From the Washington Post, a snippet from Hugo Chavez, discussing Bolivia’s recently elected president, Evo Morales: “We have to create, one, two, three Bolivias in Latin America, in the Caribbean,” [Chavez] said echoing a quotation from Argentine hero Ernesto Che Guevara. “Only aiming for power can we transform the world.” Why do I get the idea Chavez didn’t do so well in his history classes? ...

A brief opinion from yours truly, featured in the February issue of The Banner, the denominational magazine of the Christian Reformed Church in North America: “Building on the Tithe.” With an eye towards Christians in other parts of the world, I observe, “In North America the conflict we face is largely between spending our leisure or disposable e on ourselves and spending it on others.” Check out the rest. ...

The math and science skills of American high schoolers and college students continue to erode. Michael Miller looks at the implications for U.S. petitiveness and offers some suggestions for fixing what ails the schools. Read the mentary here. ...

I was reminded recently that Jesus repeatedly underscored the high value of seemingly very small things. The significant results of small mustard seeds and lost coins made his parable points well but, as a mom, the story of one lost sheep made me quickly leap to the incalculable value of one lost person. On a planet of billions, many of whom live and die with scarcely any notice, Jesus says God notices … and cares. And He calls us to...

From the State of the Union: “Yet the destination of history is determined by human action, and every great movement of es to a point of choosing.” And all along I’ve been thinking it was divine providence. ...

Amy Welborn’s blog has a post on the January 21 conference Acton held in Rome and links to Jennifer Roback Morse’s recent Acton Commentary article. Welborn’s post ments can be read here. Roback Morse also wrote about the conference here. Much of the debate is about whether there is one “European Social Model”. After all, European nations are still distinct enough to be affected by varying religious, cultural, and socio-economic factors. Yes, there may indeed be “Anglo-Saxon”, “Nordic”, “Continental” and...

The Feb. 6 edition of NEWSWEEK features a story on the debate program at Liberty University, in a bit by Susanna Meadows, “Cut, Thrust and Christ: Why evangelicals are mastering the art of college debate.” The story trots out a number of tired old formulas, with the lede referencing the fact that fundamentalists (used interchangeably with the term evangelicals) view of the imminence of the ing: “When you believe the end of the world ing, you learn to talk fast.”...

More from the State of the Union: “…the number of children born to teenage mothers has been falling for a dozen years in a row.” That’s a good thing. But there’s still a marriage crisis, and part of it is related to birth rates among unmarried women: Births to unmarried mothers reached a record high of almost 1.5 million and made up 35.7% of all births in 2004. Unmarried births made up the majority of Black (69.2%) and American Indian...

After a year of lobbying by vice-president for governmental affairs Rev. Richard Cizik, the National Association of Evangelicals has backed off of attempts to formulate specific policy mendations to the federal government on global warming. According to the Washington Post, “The National Association of Evangelicals said yesterday that it has been unable to reach a consensus on global climate change and will not take a stand on the issue.” Of course, this disappoints those environmentalist groups that had looked to...

The European press and the blogosphere have been full of stories over the last few days about the controversy started by the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten. There’s enough material out there that readers of the Acton blog don’t need a full run-down here. (See, for example, the Brussels Journal and Michelle Malkin.) But since the issue concerns both religion and liberty, how can we not address it? Yes, there is a right to free speech, which certainly includes the right to...

When I see things like this going on, I ask myself, “What makes Christianity different? What makes me different?” Here are some guidelines for a Christian response to slander, hatred, and persecution: “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven,...

Acton is wrapping up a three-month project that had print advertisements running in several publications: WORLD, Crisis and the Michigan Catholic. The idea is to get people thinking about the economic consequences of trade policies and the power of entrepreneurial creativity. We’ve received a lot of feedback on this project, most of which was highly positive — with a few critical zingers. (Thanks to those of you who allowed us to use your names in ments.) If you haven’t had...