Acton Commentary

Self-Discipline Today or Hardship Tomorrow

Acton Web — Wed, 16 Oct 2013 17:29:38 +0000

by Dylan Pahman

In the Sayings of the Desert Fathers, a collection of wise stories and sayings from the first Christian monks, the following is attributed to one Abba Zeno: “Never lay a foundation on which you might sometime build yourself a cell.” This saying has at least two possible applications: 1) Do not start something you do not intend to see through.

Business and Society

Immigration and the Soul of America

Acton Web — Wed, 09 Oct 2013 14:52:40 +0000

by Elise Hilton

America was born from the Christian mission. This is not an article of faith or a pious wish. It’s historical fact. – Roman Catholic Archbishop José H. Gomez

Business and Society

Politics, Ideas, and the West

Acton Web — Wed, 02 Oct 2013 16:03:09 +0000

by Samuel Gregg

In 2008, the writer George Packer argued in a New Yorker article titled “The Fall of Conservatism” that the disarray then engulfing the Republican Party was actually symptomatic of deeper problems characterizing American conservative thought. Conservatism’s apparent meltdown in the United States, Packer suggested, partly flowed from fierce internal disagreements over issues ranging from foreign policy to government-spending levels. Yet the challenge facing conservatives went far beyond, Packer claimed, these explicit tensions.

Business and Society

The Purpose of Catholic Education and the Role of the State

Acton Web — Wed, 25 Sep 2013 14:59:44 +0000

by Christiaan Alting von Geusau

by Philip Booth

Catholic educational institutions should have three goals in order to be able to fulfil their primary mission to allow students to “encounter the living God who in Jesus Christ reveals his transforming love and truth” (Pope Benedict XVI). These objectives are: to provide an environment in which students are enabled to build and deepen their relationship with God; to foster an academic culture aimed at the pursuit of truth; and to actively promote growth in virtue.

Educational Choice

The Social Responsibility of Business

Acton Web — Wed, 18 Sep 2013 16:50:59 +0000

by Robert G. Kennedy

In 1946, Congress enacted changes in the tax code that permitted publicly held business corporations to deduct charitable donations in amounts up to 5 percent of their federal taxable income. Congress, of course, did not require companies to make charitable donations, but it did encourage them to do so. The legislation became one more landmark in a running controversy about corporate social responsibility.

Business and Society

Federal Student Loans: A Problem of Subsidiarity

Acton Web — Wed, 11 Sep 2013 15:33:38 +0000

by Dylan Pahman

Ever see one of those used car ads that says, “Bad credit? Drive today!” The implication being that the dealer will happily arrange a loan regardless of the borrower’s credit history. For years now, the federal government has been running a similar scheme: “Poor student? Go to college anyway!” While this campaign has had better intentions behind it, it is no less of a problem. In the field of higher education, the federal government has usurped the roles of families, private organizations, and markets, with negative moral and economic consequences.

Business and Society

The ‘Cowboy Compassion’ of the Cartwrights

Acton Web — Wed, 04 Sep 2013 14:47:26 +0000

by Jordan Ballor

True Christian charity means getting into the trenches with others, getting down and dirty with them if need be. But what might that look like?

Like many Americans, I appreciate a good Western. One of my favorite shows is Have Gun-Will Travel. The lead character, Paladin, is like a one-man A-Team. He’s smarter, stronger, and quicker on the draw than any bad guys. Another of my favorites is Bonanza. Ben Cartwright and his three sons admirably carve out a life of meaning and integrity on their Nevada ranch, the Ponderosa.

Business and Society

Working Harder and Smarter: What Ashton Kutcher and Mike Rowe Have to Teach Us

Acton Web — Wed, 28 Aug 2013 13:56:59 +0000

by Jordan Ballor

As the American economy sputters along in the wake of the Great Recession, younger generations are increasingly questioning the wisdom about work and success inherited from their parents and grandparents.

Business and Society

Obamacare Reset: A Free Market Vision for Health Care Reform

Acton Web — Wed, 21 Aug 2013 15:32:02 +0000

by Nick Pandelidis

We are now three years into health care “reform” and it is crystal clear that what we have is no reform at all. As we are seeing, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as is typical of so many government program names, will result in just the opposite outcome. PPACA is unaffordable, it will harm patients, and it will do incalculable damage to human dignity.

Business and Society

Our American Story: Divorce, Denial and the Death of God

Acton Web — Wed, 14 Aug 2013 16:25:59 +0000

by Elise Hilton

On Christmas Eve 2011, I opened our front door to find one of my teenage daughter’s friends, sobbing. Her parents had divorced months before, and her dad wasn’t around. Her mother started bringing men home regularly to spend the night. The girl told her mom that having the men around made her feel uncomfortable. Her mom kicked her out of the house. On Christmas Eve.

