Dolphus Weary grew up in segregated Mississippi and then moved to California to attend school in 1967. He is one of the first black graduates of Los Angeles Baptist College. He returned to Mississippi to lead Mendenhall Ministries, a Christ-centered community outreach organization that takes a holistic approach to solving problems of poverty. Currently, Dolphus Weary is president of R.E.A.L. Christian Foundation in Richland, Miss., which strives to empower and develop rural ministries to improve the lives of Mississippians. Among his academic degrees, Dolphus Weary has received a Doctor of Ministry (D.Min) from Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, Miss. He is a nationally sought speaker and writer and serves on numerous boards...

It is telling that the Washington Post report on the religious Left's Circle of Protection campaign for big government describes the effort as one that would "send chills through any politician who looks to churches and religious groups as a source of large voting blocs," because, in fact, this is not an honest faith-inspired campaign to protect the "least of these" from Draconian government cuts, as claimed. It is a hyper-political movement that offers up the moral authority of churches and aid organizations to advance the ends of the Obama administration and its allies in Congress.

The Circle of Protection, led by Jim Wallis and his George Soros-funded Sojourners group, is advancing a false narrative based on vague threats to the "most vulnerable" if we finally take the first tentative steps to fix our grave budget and debt...

The Acton Institute has long recognized the critical importance that first-rate scholarship plays in the development of "a free and virtuous society." The Journal of Markets & Morality is a peer-reviewed academic journal. The journal is the flagship publication with which the institute shapes the larger academic and intellectual conversation about the free economy.

The journal is truly interdisciplinary in an era where it can be very difficult to cover academic subjects from a variety of perspectives, and even more difficult to find those that actually are able to execute that intention effectively. So, the journal engages economic, political, historical, theological, and philosophical topics from scholars working out of their own disciplines. But it is not enough to leave these issues isolated from the critical perspectives of other methodologies...

But Ruth replied, "Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me."

These words from Ruth are perhaps among the most well-known passages in the Old Testament. The book of Ruth is a story about the redemption of God's people. It wonderfully contrasts the wisdom and ways of God with the wisdom of man. The book of Ruth takes place at the same time as the book of Judges. In Judges, "everybody did what is right in their own eyes." Ruth and the other central characters in that book do what is right in the eyes of God.

Ruth's mother-in-law, Naomi, is in despair, broken-hearted, and she...

"Oh for a revival throughout the Confederacy!" exclaimed the editor of the Macon (GA) Daily Telegraph in 1862. The paper was commenting on an outpouring of the Gospel throughout the town, while reporting on food shortages, ordinances, and the latest news from the front lines of the American Civil War. The war's second season was a reality check for many Southerners as the Federal blockade, inefficiencies of the Confederate government, and devastating casualties of Shiloh and Antietam dimmed the glow of many sunshine secessionists. Austerity fell upon Dixie, and fell hard, and in such times as in other places and in other conflicts, people turned to faith. Indeed revival would soon spread throughout the region; not in...

The weighty words Metropolitan Jonah offered during his keynote address at Acton University this year showed great spiritual depth and provided blessings that flowed from a deep love of Christ. His words were inspirational for many attendees. Metropolitan Jonah is perhaps the most visible and quoted bishop in the history of the Orthodox Church in America. We are thankful for that because all Christians and Christian traditions stand to benefit from the Metropolitan's voice. In his Summer 2011 Religion & Liberty interview, he discusses asceticism and the consumer society. The interview reflects a holy individual with a authentic monastic ethic who is not afraid to engage the culture. This year kicks off the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War. Many readers will have noticed pieces in major newspapers reassessing the conflict. Very little about faith has been...

Consumerism is not simply the state of being well off, it is the spiritual disposition of being controlled by what one consumes, of living in order to consume, of living in order to have things. This, of course, is a great spiritual danger for rich and poor alike.

Father Richard John Neuhaus sought to remind people that they are, at their essence, a child of God. Neuhaus, who was born in Pembroke, Ontario, Canada, was the son of a Lutheran minister. Ordained a Lutheran minister himself in 1960, he was active in the American civil rights movement, counting Martin Luther King, Jr. as a friend. His initial parishes as a Lutheran were in the poor black and Hispanic areas of Brooklyn. He never accepted the Great Society...