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By Eric Shierman,
The Cascade Policy Institute and the Hendersons are sponsoring an evening with Acton Institute founder Robert Sirico at The Aerie in Happy Valley on October 21st. Catalyst readers know Cascade, but do you know David and Lauri Henderson? These wonderful people put on annual conferences in Lake Oswego, called the Freedom Seminars [6], for nearly three decades, which I regularly attended in my 20s, 30s, and 40s.
And do you know Robert Sirico? A Catholic priest from Grand Rapids, Michigan that founded the free market think tank the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty [7], Sirico has consistently argued that Christianity provides a moral basis for a free society.
I first learned of his work in 1998 when he spoke at Hillsdale College. As I was wont to do, back then and now, I took the opportunity to grill speakers during the Q&A. I had particularly pressing questions for Sirico when I was an undergraduate, asking him to comment on some select passages in the Bible that suggest a more socialist worldview. Now, in the Trump era, where so many conservatives have moved leftward on economic policy, it would be interesting to see if Sirico has also shifted. You can find out by getting tickets [8] to see him speak next month.
Eric Shierman lives in Salem and is the author of We were winning when I was there [9].