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| 21 January 2004 |
| 1. ACTON COMMENTARY |
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“The Bush Immigration Plan: A step in the right direction”
by Anthony Bradley
 The
administration's new immigration plan is not without
problems. But Acton's Anthony Bradley says that the proposal
“is a positive step toward helping people find jobs and fill
employment gaps in our economy.”Acton Web Poll: Do
you support President Bush’s proposed immigration policy?
Vote |
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| The Acton
Institute is funded through the generous contributions of
individuals such as yourself. |
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“Robin Hood Justice” by Jordan Ballor
 A
Supreme Court judge in Venezuela is touting the “famine theft”
clause, which eliminates punishment for poor people who steal
because they're hungry. Will the idea catch on in other
countries? |
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| 2. DISPATCHES |
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“Can the Gospel of Prosperity Save Zambia?” by
Rev. Gerald Zandstra
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U.S.-based ministries are reaching out to
impoverished Zambians with a promise of salvation—and riches.
Rev. Zandstra calls on clergy and economic development officials
to “speak out against divine lotteries and other false and
hollow Gospel of Prosperity teachings.” |
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“Mr. Chibuye and the AIDS Widows of Africa” by
Rev. Gerald Zandstra
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Upset with government corruption and
bureaucratic delay, a university teacher establishes a school
for impoverished widows with with his own modest funds. The
women are now gaining literacy and learning how to be
small-scale entrepreneurs. |
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| 3. FOOD FOR THOUGHT FROM ACROSS THE WEB |
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“St. John Chrysostom: The Prophet of Charity” by
Fr. Georges Florovsky
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Famed for his preaching, the church father St.
John Chrysostom was intensely interested in questions of wealth
and poverty. Fr. Florovsky writes that Chrysostom “simply could
not evade social problems without detaching Christianity from
life, but social problems were for him emphatically religious
and ethical problems.” |
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“Crusade Against Medical Use of PVCs” by Michael
Arnold Glueck and Robert J. Cihak, NewsMax.com
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The authors examine the use — and abuse — of
the Precautionary Principle as employed by the Health Care
Without Harm organization. Also see the Fall 2003 Acton
Policy Forum: “Health Care Without Harm — Or Harming Health
Care?” by Doug Bandow. |
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| 4. THIS WEEK AT THE ACTON BOOK SHOPPE |
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The Welfare Myth by Sr. Connie Driscoll
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Recorded at the Lord Acton Lecture Series on
November 14, 1994, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The president and
founder of Chicago’s St. Martin DePorres House of Hope discusses
popular myths about welfare and shares her personal experiences
in countering those myths. Sr. Connie combines a passionate
concern for the homeless with an equally passionate dislike for
the welfare system which has failed to help people escape from
poverty and personal vices. |
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| 5. IN THE LIBERAL TRADITION |
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Samuel von Pufendorf (1632–1694)
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“It must absolutely be maintained that the
obligation of the natural law is from God himself, the creator
and supreme governor of the human race, who by virtue of his
sovereignty over men, his creatures, has bound them to its
observance.… He formed the nature of things and of man in such a
way that the latter cannot be preserved without a sociable
life.” |
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