“While he was still a long way off…” On display at Acton Institute in Grand Rapids is an art exhibit centered on the parable of the prodigal son from Luke 15. “The Father and His Two Sons: The Art of Forgiveness,” was collected by Larry and Mary Gerbens. It includes a 1636 etching by Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn, a painting by American artist Robert Barnum, and a reproduction of Rembrandt’s famous “The Return of the Prodigal Son,” among others....

Senator John McCain called Colonel George “Bud” Day, “The bravest man I ever knew.” Day (1925 -2013) was a veteran of World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. A Medal of Honor recipient, Day was shot down in his F-100 Super Sabre over North Vietnam in August of 1967. Ejected from his jet and severely injured, he continued to be a thorn in the side of the North Vietnamese for the remainder of the war. Tortured ruthlessly for information, he was...

In this Prager University video, Philip Howard explains how unions are sucking money from city and state budgets across America. This type of financial drain led, in part, to the demise of Detroit. As Howard points out in the video, “Government is supposed to serve the public good, not government employees.” ...

Anthony Dent has a clever plan to improve economic mobility: move strategically unimportant federal departments and agencies to economically impoverished cities and towns across America. Republicans would support it because, well, they hate DC and favor “real” America. Democrats would support it because their cities and states would benefit disproportionately (think Atlanta, Michigan, or Illinois). Call it the Cleveland Plan after the city that exemplifies America’s decline. Not only does Cleveland routinely rank as one ofAmerica’s fastest-dying cities, but Clevelanders...

Charitable giving, for the most part, involves money. But not always. The auto manufacturer, Toyota, donates efficiency. The pany’s model of kaizen (Japanese for “continuous improvement”) was one their employees believed could be beneficial beyond the manufacturing business. Toyota offered to help The Food Bank of New York, which reluctantly accepted their plan. The charity was used to receiving corporate financial donations to feed their patrons, not time from engineers. But the non-profit quickly saw results. Toyota’s engineers helped reduce...

For some Christians, art of one sort or another plays an integral part of their faith life and worship. For others, it may seem like an afterthought. Should churches encourage artists? Philip Ryken, president of Wheaton College, thinks they should. In an interview with Breakpoint, Ryken says churches are missing out on opportunities by not reaching out to artists. This is more than a tragedy. It’s a lost opportunity. Ryken notes that ‘Christians called to paint, draw, sculpt, sing, act,...

As David Deavel points out, free market economists and distributists “are often at each others’ throats.” Deavel is attempting to scrutinize distributism – what it is and what it isn’t – in a series at Intercollegiate Review. He claims that while distributism has its flaws, it has some valid points and there is much good to be found in the arguments of distributists. So what it distributism? Distributists like to describe themselves as an alternative or third way that avoids...

This case has been made that government attempts to manage economies through regulation, laws, and taxes discourage entrepreneurs entering into the marketplace. I recently asked Michael, a young entrepreneur in his 20s, what were some of his fears about being a entrepreneur in America. We’re not using his full name to protect his identity but this is what he had to say: AB: How did you develop an entrepreneurial spirit and what worries you about the future? Michael: For as...

For a few years now, I have been puzzled by why Rachel Held Evans remains popular among many younger evangelicals and why the secular media finds her credible. I was struck by Evans’ recent CNN article “Why Millennials Are Leaving The Church.” When reading the post it es evident that Evans is not talking about the “holy catholic church,” but a narrow subculture of conservative American evangelicals. The post does not address why young adults in America are leaving the...

Detroit is bankrupt. The city government can’t pay its bills. Scores of empty houses and garbage-strewn lots greet anyone who drives down once-bustling streets. There is a lot of finger-pointing, and no easy answers. There are a lot of pieces to the puzzle of what went wrong in Detroit. At The Wall Street Journal, Steve Malanga has a few puzzle pieces to add, and they form the face of former-Mayor Coleman Young. Young was Detroit’s mayor for 20 years (1974-1994),...