Acton Line

Religious freedom is a bitterly contested issue that spills over into political, public, and online spheres. It's an issue that's becoming ever more heated, and neither of the global political polarities is interested in protecting it. While the political left is openly hostile toward traditional religion, the political right seeks to weaponize it.How can we ensure that "religious freedom" is truly about freedom of one's religion rather than serving an ethno-nationalist agenda?In Religious Freedom in a Secular Age, New Testament scholar and author of “Evangelical Theology” Michael Bird has four main goals: To explain the true nature of secularism and help us to see it as one of the best ways of promoting liberty and mutual respect in a multifaith world. To dismantle the arguments for limiting religious freedom. To outline a biblical strategy for maintaining a Christian witness in a post-Christian society. To encourage Christians to participate in a new age of apologetics by being prepared to defend not only their own believes but also the freedom of all faiths. While Bird does address the recent political administrations in the US, his focus is global. Bird—who lives in Melbourne, Australia—freely admits to his anxiety of the militant secularism surrounding him, but he also strongly critiques the marriage of national and religious identities that has gained ground in countries like Hungary and Poland.The fact is that religion has a lot to contribute to the common good. Religious Freedom in a Secular Age will challenge readers of all backgrounds and beliefs not only to make room for peaceable difference, but also to find common ground on the values of justice, mercy, and equality.Subscribe to our podcastsApply Now for Acton UniversityReligious Freedom in a Secular Age | Amazon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Should businesses allow their employees to work remotely? Almost all employers and employees have wrestled with this question. More and more job-seekers are expecting remote-work flexibility, and COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns greatly accelerated this trend. But are employees really as productive working from home? Does remote work hurt company culture? Or could hybrid or remote options make businesses more successful? David Bahnsen, Founder of the Bahnsen Group, argues that remote work should be minimized. Dr. Raj Choudhury, remote work expert at Harvard Business School, argues that businesses should embrace hybrid and remote options. This debate took place as a part of the 2023 Business Matters conference.Subscribe to our podcastsApply Now for Acton University 2023 (Early Bird Pricing) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When people think of interactions between the police and the public these days, for many, the first thoughts that come to mind are of horrific incidents like the deaths of George Floyd or Brianna Taylor. Here in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where the Acton Institute is headquartered, a police officer is currently awaiting trial in the shooting death of 26-year old Patrick Lyoya. These incidents, and the rifts they have created between members of the community and members of law enforcement, highlight some of the challenges of modern policing. How can we bridge the divide between the police, who serve and important and necessary function in our society, and the public, to whom they are ultimately responsible.Enter iCI Nation, an organization based here in Grand Rapids that brings communities together by uniting citizens, law enforcement & community organizations to foster a healthy environment for community to build trust with law enforcement. iCI is lead by founder and executive director Jennifer Franson, who in just two years has facilitated over 100 connections with law enforcement and community building new relationships and trust.  This momentum has continued to snowball as her membership has quadrupled in size and now has the FBI coming to her to ask for help building relationships with their community.Today, Eric Kohn talks with Jenn Franson about her work, the challenges facing local law enforcement and the communities they serve, and how those obstacles to more meaningful connections between the police and the public can be overcome.Subscribe to our podcastsRegister Now for Business Matters 2023Apply Now for Acton University 2023 (Early Bird Pricing)iCI Nation Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“The feminine genius,” a term coined by Pope St. John Paul II, has become something of a buzzword in the Catholic world. But has the fullness of femininity been exhausted? In a new collection of seventeen essays entitled With All Her Mind: A Call to the Intellectual Life, written by Catholic women of diverse backgrounds and vocations, you will find a call to pursue what is too often excluded from our picture of femininity: the intellectual life. Following Mary, the “Seat of Wisdom,” who “treasured” the words of the shepherds and “pondered them in her heart,” With All Her Mind