Federal Budget: What Would Jesus Cut?

"Warned Lord Acton, a devout Catholic, “power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”  No where is that more dangerous than in politics, since no power is more absolute than that to arrest, imprison, and kill, all of which are used by the state to enforce its dictates."

Balancing The Federal Budget: What Would Jesus Cut? - Doug Bandow - The Politics of Plunder - Forbes

There Must be A King Over Us

From over three thousand years ago, the voice of the prophet Samuel speaks, and reminds us of the danger of kings:

Samuel delivered the message of the LORD in full to those who were asking him for a king.

He told them: "The rights of the king who will rule you will be as follows: He will take your sons and assign them to his chariots and horses, and they will run before his chariot.

He will also appoint from among them his commanders of groups of a thousand and of a hundred soldiers. He will set them to do his plowing and his harvesting, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots.

He will use your daughters as ointment-makers, as cooks, and as bakers.

He will take the best of your fields, vineyards, and olive groves, and give them to his officials.

He will tithe your crops and your vineyards, and give the revenue to his eunuchs and his slaves.

He will take your male and female servants, as well as your best oxen and your asses, and use them to do his work.

He will tithe your flocks and you yourselves will become his slaves.

When this takes place, you will complain against the king whom you have chosen, but on that day the LORD will not answer you."

The people, however, refused to listen to Samuel's warning and said, "Not so! There must be a king over us.

We too must be like other nations, with a king to rule us and to lead us in warfare and fight our battles."

1 Samuel, Chapter 8, verses 10-20

The Birth of Freedom

A new documentary from the Acton Institute, "The Birth of Freedom," examines an often overlooked fact: freedom in the modern world has deep roots in religion.

From the Acton Institute web site...

"The American founders said that all men are created equal and are endowed with certain unalienable rights. That among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. They called this a self evident truth. 87 years later, Abraham Lincoln reaffirmed this idea on the Civil War battlefield of Gettysburg. And in 1963 these same words echoed from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial as Martin Luther King, Jr. urged America to fulfill the promise of its founding.

But humans are separated by enormous differences in talent and circumstance. Why would anyone believe that all men are created equal? That all should be free? That all deserve a voice in choosing their leaders? Why would any nation consider this a self-evident truth?

For the millions around the world who have never tasted liberty the question cries for an answer."

The Teaser...


The Trailer...

The Crimes of Communism

From the Acton Institute...

Professor Yuri N. Maltsev, former member of a senior team of Soviet economists that worked on President Gorbachev's reforms package of perestroika, discusses the reversal of liberalized reforms in Vladimir Putin’s Russia and the variety of ways in which communism oppresses people, especially religion.

Listen to it here.

Myths Christians Believe About Wealth and Poverty

From the Acton Institute, Jay W. Richards presents the key economic mistakes religious people in general, and Christians in particular, make when thinking about wealth and poverty.

Acton summarizes his lecture below:

"For Christians, compassion for the poor is a non-negotiable. Compassion alone, however, doesn’t help the poor. In fact, many ideas that Christian leaders advocate really exacerbate the very problems they were intended to solve. So how do we insure that we not only mean well, but also do good? Jay Richards discusses the need to think economically about wealth and poverty in the Christian community."

Listen to his lecture here.

Business and the Good Samaritan

Today, Catholics everywhere will once again hear the story of the Good Samaritan from the Gospel of Luke. It is one of the world's most famous parables.

In the time of Christ, Jews and Samaritans were bitter enemies, each considering the other heretical. The idea of a Samaritan helping a wounded Jew would have been unsettling. Even more disturbing would have been the fact that the two other orthodox Jews in the story, a priest and a Levite, ignored the suffering of their kinsman.

There are many lessons we can draw from this parable. For people in business -- that is to say, for anyone involved in the process of wealth creation -- one of the most important lessons comes from Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990.

In a 1987 speech to Scottish Conservatives, Thatcher observed, "No one would remember the Good Samaritan if he'd only had good intentions. He had money as well."

Wealth makes charity possible. The creation of more wealth makes even more charity possible.

One other person in this parable is often overlooked. He is the unnamed innkeeper who took in the wounded Jew, and extended the Good Samaritan credit for the Jew's care. The innkeeper was not acting charitably, but the resulting business arrangement made him an important player in the Samaritan's charitable effort.

Business and charity are not the same thing, and it is a mistake to make them act like they are. But they can work well together towards the same end when each acts according to its strength and purpose.

Does Pope Benedict Condemn Capitalism?

Major news services have reported that Pope Benedict XVI blasts capitalism for its "cruelty." But what does the Pope really think?

Socialism cannot save the poor. It produces "economic and ecological destruction." Its view of human history is contrary to the human heart. It tries to build a heavenly kingdom in this world.
Faith should not be politicized. Justice for the poor does not depend on a theology of ever more power for the state.

These are the views of Pope Benedict, as summarized by Father Sirico, a Catholic priest, in the pages of the Wall Street Journal Europe.

Father Sirico is the founder and President of the Acton Institute.

Image property of Walter O. LeCroy