Oftentimes, the most prudent method of moving forward is to look to the past as a road map. As Christians, we sometimes forget we stand on the shoulders of giants who have provided us with a strong spiritual and intellectual framework. I personally recognize great minds through the centuries who have structured our thoughts and principles here at the Acton Institute for the past 25 years.
“...Acton recently was recognized in the top 10 of Top Social Policy Think Tanks worldwide...”
Fortunately, our American founders laid the groundwork of religious liberty so that organizations such as Acton could flourish. In fact, Acton recently was recognized in the top 10 of Top Social Policy Think Tanks worldwide, named in the top 30 of Top Think Tanks in the United States and ranked as one of the Top Think Tanks Worldwide by the University of Pennsylvania’s Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program’s 2015 Global Go To Think Tanks Index Report.
We are proud of these accomplishments but recognize that none of this would be possible without the liberties granted us to pursue our mission. However, religious freedom can never be considered a fait accompli. Just as John Adams once declared that “Nothing is more dreaded than the national government meddling with religion,” we must strive on a daily basis to preserve our religious freedoms while advocating for those whose liberties to exercise their respective faiths are abrogated.”
Even our own country recognizes continuous peril to exercising religious liberties. In the wake of such U.S. Supreme Court cases as Obergefell v. Hodges and Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, we witnessed that erosions of religious liberty are never further away than often a single justice’s determination. This year will be no different as the Supreme Court is expected to rule on Zubic v. Burwell, which takes up the Obamacare birth-control mandate for religious nonprofits.
We’ve been here before. In 1965, the Second Vatican Council recognized such threats when it issued Dignitatis Humanae. “This freedom means that all men are to be immune from coercion on the part of individuals or of social groups and of any human power, in such wise that no one is to be forced to act in a manner contrary to his own beliefs, whether privately or publicly, whether alone or in association with others, within due limits.” Declaring religious freedom a civil right: “The council further declares that the right to religious freedom has its foundation in the very dignity of the human person.”
The dignity of the human person recognized through the revealed word of God and reason—I can think of no better description of the Acton Institute’s mission.
Sincerely,
Rev. Robert Sirico, President
