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Contest essays target morals, liberty

By LISA TROSHINSKY, For United Press International

WASHINGTON, March 3 (UPI) -- Like many other think tanks around the country, the Acton Institute holds an annual public essay competition in which contestants expound on social, economic and political issues tied to the think tank's mission.

But where other think tanks use the results of such contests to try to affect state and local policy, the winning essays from Acton's Lord Acton Essay Competition are used to advise religious leaders on human liberty and morality.

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"Though we do conduct outreach on public policy, the Acton Institute -- which is based in Christian ideology -- differs from other think tanks, like the Heritage Foundation, because our primary goal is to address religious and theological questions regarding the morality of markets and liberty," said Clint Green, Acton's programs officer.

"The idea behind our essay contest is to encourage religious leaders, such as seminarians, to think about issues of human liberty -- to preach that human liberty and a free market (one without excess regulations) can solve problems."

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"We are relatively unique in the world of think tanks," Green said. "Some think tanks maintain theologians on their staffs (for example, like the American Enterprise Institute, which employs theologian Michael Novak).

"But the closest think tank similar to us is the Ethics and Public Policy Center (a Washington organization that clarifies and reinforces the bond between the Judeo-Christian moral tradition and the public debate over domestic and foreign policy issues.) As for essay contests like ours, dealing with theological issues as they relate to economics, markets and states, really we are unique on the national stage," he said.

By contrast, winners of this year's essay contest held by the Boston-based Pioneer Institute for Public Policy aimed to have a direct impact on the Massachusetts government by offering money-saving proposals.

Even the six public policy areas on which Acton concentrates -- technology and regulation, business and society, effective compassion (welfare reform), environmental stewardship, education reform and international trade -- are approached from the point of theological analysis, Green said.

For example, Acton asks why is school reform important, Green said. "Our viewpoint says that parents have the God-given right to form children in the way they choose. And on welfare reform, we believe that government shouldn't be in that business; we believe it damages the personal aspect of Christian charity and treats everyone like a number."

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The Acton Institute was founded in 1990 by Father Robert Sirico. During his time in the seminary, the organization taught a modified form of socialism -- a redistribution of wealth from the rich to the poor, regulations that make profit secondary to social responsibility, Green said.

"Sirico wanted to re-look that, make a change in a way in which economics were approached from a theological standpoint, where business people have a responsibility to make a profit, as long as they can make one with integrity and honesty," Green said.

The think tank is named for Lord Acton, an English historian of the 19th century who made the history of liberty his life's work, and considered political liberty the essential condition and guardian of religious liberty. It was Lord Acton who said: "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

Acton was a Roman Catholic in Victorian England, when it was dangerous to be Catholic. Among Acton's ideas on the development of religious and human freedom, he warned people of the Pope becoming too powerful.

The Lord Acton essay contest, since its beginnings in 1990, required contestants to expound on a quote from Acton. This year, in an effort to get a wider pool of contestants, the contest was expanded to remove that requirement -- as long as the essay is on the intersection of liberty and region. Nevertheless, there were about the same number of submissions this year -- 40 -- as in prior years, Green said.

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The winner this year was "New Liberalism" by M.R.R. Ossewaarde. The essay examines the ideas of French philosopher and historian Alexis de Toqueville, relating to the making of a "new liberal" -- a person who does not see liberty as the supreme end (as did the liberals of the 18th century, John Locke, and his peers), but instead, views liberty as a full partner with religion and morality.

Locke and the other Enlightenment philosophers believed that liberty and religion were "uneasy" partners at best.

The essay also seeks to explain how and why de Toqueville believed that, though religion was important, it did not have a place in worldly affairs. Instead, he believed that religion was essential because it provided guidance and protection for self-government, as well as needed limitations on the extremes possible in self-government.

The second-place essay was "The Workers of the Vineyard," by Robert Peterson, which examines the question of just labor and pay by analyzing a passage of scripture that tells of a vineyard owner who hires workers all at the same wage.

Third place went to "Building the Foundations for the Free Society: Finding Common Ground in the Political Theory of Saint Robert Bellarmine and John Locke," by James Maldonado Berry. Bellarmine and Locke both believed that life, liberty and property were essential to human existence, and that there are biblical and theological justifications for those rights.

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Locke, an English philosopher of the late 1600s, was a major influence on Thomas Jefferson and the ideas that shaped the Declaration of Independence.

As part of Acton's outreach efforts, these winning essays will be communicated to religious leaders around the country.

"Hopefully, religious leaders will practice these ideas in their ministry," Green said. "The desired effect of our contest is not to have them protest in the streets, but on a more basic level, on Sunday morning, that they will preach about a Christianity that believes human liberty and free markets can solve problems."

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