At last week’s Acton on Tap, I discussed the economic teachings of the Heidelberg Catechism, beginning with the divine origin of material blessings as expressed in Lord’s Day 50, which explores the fourth petition of the Lord’s Prayer, “Give us this day our daily bread.” The catechism emphasizes God as “the only source of everything good,” echoing the classical Christian understanding of God as the fons omnium bonorum, a Latin phrase meaning the font or source of all good things....

In his treatise on the state of social conditions in early 20thcentury Great Britain (What’s Wrong With The World), G.K. Chesterton wrote the following: “It is the whole definition and dignity of man that in social matters we must actually find the cure before we find the disease.” For the Christian attempting to live “in, but not of” the world, our proverbial North Star should be what God’s standards are, not the mess we’ve made of things here on earth....

Avik Roy of Forbes has never been what you’d call a fan of Obamacare. Now, however, he’s calling the mandated insurance program “lawless” and “unconstitutional.” Why? The White House—having canceled Americans’ old health plans, and having botched the system for enrolling people in new ones—knows that millions of Americans will enter the new year without health coverage. So instead of actually fixing the problem, the administration is retroactively attempting to force insurers to hand out free health care—at a loss—to...

When we think of our freedoms and how they are basic to our society yet freedoms seem to be out of control in so many ways since the 1960s, we probably need to pull back and consider those freedoms from a new perspective. So let’s consider playing the piano. I am free to play the piano in that pianos are available, piano teachers are available, and there is no regulation or social stigma that prevents me from acquiring or learning...

During the Spanish Civil War, an American farmer named Dan West served as an aid worker on the front lines. His mission was to provide relief to weary soldiers, but all he was allotted to give them was a single cup of milk. This meager ration led West to wonder if more could be done. “What if they had not a cup,” thought West, “but a cow?” The “teach a man to fish” philosophy behind that question inspired West to...

Acton President Rev. Robert A. Sirico had intended to join host Neil Cavuto in his New York studio to discuss questions of economics and religion, but Friday’s events in Centennial, Colorado prompted a different discussion altogether. ...

Right to Work laws are state laws that guarantee a person cannot pelled to join or pay dues to a labor union as a condition of employment. Hearing that definition, you’re probably saying to yourself, “Right to work laws sound a lot like slavery.” What’s that? That’s not at all what you were thinking? Well, you must not work for Detroit-based Teamsters Local 214: A Michigan union invoked the provision of the state constitution that bans slavery in their argument...

Christians often talk a big game about “redeeming” the culture. I think the current dilemma facing the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) amid the city of Detroit’s bankruptcy provides a great opportunity to back up that talk with something concrete. And there’s perhaps no more concrete way of redeeming something, buying it back, than from the threat of bankruptcy. That’s why I’ve started a crowdfunding campaign to redeem the DIA. The federal judge overseeing the proceedings wants to raise $500...

As any parent can attest, kids are expensive. They take up space (increasing the cost of housing), eat everything in your kitchen (increasing the grocery bill), never remember to turn off lights (increasing the cost of utilities), and find dozens of other ways to drain your banking account. From birth to high school graduation, the average cost to raise a kid is $241,080. The high cost is often proffered as an explanation for why families today are much smaller than...

We were told we could keep our insurance plans, our doctors, all the stuff we liked about our old plans. Not so fast, says Ashe Schow of the Washington Examiner. Here are 5 things you CAN’T keep under Obamacare. Your health insurance plan, even if you really, really liked it. In theory, you were supposed to be able to keep it, but now, well… Millions of Americans have received notices canceling their existing health plans because they did not meet...