shows how the feminine genius involves both affectivity and active intellectual engagement. With practical advice and personal testimonies and featuring a foreword by celebrated scholar Tracey Rowland, this collection opens readers to the endlessly unique ways for a woman to follow the first and greatest commandment: to love the Lord with all her soul, with all her heart, and with all her mind.In this episode, Acton’s research project coordinator Sarah Negri, is joined by guests Dr. Jennifer Frey and Amanda Achtman, two of the seventeen contributors to With All Her Mind. They discuss the importance of having an intellectual life both as women and as human beings in general, touching on such topics as the value of contemplation for both intellectual and spiritual formation, the integrity of the human person, leisure and work in the academic realm, the nature of a liberal education and interior freedom.Subscribe to our podcastsRegister Now for Business Matters 2023Apply Now for Acton University 2023 (Early Bird Pricing)About Jennifer FreyAbout Amanda AchtmanWith All Her Mind: A Call to the Intellectual Life (Ed: Rachel Bulman)Leisure: The Basis of Culture (Josef Pieper)Waiting for God (Simone Weil)The Spirit of the Liturgy (Romano Guardini)Tertio Millenio Seminar on the Free SocietyChristian philosopher takes helm of new Oklahoma Honors College dedicated to the classics“Canada’s Orwellian Euthanasia Regime” (Amanda Achtman) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In March 2021, Winston Marshall was the banjo player and guitarist for Mumford & Sons, the highly popular and award-winning folk rock ensemble. That same month, Marshall shared a seemingly innocuous tweet offering praise for guerrilla journalist Andy Ngo, and his book “Unmasked: Inside Antifa's Radical Plan to Destroy Democracy.” “Congratulations Andy Ngo. Finally had time to read your important book. You’re a brave man.”As is the common story with Twitter, a firestorm ensued, with Marshall facing a swarm of criticism for the tweet, prompting Marshall, under pressure, to issue an apology. But Marshall later reconsidered the propriety of that apology, penning an essay on Medium defending his praise for Ngo and his book, and announcing he was leaving his band.Since then Marshall has launched a podcast, Marshall Matters, and written for outlets such as Bari Weiss’s Common Sense, a precursor to her current The Free Press publication, on issues relating to freedom of speech and expression in the arts and beyond. Marshall also credits his Christianity for helping to sustain him through this incident and other rocky paths in his life. Marshall also helps run Hong Kong Link-Up, which helps to connect Hong Kongers newly arriving in London with people who can help them get settled in a new country. Today, Eric Kohn speak with Winston Marshall about the climate of free speech and free expression in music and the arts, his life and music, his support for the people of Hong Kong in their struggle for human freedom, and more.Subscribe to our podcastsRegister Now for Business Matters 2023Apply Now for Acton University 2023 (Early Bird Pricing)@winstonmarshall Linktree Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If money is the mother’s milk of politics, then rhetoric is its currency. And few political characters of the late 20th century had a sharper wit than former New York City Mayor Ed Koch.Consider this gem from Koch: “If you agree with me on nine out of 12 issues, vote for me. If you agree with me on 12 out of 12 issues, see a psychiatrist.”Over this career in politics, Koch found himself sparring with numerous people, politicians and celebrities and even, occasionally, the voters. To be sure, Koch saw this as part and parcel of his role as a political and an elected official. As he said, “You punch me, I punch back. I do not believe it's good for one's self-respect to be a punching bag.”But Koch also saw his role in picking political fights as having a larger purpose than his own political advantage: he was a stalwart defender of the Jewish people and the state of Israel, and a tireless booster of New York City.In a new essay in the February 2023 issue of Commentary Magazine, Tevi Troy looks at five battles Koch picked and the bigger reasons for them. In conclusion, Troy finds Koch “was, at his best, a happy warrior.”In this episode, Eric Kohn, Acton’s Director of Marketing & Communications, speaks with Tevi Troy, a visiting fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, about Ed Koch’s life, legacy, and the lessons we can learn from him on what battles to pick for greater causes and why.Subscribe to our podcastsRegister Now for Business Matters 2023Apply Now for Acton University 2023 (Early Bird Pricing)Ed Koch, Ten Years Gone | Commentary Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Since debuting in the New York Times Magazine on August 14, 2019, the 1619 Project has ignited a debate about American history, the founding of the country, and the legacy emanating from the nation’s history with chattel slavery.The project’s creator