Markets, and Ethics in Oxford – brings the full powers of insight to bear on the economic, political, and moral dimensions of the debate. And he echoes concerns shared by liberty-minded Christians across the Atlantic as he writes:

If only we had a prime minister like a Margaret Thatcher, with the vision to chart a bold course toward independence, to lower corporate tax rates in order to attract investment, to reduce to the minimum tariffs on trade, to set people free economically as well as politically, to find new and renewed trading partners. If only church leaders saw economic freedom as a means of generating prosperity and allowing people to provide for their families.

If only….

Read his full article here.

Lenoir / . Editorial use only.)

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
Missionary malpractice in Uganda? A reflection on ‘good intentions’
In the routine stories of humanitarian activism gone wrong, we find ready reminders of the limits of good intentions. In each case—whether among governments or non-profits and religious institutions—we see how a heartfelt motivation to “do good” can easily serve as a blind spot on hearts and minds. One of the latest examples involves Renee Bach, an American missionary who, at age 20, moved to Uganda and soon started a charity for malnourished children. Now, Bach is under fire for...
Edmund Burke believed in trade liberalization
Whenever the conservative movement loses its way, says Samuel Gregg in an article for Law & Liberty, it’s only a matter of time before some turn for guidance to the figure most associated with modern Anglo-American conservatism’s emergence—Edmund Burke. And Burke admirers who have reservations about market economies should remember, says Gregg, that Burke robustly defends what we would call “market liberalism.” Burke’s status as a conservative icon often draws attention away from that portion of his political career spent...
The reason America’s poor are richer than most Europeans
The U.S. has diverged from the OECD approach to economic and energy issues that critics called this weekend’s G7 Summit the “G6-plus-one.” However, a new study shows America’s less regulated, less regimented economy has generated such abundance that the poorest 20 percent of Americans are more prosperous than the average European. “If the U.S. ‘poor’ were a nation, it would be one of the world’s richest,” writes Jim Agresti of Just Facts in a new article for the Acton Institute’s...
How God makes a pencil
In 1958, Leonard Read published his brilliant essay, “I, Pencil.” The Competitive Enterprise Institute recently released a wonderful video that illustrates Read’s point that the creation of a pencil requires an unfathomable level plexity and undirected cooperation. Read’s original essay was written from the point of view of the pencil and the humble writing implement explains why it is as much a creation of God as a tree. Since only God can make a tree, I insist that only God...
A ‘one-stop shop’ for natural law theory
Over at the University Bookman, W. Bradford Littlejohn reviews Niels Hemmingsen’s On the Law of Nature: A Demonstrative Method, recently published by CLP Academic. Littlejohn describes this surprising sixteenth century treatise as “a concise one-stop shop summary of Aristotelian-Thomistic epistemology, philosophy of action, and natural law theory.” The work, written by a Danish Lutheran theologian, challenges the received historical narratives about Protestant and Roman Catholic ethics: Thanks to the painstaking translation labors of Hillsdale classicist E.J. Hutchinson, Niels Hemmingsen has...
Drucker on the ‘master organization’ and the totalitarian conceit
This is the fourth in a series of essayson Peter Drucker’s early works. It was sometimes said of fascists that they “made the trains run on time.” In The End of Economic Man, Peter Drucker saw that fascists “proved” their fitness through effective organization. Technical details substituted for real social ends. But the real power of fascist organization has to do with its ambition prehensiveness. In effect, the fascist state holds up the political party and insists that all be...
The magic of the washing machine
What was the greatest invention of the industrial revolution? The late great Hans Rosling makes the case for the washing machine. Rosling explains how the productivity gains of the washing machine (and similar labor-saving devices) lead to increases in education and economic growth in the developing world. ...
The ‘King of Israel’: The Caesar strategy or cultural renewal?
President Donald Trump ignited a national debate when he shared ment referring to him by the messianic title of the “King of Israel.” Whatever this says about President Trump, it unintentionally revealed a great deal about Western mitment to salvation by politics, and it brought to the surface a long-simmering question we must answer: Will we pursue cultural renewal through the sustained preaching and incarnation of the Gospel, or will we turn to a secular ruler for deliverance? The evidence,...
Be fruitful, multiply, and grow the economy
In one of the most memorable mid-1990s episodes of The Simpsons, the curmudgeonly misanthrope Charles Montgomery Burns achieves a lifelong dream: Since the beginning of time, man has yearned to destroy the sun. I shall do the next best thing: block it out. While Mr. Burns had no use for our nearest star, the other residents Springfield were dismayed by the citywide sun-block. They understood, as Steve Martin once said, that “A day without sunshine is like, you know, night.”...
Acton Line podcast: What is woke capitalism? Daniel J. Mahoney on ‘The Idol of Our Age’
From Gillette to Pepsi, panies are starting to market their products by advocating for social justice issues, signaling to consumers that they are “woke.” Is ‘woke capitalism’ a trend that’s truly new in the market? Is there a place for businesses ment on social issues? Acton’s president and co-founder, Rev. Robert Sirico, explains. Afterwards, Daniel J. Mahoney, professor of political science at Assumption College speaks about his newest book, “The Idol of our Age: How the Religion of Humanity Subverts...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2024 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved