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Taking a stand: An interview with Governor Mark Sanford
You’ve taken a very principled approach in working for smaller government, lower taxes, individual liberty, and, for fostering a culture of personal responsibility. Those principles are taking a battering in Washington today. Can anything turn the tide?The envy trap
It is one of the great puzzles, true throughout all human history, that during an economic downturn, people turn on the rich. They call for them to be taxed, harassed, beaten, and jailed. Because they have money when others are losing money, envy is unleashed and encouraged by the political establishment. It amounts to a kind of lashing out at the most conspicuous target, even though doing so won’t actually accomplish anything.Busting a pop culture illusion
For the past several decades, American popular culture has frequently promulgated an idea central to modern liberalism: the idea of a life without limits, that we can have everything we want with out having to make hard choices. That assumption is especially evident in Walt Disney movies, and not only in recent ones. Fortunately, the makers of some pop culture products see the absurdity and danger of that notion.Spiritual enterprise: Doing virtuous business
With the onset of the financial crisis and economic downturn, there has been a lot of discussion about the future of the free economy in this country. Scandal and corruption among executives and financial institutions has of course played a significant part in fueling the discussion. While paying tribute to the free economy and the wealth it has created, Theodore Roosevelt Malloch also looks to reinforce and renew the foundations of virtuous business in Spiritual Enterprise.Power and corruption in Catholic Boston
Lord Acton’s quotation concerning the corrupting effect of power is widely known. Less so is the fact that the target of his criticism on that particular occasion was the power possessed not by government but by church officials. Acton’s understanding of ecclesiastical authority (as distinct from power) is debatable, but his insight into human nature is not. A case study—not that we need another to file away in the vast archives of the history of human frailty—is the collapse of the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston.Why did The Acton Institute develop the 'Effective Stewardship Curriculum'?
One of the best ways to reach people of faith is in their places of worship and church communities. Church and lay leaders of many different Christian traditions are often looking for quality and affordable curriculum materials that can equip their own members to act and think biblically about important social issues such as care of creation, poverty relief, financial stewardship, and giving.Eliot, Kirk and the moral imagination
The following is adapted from a speech on the occasion of the republication of Russell Kirk's Eliot and His Age, given to the Intercollegiate Studies Institute student group at Central Michigan University in September 2008.Double-edged sword: Psalm 94:14,15
For the LORD will not cast off his people, neither will he forsake his inheritance. But judgment shall return unto righteousness: and all the upright in heart shall follow it.Alexander Solzhenitsyn
One word of truth shall outweigh the whole world.Debating the depression: An interview with Amity Shlaes
Your book, The Forgotten Man, has played a major role in challenging the consensus about the New Deal that prevails in the acad- emy and in popular culture. I'm interested in what motivated you to write the book.
Why is the Acton Institute partnering with the Stewardship Council?
Following the successful production of Acton Institute’s Effective Stewardshipcurriculum, and with an eye to the launch of Zondervan’s NIV Stewardship Biblein the fall of 2009, we have formed a close partnership with the Stewardship Council, a five-year-old nonprofit that was established as an outreach to the broader evangelical community. The Stewardship Council is a natural partner for the work that Acton has been doing now for almost twenty years.'Money, Greed, and God'
The belief that the essence of capitalism is greed is perhaps the biggest myth Jay W. Richards tackles in his new book, Money, Greed, and God: Why Capitalism is the Solution and not the Problem. One reason for confronting this challenge is that many freemarket advocates subscribe to the thought that capitalism produces greed, and for them that’s not necessarily a negative. But for those with a faith perspective, greed and covetousness are, of course, serious moral flaws.