and editor, Nikole Hannah-Jones, has described the project as seeking to place “the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of our national narrative.” Components of a related school curriculum have been adopted in major cities like Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Buffalo, New York.For her work on the project, Hannah-Jones was awarded the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary. A book collecting all the essays debuted at number one on the New York Times non-fiction bestseller list in November 2021. Now, the 1619 Project has been reimagined as a television docuseries from Lionsgate and Hulu.But the project has also come in for heavy criticism from historians and economists of all political and philosophical persuasions for inaccuracies in “matters of verifiable fact” in history and economics. In response to these critics, Hannah-Jones has declared the project not a work history, but instead a work of journalism.One of the project’s most frequent critics is Phil Magness, Senior Research Fellow at the American Institute for Economic Research.In this episode, which is a rebroadcast of an interview from August 2020, I talk with Phil Magness about the objectives of the 1619 Project, the economic history of slavery, the project’s historical errors, and why many Americans seem to have such a difficult time accepting the complicated totality of our own history.Subscribe to our podcastsRegister Now for Business Matters 2023Apply Now for Acton University 2023 (Early Bird Pricing) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Colin Duff, a co-founder and head of operations at Styx Golf, delivers a speech on how to align company culture with the human experience to create a compelling vision for employees. He stresses the significance of identifying a gap in the market and developing a unique value proposition, as Styx Golf did by providing high-quality minimalist designed golf gear at a reasonable cost. Additionally, he highlights the importance of being attentive to customer feedback and making updates to the product, as the company did with their new version launch in April 2021. He also stresses the need for a defined and compelling company culture that prioritizes employee well-being and supports the company's growth goals. He emphasizes the importance of transparency, authenticity and shared responsibility to foster an environment where employees can flourish.Subscribe to our podcastsRegister Now for Business Matters 2023Apply Now for Acton University 2023 (Early Bird Pricing) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In their own time, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Russell Kirk occupied different ends of the political spectrum. Their philosophies inspired the two most powerful movements of the age: the Nonviolent Movement (which led the larger Civil Rights Movement) and the modern Conservative Movement. Without King and Kirk modern American Social Justice liberalism and modern American conservatism as we know them would not exist. And yet, for all of their differences, our modern politics suffer because contemporary liberalism and conservatism lack the grounding in virtues, communitarian values and faith in an ordered universe that both Kingian Nonviolence and Kirkian Conservatism held fast to. Is it possible that by reacquainting ourselves with these lost traditions we could summon the better angels of left and right and restore a politics of virtue for the modern age?In this episode, Eric Kohn, Acton’s Director of Marketing & Communications, talks with John Wood, Jr., National Ambassador for Braver Angels about the overlap in first principles between Dr. King and Russell Kirk and reducing partisan polarization in our divisive times.Subscribe to our podcastsRegister Now for Business Matters 2023Apply Now for Acton University 2023 (Early Bird Pricing)Braver Angels Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI—scholar, teacher, theologian, prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, and finally supreme pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church until his resignation in 2013—died on December 31, 2022, at the age 95. Whether the subject was Islam, ecumenism, the rise and decline of the West, or simply "Who is Jesus Christ?,” Benedict opened up discussions once considered taboo and caused even hardened secularists to rethink some of their positions.  For today’s episode of Acton Line, in remembrance of Pope Benedict XVI’s life and legacy, we’re airing a lecture from Sam Gregg, currently senior research fellow at the American Institute for Economic Research, illustrating how much the pope changed the focus of Christian engagement by addressing political, social, and economic issues.  Subscribe to our podcastsRegister Now for Business Matters 2023Apply Now for Acton University 2023 (Early Bird Pricing)Pope Benedict XVI: 1927-2022 | Joshua Gregor, Acton InstituteFaith and Reason in the Life and Work of Benedict XVI | Kevin Duffy, Acton Institute Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.