Business and Society

Disability, Service, and Stewardship

Acton Web — Wed, 07 Aug 2013 15:29:22 +0000

by Jordan Ballor

There’s a dangerous tendency in America today to view disabilities of various kinds as insuperable barriers to productive and loving service. There is often an implicit, and sometimes explicit, disrespect of a basic feature of human dignity in the treatment of those with disabilities as merely passive recipients of government aid, the objects of public pity. The reality is that each one of us, created in the image of God, has the capacity to be a productive steward of some kind, and this reality has the potential to reshape our personal perspectives as well as our public policy.

Effective Compassion

It's Time to Privatize the Detroit Institute of Arts

Acton Web — Wed, 31 Jul 2013 04:00:00 +0000

by Jordan Ballor

Business and Society

Two Popes, But One Faith

Acton Web — Wed, 24 Jul 2013 15:24:43 +0000

by Samuel Gregg

Following Jorge Mario Bergoglio’s election as pope in March, it was inevitable that comparisons would continually be made between him and his still-living predecessor. There’s been particular focus, for instance, upon the two popes’ different liturgical styles.

Business and Society

Memo to Tinseltown

Acton Web — Wed, 17 Jul 2013 14:28:49 +0000

by Jonathan Witt

Iron Man 3 and The Lone Ranger are recent Hollywood films—which is to say, major capitalist undertakings—that feature one of Hollywood’s favorite stereotypes: evil capitalists. In Iron Man 3, (spoiler alert) the real arch villain turns out to be the evil techno-capitalist, not the Middle-Eastern terrorist. And in The Lone Ranger, the capitalist villain behaves like your average captain of industry: he wipes out an Indian tribe for silver and shoots a fellow businessman in cold blood as part of a hostile takeover.

Business and Society

Made to Trade

Acton Web — Wed, 10 Jul 2013 16:21:12 +0000

by Jordan Ballor

Something as mundane as a peanut butter and jelly sandwich has something profound to teach us about the social nature of the human person. We were, to put it bluntly, made to trade.

Business and Society

Charles Carroll: A Tea Party Thomist

Acton Web — Tue, 02 Jul 2013 13:39:26 +0000

by Samuel Gregg

On October 15, 1774, the ship Peggy Stewart owned by the Annapolis mercantile company of Dick and Stewart sailed into the harbor of Annapolis in the colony of Maryland, carrying with it a cargo of tea. On arriving, the ship’s owner paid the tax then applied by Britain to importations of tea to its American colonies in accordance with the Tea Act of May 1773.

Business and Society

Can America Remain the Land of Religious Liberty?

Acton Web — Wed, 26 Jun 2013 15:47:52 +0000

by Ray Nothstine

Independence Day reminds us that there is no greater offering America gives to the world than its example of and contributions to religious liberty. The American Revolution elevated self-government, the importance of virtue, and a liberal religious freedom. Today, secularism and centralized power threaten these principles.

Business and Society

Pope Francis on the True Meaning of Poverty

Acton Web — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 13:00:47 +0000

by Samuel Gregg

“How I long for a poor Church for the poor!”

With these words spoken after being elected pope, Jorge Bergoglio underscored a theme that continues to be front-and-center of his papacy. Not surprisingly, many have concluded such statements demonstrate that Pope Francis wants Catholics to devote greater attention to poverty-alleviation. In one sense, this is true. Yet it’s also an interpretation that misses the deeper meaning Francis attaches to poverty.

Business and Society

The Progressive Captivity of Orthodox Churches in America

Acton Web — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 15:40:59 +0000

by Johannes Jacobse

Most Christians who are received into the Eastern Orthodox Church as adults do so for the same reasons that others embrace the Roman Catholic Church: They are tired of the moral relativism or the shallow theological traditions of their former communions. These great historical Churches offer an oasis of clarity where the first questions are settled and the foundations do not have to be laid again in every generation. At least that’s the idea.

Business and Society

Pope Francis and Liberation Theology

Acton Web — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 14:42:17 +0000

by Samuel Gregg

So is Pope Francis a closet liberation theologian, or someone with strong sympathies for the school of thought? It’s a question that’s been raised many times since Jorge Mario Bergoglio’s election to the papacy in March. Most recently, the New York Times weighed in on the subject.

Business and Society

A Heart for the Poor -- and a Mind for Economics

Acton Web — Wed, 29 May 2013 15:53:32 +0000

by R.J. Moeller

And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” -- Luke 10:27

Effective Compassion

Recruiting for Big Government: Food Stamps Run Amok

Acton Web — Wed, 22 May 2013 14:40:07 +0000

by Elise Hilton

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is the federal government's "food stamp" program. Despite indications that the national economy is showing signs of revival, SNAP usage is at an all-time high:

Business and Society

Conservatives and the Non-Triumph of Capitalism

Acton Web — Wed, 15 May 2013 16:23:06 +0000

by Samuel Gregg

In recent contributions to First Things, theologian R.R. Reno and legal scholar Robert T. Miller have debated several questions concerning conservatism, capitalism, and the government’s economic role. Obviously the discussion is complicated by the inexactitude of words like “conservative” and “capitalism.” But fundamentally, their debates address the present-day scope of economic freedom in America and throughout the world.

