In the United States, it is considered scandalous when a partisan public official tries to deny a charity its tax-exempt status. But bination of EU and UK law forces British charities to pay £1.5 billion in taxes to the government every year – something a leading charitable coalition says that Brexit could change. A “clean Brexit,” the group says, could unleash the power of private philanthropy and create tens of thousands of jobs among nonprofits alone. EU regulations do not...

The election of 2016 highlighted how politically divided we are as a nation. But the dividing line may not be where we had assumed. For the past few decades the electorate has been viewed as divided almost equally between social and economic conservatives and social and economic liberals. But a recent study of voting patterns in the 2016 election reveals the old left-right divide is fractured and voters are clustered into four main groups. The first group prised of Liberals,...

“What life experiences would best prepare Jesus for his later public ministry,” ask Klaus Issler, “for his distinctive divine-human role as Messiah and Savior of the world?” We might think being born into a priest’s family would provide an excellent heritage for the Messiah, which was the life situation for Jesus’ cousin, John the Baptizer (Luke 1:5–17). Days could be devoted to studying Scripture, prayer and daily access to the temple precincts. Yet Jesus came into a layperson’s family, devoting...

“I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today,” was a catchphrase made famous by J. Wellington Wimpy, a character in ic strip Popeye. But it also describes, with slight modification, the attitude of crony panies to American taxpayers: “I’ll begrudgingly pay you in the future for services provided today.” A couple of week’s ago I wrote about the greatest crony capitalist deal in Wisconsin history. The state offered to Foxconn various government-granted privileges, a mix of different types reportedly...

Mark your calendars and register nowfor Acton Institute’s 27th annual dinner on October 18, held at the DeVos Place in Grand Rapids, Michigan. This year’s annual dinner will feature remarks from Acton Institute president Rev. Robert Sirico and special guest Betsy DeVos, the United States Secretary of Education. DeVos is a Grand Rapids native and a leading innovator and advocate in education. Before her confirmation, DeVos was a member of Acton Institute’s board of directors from 1995 to 2005, and...

Rev. Ben Johnson, senior editor at the Acton Institute, writes atCapXthat bishopsshould refrain from encouraging sin taxes. Recently in Poland, a letter written by bishop Tadeusz Bronakowski was read aloud in many Catholic churches, stating that the “state has a ‘responsibility’ to pass laws limiting alcohol’s ‘physical and economic availability,’ and to back them up with ‘ruthless enforcement.'” Johnson, however, asks bishops to take a look at historical records regarding sin taxes and reconsider their stance, because past and present...

In an article published at the Witherspoon Institute,Samuel Greggargues for the reaffirmation of Western civilization, its roots and its plishments. We need not be “faithful Jews or orthodox Christians to affirm Western civilization’s achievements,” but it is vital that we realize “these faiths’ indispensable role in the growth of Western culture,” he writes. Gregg explains that today there seems to be a trend to disparage the West, evidenced by current terrorism and even by attitudes in the West, “studiously ignoring...

A rally held in Charlottesville, Virginia this weekend ended in violence and domestic terrorism, as white nationalist groups clashed with counter-protestors. The Unite the Right rally was intended, as co-promoter Matthew Heimbach explains, to unite the alt-right around the “14 words”: “We must secure the existence of our people and the future for white children’—as our primary motivating factor.” The objectives of the alt-right movement are antithetical to the mission, values, and principles of the Acton Institute and other like-minded...

As economic prosperity continues to spread, and as the American pletes its transition into the age of information, manual labor is increasingly cast down in the popular imagination. When our youth navigate and graduate from high school, they receive a range of pressures to attend four-year colleges and pursue various “white-collar” careers, whether in finance or law or tech or the academy. Jobs that require physical labor, on the other hand, are not so high on the minds of parents,...

After suffering a string of thefts at his organic farm, Melvin Burns is making an unorthodox offer. He’s responding to robbery with kindness, offering the offender a job if he’ll just return the tools he needs to take care of his animals. Burns says burglars are targeting properties near his Moo Nay Farms in Cooks Brook, Nova Scotia, which has been robbed twice in as many months. Most recently, they stole $1,000 worth of tools, but in June they took...