It has been said that when Jonathan Edwards would roam about the countryside on his horse, he would record his observations and thoughts on little scraps of paper and pin them to his coat. When he returned home, his wife would help him unpin the notes and he would arrange them on his desk and use them as a basis for recording his thoughts in more permanent form. This story has been viewed by some scholars as apocryphal, although Paul...

I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall, when I cast him down to hell with them that descend into the pit: and all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, shall forted in the nether parts of the earth. — Eze 31:16 America had folks like Fossey and T.R. and Muir and Carson and Audobon and Carver and Pickering who brought conservation and ecology into our emerging national...

President Ford’s Casket just passed Acton’s offices here in Grand Rapids, on the way to Grace Episcopal Church for a final private service for Ford’s family before his interment on the grounds of the Ford Museum. ...

Order Dr. Gregg’s new book today! With the publication this month of The Commercial Society – Foundations and Challenges in a Global Age, Samuel Gregg embarks on an exploration of the key foundational elements that must exist within a society mercial order to take root and flourish. Guided by the thoughts of Alexis de Tocqueville, Gregg studies the challenges that have consistently impeded and occasionally mercial order. mentary, excerpted from the new book, explains why people who begin to exceed...

A professor at MIT has been denied tenure and he claims that the reason is his opposition to embyonic stem cell research (his specialty is adult stem cell research). It is always impossible to know exactly what the motives are in these tenure battles unless one is personally involved, but it would not be surprising if his claim were accurate, given the high stakes (e.g., funding) inherent in this field. In any case, for many professors, “ideology” and “scholarship” are...

I’ve had this link sitting in my inbox for quite awhile and have finally gotten to it. It’s well worth the read. Brian J. Lee, writing in Modern Reformation, takes a look at the foundational passage in Romans where Paul discusses subjection to civil authorities. Lee argues that Paul’s sole concern is with Christian submission: Properly understood, mand to submit should constrain our optimism about the civil government’s capacity to transform, save, or redeem. Civil government is not an aid...

From today’s WaPo: About 25 percent of the technology and panies launched in the past decade had at least one foreign-born founder, according to a study released yesterday that throws new information into the debate over foreign workers who arrive in the United States on specialty visas. Scott McNealy, chairman and co-founder of Sun Microsystems, “is among the advocates for an expanded visa program, writing editorials, calling members of Congress and supporting political mittees.” He asks a pretty good question,...

Just in case you forgot, President Gerald R. Ford got perhaps the most positive and friendly portrayal of any American president on The Simpsons, as the one former president you’d like to have as a neighbor: ...

As many of our regular readers know, the Acton Institute is headquartered in Grand Rapids, Michigan, a city that just happens to be at the center of national attention this week with the passing of former President Gerald R. Ford, our city’s most famous son. I’ve spent some time walking the streets of our town this week, soaking in the sights and taking some photos of the memorials that have sprouted up around the Ford Museum. I’ve been struggling to...

One of the oft-overlooked groups in the Iraq conflict are Iraqi Christians (many of whom are Chaldean Christians). Chances are if you hear about an Iraqi ethnic or religious minority, they are either Kurds or Sunni Muslims. Doug Bandow, who writing a book on religious persecution abroad, points out the dilemma facing native Christians in Iraq in his latest piece for The American Spectator, “Iraq’s Forgotten Minority” (HT: The Point). Writes Bandow, “Although the Shiite- dominated government does not oppress,...