The Acton Institute alumni network is now over 8,000 people strong. This group spans many disciplines and contains many of the most influential leaders from those disciplines. Margarita Mooney is one of those influential people. pleted her undergraduate studies at Yale University and her doctorate at Princeton University. She is currently an Associate Professor of Practical Theological at Princeton Theological Seminary, and is an education entrepreneur. As the founder of Scala Foundation, she has built programming designed to strengthen classical...

On this week’s Acton Line podcast we hear about a church-based ministry that engages with the homeless and poor “relationally, responsibly, passionately.” James Whitford, executive director of Watered Gardens Gospel Rescue Mission in Joplin, Missouri, joins Acton’s Andrew Vanderput in a thought provoking conversation on private charity and the intensely personal nature of the organization’s outreach. In the second segment, Aquinas College economist David Hebert and Acton’s Tyler Groenendal dig into the public’s deep dissatisfaction with America’s political institutions –...

A federal court of appeals recently upheld the constitutionality of the ministerial housing allowance. The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago ruled unanimously that the sixty-five year old tax provision does not violate the First Amendment clause that prohibits government establishment of religion. The decision reversed a federal judge’s 2017 opinion that invalidated the allowance as a violation of the establishment clause. The court ruled the housing allowance is constitutional under two of the U.S. Supreme Court’s church-state precedents....

It’s not news that a college education costs a boatload today. But as we’ve all learned over the past week, the cost of a college education is much more – about $500,000 more over tuition, room, and board if you’re a TV celebrity like Lori Loughlin. Add $1 million bail and the possibility of prison time to boot. Some people will do anything for their kids, up to and including bribing school officials to admit their less than stellar students...

In response to the explosive growth of Christianity in China, the munist authorities have ramped up efforts to curb the trend—imprisoning Christians, shutting down churches and schools, and moving to release their own state-sanitized revision of the Bible. Last December, Early Rain Covenant Church in Chengdu became a target of such efforts, forced to shut its doors as an estimated 100 members were hauled away by state police. This included the pastor, Wang Yi, and his wife, Jiang Rong, both...

Pope Francis intelligently realizes that Christ, our model for winning the hearts and good will of others, was a tender listener who carefully and constantly invested his gentle concern and advice in others. The return on such investment paid off as the poor and suffering sinners who listened to him – and still do through his vicars on earth – were converted by the tender Lamb of God. Read More… On March 18, in a meeting with representatives from the...

What just happened? Earlier this month, at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), President Trump announced he would sign an executive order to promote free speech on college campuses.The president is set to sign to sign that executive order today, which he has vowed will require colleges to “support free speech” or face “very costly” penalties. What does this executive order do? The title of the executive order is “Improving Free Inquiry, Transparency, and Accountability at Colleges And Universities” with...

Note: This is post #115 in a weekly video series on basic economics. The “real” part of the real business cycle (RBC) refers to real shocks to an economy, specifically to supply shocks. As Tyler Cowen of Marginal Revolution University says, RBC is useful for plex supply shock, such as a sudden rise in oil prices. But it can also explain many of the economic downturns throughout human history. For instance, in ancient times when economies relied primarily on agriculture,...

Brazil was rocked last week by a deadly shootout in a high school in Suzano, a suburb of Sao Paolo. Two former students armed with a gun, crossbows and axes killed nine people and mitted suicide. Immediately, the media began another campaign against Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, leading people to believe that the massacre had something to do with his pro-gun policies. There is, of course, an elementary problem of logic in this argument: Bolsonaro assumed the presidency 63 days...

The latest Marvel film has done well at the box office, and for good reason. It is a solid entry in the MCU, and an introduction to a new character that promises to be central to the ongoing narrative arc following Avengers: Infinity War (some spoilers follow). There are quite a few notable themes in Captain Marvel, and I’ll highlight a couple here. First, we learn a fair amount more about the Kree, the civilization introduced in Guardians of the...