Investigative reporter Steve Wilson has been under attack from public officials in both Detroit and the suburb of Warren, Michigan. And now, a group of Detroit pastors is calling for his termination, according to the Detroit Free Press. “Whereas Warren officials accused Wilson of mischaracterizing a trip to Costa Rica, more than two dozen pastors said their ire peaked when they heard that the muckraker had, in their words, harassed Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick on a Friday flight home from...

An excerpt from a mencement address by Mark Helprin, “Defend Civilization Itself,” delivered at Hillsdale College on May 24, 2002: I ask you to join this brotherhood, and, in your own way, whatever that may be, to defend and champion the sanctity of the individual, free and objective inquiry, government by consent of the governed, freedom of conscience, and the pursuit — rather than the degradation and denial — of truth and of beauty. I ask you to defend a...

S.T. Karnick at Signs of the Times passes along the words of Dr. Sean Gabb, an English Libertarian author, on the debate about fair trade, which is driven in large part by Christian groups (see Acton Commentaries here and here). Dr. Gabb contends, contrary to the claims of the ecumenical movement, that “To call the actually existing order liberal—or ‘neo-liberal’—is as taxonomically accurate as calling the old Soviet Communist Party syndicalist. That order is based on tariffs, subsidies and a...

Yesterday, people all over the world marked the 90th anniversary of the genocide of 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman Turks, memoration that has taken on added political frieght with Turkey’s candidacy for accession to the European Union. Given the refusal of Turkey to even acknowledge the genocide — which also targeted hundreds of thousands of Pontic Greeks and Syrians — the EU question should be put permanently on hold until the Turks face their past with honesty. But the prospects...

Having trouble understanding the Bible? Can’t seem to reconcile what you just “know” to be true with the plain meaning of Scripture? Why not take Episcopalian Bishop Spong’s hermeneutical approach? According to a column in the Detroit News, Bishop Spong, author of The Sins of Scripture: Exposing the Bible’s Texts of Hate to Reveal the God of Love, says you can feel free to downplay or ignore difficult passages. “Much as I wanted to think otherwise,” he says, “…sometimes (the...

All of us here at Acton were saddened to hear the news that Laura Ingraham, radio talk show host and a friend of the Institute, has been diagnosed with breast cancer. From her website: On Friday afternoon, I learned that I have joined the ever-growing group of American women who have been diagnosed with breast cancer. As so many breast cancer patients will tell you, it all came as a total shock. I am blessed to be surrounded by people...

This week is Global Action Week for Education, and the Global Campaign for Education has given the United States an “F” grade. Anthony Bradley writes that this judgment is short-sighted, and that “support for education…should not be isolated from the promotion of peace and stability.” Read the full text here. ...

Via The Christian Post: Annual giving to churches rose by 11 percent, but after factoring in inflation, churches are getting about two percent more than contributed in 1999. Another trend was the practice of donating 10 percent of the annual e to church. Tithing is practiced by very few Americans at only four percent, according to Barna, though good stewardship remains an important priority for Christians. Ultimately, Barna explained, “Americans are willing to give more generously than they typically do,...

Mark McGwire hit 70 home runs in 1998.An article in The New York Times magazine over the weekend provides an up-close look at the stories of two men impacted by the burgeoning problem of steroid use in baseball. In “Absolutely, Power Corrupts,” Michael Lewis writes, Unable to parse the statistics and separate natural power from steroid power, the people who evaluate baseball players for a living have no choice but to ignore the distinction. e to view the increase in...

On this date in 1537 Geneva’s first Protestant catechism was published, based on John Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion. ...

The National Academies of Science has issued a set of guidelines for human embryonic stem (ES) cell research. The guidelines also address the chimera phenomenon. The guidelines open a path for experiments that create animals that contain some introduced human embyronic stem cells. These hybrid part human, part animal creatures, called chimeras, would be “valuable in understanding the etiology and progression of human disease and in testing new drugs, and will be necessary in preclinical testing of human embryonic stem...

There’s been a lot of talk in recent days about the question of immigration, both legal and illegal. A number of issues are involved, including questions about national security, economic concerns, and cultural values. Most recently the Minutemen have begun border patrols and are looking to extend their efforts to the northern U.S. border. You may also remember a scuffle when President Bush put forth the proposal for a guest worker program. The Acton Institute has published two pieces that...