Acton Line

Today’s episode is a rebroadcast that originally aired in March of 2019, but holds incredible relevance to conversations we’re still having today.This conversation with Tim Carney, editor at the Washington Examiner and a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, explores the subject matter of his 2019 book, “Alienated America: Why Some Places Thrive While Others Collapse." To the extent that the "American Dream" is fading away in parts of the country, the problem isn't pure economics. Nor is it a case of stubborn old white men falling behind because they refuse embrace progress. Carney argues that the root cause of our problems – crumbling families, despair, and political dysfunction – is the erosion of community and local, civil institutions, most especially church. The result of a secularizing country is a plague of alienation for the working class, as people struggle to build families and improve their lives without the support structure they need.Alienated America: Why Some Places Thrive While Others Collapse - Tim CarneyVideo: Tim Carney On The Threat To Liberty From Big BusinessMore churches, more flourishing: The secret to success in middle America - Joseph SundeLyman Stone on the decline of religiosity in the United States - Acton LineSubscribe to Acton Institute Events podcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It’s been a challenging year.A global pandemic, violent unrest in the streets of major American cities, and a divisive presidential election have all challenged us in different ways, testing the strength of civil society and institutions at both the local and national levelThroughout the year, Acton’s president and co-founder, Rev. Robert Sirico, has offered commentary on these events as they unfolded.Now, at the end of the year, Rev. Sirico reflects on the year as it comes to a close, to see how we handled the unique trials we encountered in our public life in 2020, and how the principles articulated by the Acton Institute guided us through these trying times and will continue to provide a mechanism for gaining understanding and perspective on our world in 2021.Rev. Robert Sirico's COVID-19 commentariesRev. Robert Sirico on the Grand Rapids riots Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Social capital – the capacity of people to cooperate towards common aims – is an indispensable element of a free and prosperous society yet many studies demonstrate that it has been steadily eroded in recent decades.Social pathologies such as the breakdown of the family, addiction, and deaths of despair are strongly correlated with weakening social ties and norms. The decline in social capital has had devastating real world consequences.In this episode, Acton’s Dan Hugger talks with Maryann and Barry Keating, authors of the new book Rebuilding Social Capital, about the idea of social capital, its erosion, how economics and Catholic Social Teaching help to clarify the concept, and what their new research suggests is the path forward to rebuilding social capital.Rebuilding Social Capital at Acton Book Shop - Maryann & Barry KeatingExcerpt from Rebuilding Social Capital - Maryann & Barry KeatingCentesimus annus Gaudium et Spes Mater et Magistra‘Values of Americans: A Study of Ethics and Character, Harris Interactive Report Produces by Boy Scouts of America Youth and Family Research Center’‘4-H Experiences Contributing to Leadership and Personal Development of 4-H Alumni’‘From Mutual Aid to Welfare State: How Fraternal Societies Fought Poverty and Taught Character’ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we’re bringing you another conversation from our recent Poverty Cure Summit.The Poverty Cure Summit provided an opportunity for participants to listen to scholars, human service providers, and practitioners address the most critical issues we face today which can either exacerbate or alleviate poverty. These speakers discussed the legal, economic, social, and technological issues pertaining to both domestic and global poverty. Rooted in foundational principles of anthropology, politics, natural law, and economics, participants had the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the root causes of poverty and identify practical means to reduce it and promote human flourishing.In this conversation, moderator Al Kresta talks with Baroness Philippa Stroud, CEO of the Legatum Institute, and Anne Rathbone Bradley, the George and Sally Mayer Fellow for Economic Education and the academic director at The Fund for American Studies, about poverty and the COVID-19 pandemic. For decades, the number of individuals living in extreme poverty across the globe has fallen. Yet last month, the World Bank reported that COVID-19 could add approximately 100 million people to the ranks of those in extreme poverty by the end of 2020. The panelists examine how the pandemic has impacted poverty reduction efforts and how the marketplace has responded to the pandemic.Baroness Philippa Stroud - Legatum InstituteAnne Bradley - The Fund for American StudiesPoverty Cure Summit - Access now on-demand for only $19How to rebuild the economy after COVID-19 - Richard TurnbullA free-market agenda for rebuilding from the coronavirus - Henrik RasmussenSubscribe to Acton Institute Events podcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On December 2nd, 2020, the economist Walter E. Williams passed away at the age of 84.Williams worked his way out of grinding poverty in the Philadelphia housing projects to chair George Mason University’s economics department. Over his career he authored 10 books and more than 150 other publications, and become one of the most recognized commentators on our American public life of the last four decades. Williams spread his message of racial equality, the dignity of work, and the morality of capitalism through his syndicated newspaper column, PBS documentaries, and frequent radio and TV appearances.In this episode, we feature a conversation with Dr. Williams from 2014 for the Acton Institute’s podcast, then called Radio Free Acton. Host Paul Edwards discusses with Williams the significance of Frederic Bastiat’s classic publication The Law, and the insights into modern America that come from reading that classic defense of limited government, authentic justice and human freedom. At that time, Williams had just penned a new introduction to The Law, which he said “created order in my thinking about liberty and just human conduct.”Walter Williams, RIP - Rev. Ben JohnsonTen quotes from economist Walter E. Williams - Sarah StanleyOn liberty's moral superiority (Walter Williams interview in Religion & Liberty)Subscribe to Acton Institute Events podcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Common Grace is both a theological doctrine within the reformed tradition and the title of a truly monumental book discussing the doctrine by the theologian and statesmen Abraham Kuyper. It is grace from God that is common to all of mankind distinct from both the special grace by which God redeems, sanctifies, and glorifies his