Business and Society

Gift, Gratitude, and the Grace of Stewardship

Acton Web — Wed, 08 May 2013 14:13:40 +0000

by Jordan Ballor

There’s a misunderstanding of the nature of gifts and giving that is pervasive in our contemporary culture and even in our churches. It’s the idea that a gift, by its very nature, requires no response from the recipient. For a gift to truly be a gift, the reasoning goes, it must be entirely and radically gratuitous, which in turn means that the recipient must be entirely passive. If any response is required, then it isn’t truly a gift.

Business and Society

Young, Entrepreneurial, and Pursuing Good Art in Hollywood

Acton Web — Wed, 01 May 2013 16:00:12 +0000

by R.J. Moeller

My argument would be that I don't think there is much that's genuinely political art that is good art.

-- Thom Yorke, lead singer of the rock band Radiohead

Ostensibly, I moved to Los Angeles a year ago to work for author and radio show host Dennis Prager. But the real reason I’m here stems from a much deeper, more subversive part of my id. (Or perhaps my inflated ego?)

Business and Society

Christianity, the Environment, and Modern Gnostics

Acton Web — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 14:49:00 +0000

by Matthea Brandenburg

Father Kindiy

Environmental Stewardship

Veritatis Splendor: The Encyclical that Mattered

Acton Web — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 15:48:52 +0000

by Samuel Gregg

There are papal encyclicals, and then there are papal encyclicals. Some escape public attention almost from the moment they’re promulgated. Others continue reverberating inside the Church decades after they appear. But there’s also a third type of encyclical: those which assume truly civilizational significance.

Business and Society

Crime and the Nanny State

Acton Web — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 14:56:10 +0000

by Jonathan Witt

Against the backdrop of sluggish growth and high unemployment, one bright spot has been declining crime rates, with levels in the United States now about half what they were 20 years ago. This gradual decline holds true even in the perennially high-risk demographic of young men, suggesting it isn’t merely a knock-on effect of an aging population. That’s the good news.

The bad news is that current government policies may reverse this downward trend.

Business and Society

Buying Off Discontent: The Economic Wreckage of Disability Benefits in America

Acton Web — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 17:24:18 +0000

by Elise Hilton

You lose the factory job you’ve had since high school due to cut-backs. When the unemployment runs out, the only jobs around for high school graduates are fast food joints and entry-level work – a huge pay cut. You discover you can make nearly as much money on disability.

Business and Society

Not Quite Alone in the Wilderness

Acton Web — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 16:55:24 +0000

by Jordan Ballor

One of the more intriguing shows that PBS runs occasionally (especially during its pledge drives) is the documentary Alone in the Wilderness, which chronicles the exploits of Dick Proenneke, who retired in 1967 to Twin Lakes, Alaska. In this remote location Proenneke builds a cabin by hand, and the documentary captures his labors with a variety of hand tools and resources taken from the surrounding countryside.

Environmental Stewardship

Acton Commentary

Self-Discipline Today or Hardship Tomorrow

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Immigration and the Soul of America

Politics, Ideas, and the West

The Purpose of Catholic Education and the Role of the State

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The Social Responsibility of Business

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Federal Student Loans: A Problem of Subsidiarity

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The ‘Cowboy Compassion’ of the Cartwrights

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Working Harder and Smarter: What Ashton Kutcher and Mike Rowe Have to Teach Us

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Obamacare Reset: A Free Market Vision for Health Care Reform

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Our American Story: Divorce, Denial and the Death of God

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Disability, Service, and Stewardship

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It's Time to Privatize the Detroit Institute of Arts

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Two Popes, But One Faith

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Memo to Tinseltown

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Made to Trade

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Charles Carroll: A Tea Party Thomist

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Can America Remain the Land of Religious Liberty?

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Pope Francis on the True Meaning of Poverty

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The Progressive Captivity of Orthodox Churches in America

Pope Francis and Liberation Theology

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A Heart for the Poor -- and a Mind for Economics

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Recruiting for Big Government: Food Stamps Run Amok

Conservatives and the Non-Triumph of Capitalism

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Gift, Gratitude, and the Grace of Stewardship

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Young, Entrepreneurial, and Pursuing Good Art in Hollywood

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Christianity, the Environment, and Modern Gnostics

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Veritatis Splendor: The Encyclical that Mattered

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Crime and the Nanny State

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Buying Off Discontent: The Economic Wreckage of Disability Benefits in America

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Not Quite Alone in the Wilderness

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