people as well as the gift of creation itself.Kuyper puts it this way, “Common grace issues from God, and from God come all the means that we humans must apply to oppose sin and its consequences in curse and misery.”But it is God himself who leads us to find the means and instructs us how to use them. And it is precisely the latter that is forgotten. The human inventor of the electric light and electric motor is extolled, but God, who led Edison to discover it, is passed over.Today, Acton’s Dan Hugger talks with Jordan Ballor, senior research fellow and director of publishing at the Acton Institute and General Editor of the twelve volume Abraham Kuyper: Collected Works in Public Theology, about Kuyper’s exploration of the doctrine in his monumental work Common Grace. The third and final volume of this work, jointly published by Lexham Press and the Acton Institute, has recently been published in English translation.Jordan J. Ballor, PhD at Acton InstituteCommon Grace: God's Gifts for a Fallen World, Volume 3The Abraham Kuyper CollectionSubscribe to Acton Institute Events podcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For this week’s episode, we’re bringing you a conversation that was a part of Acton’s recent Poverty Cure Summit.The Poverty Cure Summit provided an opportunity for participants to listen to scholars, human service providers, and practitioners address the most critical issues we face today which can either exacerbate or alleviate poverty. These speakers discussed the legal, economic, social, and technological issues pertaining to both domestic and global poverty. Rooted in foundational principles of anthropology, politics, natural law, and economics, participants had the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the root causes of poverty and identify practical means to reduce it and promote human flourishing.In this conversation, Acton’s Michael Matheson Miller spoke with Ismael Hernandez (executive director of The Freedom & Virtue Institute) and Peter Greer (president & CEO of HOPE International) to examine the challenge of poverty in the US and internationally, and the most effective ways to think about poverty in light of the transcendent dignity of the human person. Poverty Cure SummitIsmael Hernandez - The Freedom & Virtue InstitutePeter Greer - HOPE InternationalSubscribe to Acton Institute Events podcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In 1958, in the wake of the Soviet Union launching Sputnik 1 – the world’s first artificial satellite – into space, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act into law. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, or NASA, was born. And the space race was underway.In the following decades, the world would see the first man in space, the first spacewalk, and astronauts landing on the surface of the moon. Across eight different programs, the United States would fly 239 space missions, with 135 of those representing the space shuttle program.On August 31, 2011, the United States’ shuttle program was officially ended, and the United States government was out of the business of space exploration and travel.Today, private companies like Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic and Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin are leading the way into the final frontier. Elon Musk has announced his plan is to have 1 million people living in a colony on Mars by the year 2050. As a new space race to settle on Mars and, perhaps, beyond takes flight, significant ethical questions remain unclear and unanswered. Today, we talk with Joel Sercel, an entrepreneur and space technologist, who argues that we need to start building international consensus on questions surrounding bioethics, property rights, laws governing space travel and space settlements, and stewardship of God’s creation outside of the Earth’s atmosphere.Subscribe to Acton Institute Events podcastTransAstra CorpWould Kuyper go to Mars? - Dylan PahmanThe frontier spirit of ‘The Martian’ - Dylan PahmanThe stewardship of space - Jordan BallorThe new space capitalists - Jordan BallorThe cultural mandate and the final frontier - Dylan Pahman Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the wake of George Floyd’s death in May of 2020, people took to social media to advocate for causes stemming from that horrible incident. Ranging from simply expressing “Black Lives Matter” to posting a black square on Instagram on a designated day and everything in between, an expectation that everyone must make a statement seemed to emerge. It was an expectation that was extended beyond individuals, as major corporations and sports teams were also expected to make a statement of solidarity. Those that didn’t, or who didn’t act quickly enough, were pilloried online.The age of woke capitalism is upon us.This woke capitalism can take other forms besides expressions of solidarity with social causes, such as Nike recalling Betsy Ross flag-themed shoes after activists raged that the flag represents slavery or the increasing frequency of anti-racism training sessions as work requirements.But, as Acton’s director of research Sam Gregg argues, woke capitalism is inherently in conflict with the nature and the ends of business.What is causing the rise of woke capitalism? What’s the impact that it is having on the world of business and on society as a whole? And what can be done about it? Sam Gregg joins us to discuss. Dr. Sam Gregg at the Acton InstituteHow Woke Capitalism Corrupts Business - Sam GreggWhen the Market Meets Morality - William McGurn6 quotes: Milton Friedman on woke capitalism, racism, and equality - Rev. Ben Johnson‘Woke’ NBA kowtows to Chinese communists - Dan HuggerThe social responsibility of Chick-fil-A is to make delicious sandwiches - Dylan Pahman Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The United States is consumed with questions regarding race, the legacy of slavery, and the nature of social justice. Where are people of faith to turn?For most of the last two thousand years Christians have believed that God deals with nations as nations and enters into closer relations with societies that claim him as Lord. This belief in the national covenant, only recently out of fashion, is where Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, and Martin Luther King, Jr. turned when faced with such questions in their own time.In this episode Acton’s Dan Hugger talks with Gerald McDermott, the editor of the new book Race and Covenant: Recovering the Religious Roots for American Reconciliation, about the idea of national covenant in scripture, history, and contemporary American society and how a revitalization of this idea could help lead to racial reconciliation.Race and Covenant: Recovering the Religious Roots for American Reconciliation - Gerald McDermottExcerpt from Race and Covenant - Gerald McDermottMisunderstanding Race and the Bible - Gerald McDermottRace and Redemption - Gerald McDermottWanted: Pastors with Courage - Gerald McDermott Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.