Testimonials

Giving a fair comment about my experience at Acton University requires a broader perspective because my fruitful relationship with Acton Institute started more than a year and a half ago. Since my participation in the “Toward a Free and Virtuous Society” Conference I realised how important it is to strengthen in society, and specifically in the economic world, our long tradition of Christian ethics. During my time at Acton University I have deepened my understanding of the importance of two inseparable words that I have reformulated with the help of Acton Institute: Freedom and Virtue. As a Latin American Christian minister and PhD student of moral theology, those words are particularly poignant elements which Latin Americans should study, develop and embrace to experience a definitive shift in our excruciating history.

Especially significant for me were the words of Father Sirico, “networking is as important as education.” Before and after every lecture, meals and breaks, I had the chance to talk with people from different social, professional and religious backgrounds who helped me to discover new and fresh ways to look at our, sometimes, difficult world. Throughout the symposium I met people from all over the world, but I have to recognise that my great joy was to meet a bunch of young Latin Americans from Mexico, Guatemala, Venezuela and Ecuador with whom I had the opportunity to share new ideas and to contextualise what we learned in the lectures.

From time to time, when I am submerged in my thesis, trying to find a Christian response to the labour problems in Latin America, I endeavour to remember one of the questions asked by Anthony Bradley, “What is the best possible way to help people in need considering every human being as created in the image of God? Fortunately, in many ways, Acton University gave me the foundation for the possible answers to all these questions.

José Mendoza is a Peruvian pastor and seminary professor who has served and taught in several parishes and seminaries in Peru, Chile and Canada. He earned a BA in Pastoral Ministry, a MA in Theology, and a MA in Christian Studies. He is doing a PhD in Moral Theology at the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies in United Kingdom. José is married with Erika and they have a daughter, Adriana.

My Acton University experience began even before I arrived in Grand Rapids. Within minutes of boarding the plane, I met five or six other people en route to the conference, one having come as far as Argentina. Each day of the conference I was increasingly impressed by the diversity of people I met—they came from Vietnam, Norway, Liberia, Mexico, Austria, and the Philippines; they were professors, students, community development workers, business owners, researchers, pastors, and entrepreneurs; they were Baptist, Catholic, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Pentecostal, Christian Reformed, and Methodist. Yet everyone I met was united by a common love for God and, flowing from that love, by a common desire to see His truth, His justice, and His freedom manifested in the world. Experiencing this unity gave me a much deeper appreciation and love for the universal church, a greater awareness of our similarities, and a more gracious perspective on our differences.

Only recently have I become interested in the basic economic and political principles that undergird a free society and during the course of the conference I was fascinated to learn how the free market actually takes better care of the poor and the weak than does any socialistic alternative. Whether the lecture topic was environmental conservation, private property, immigration, globalization, or ways to stimulate the economy, I was repeatedly challenged to see the long-term effects of policies, and realized that most of my previously-held views would actually make the situation worse if they were implemented, despite my good intentions. The quality of the instruction at the conference was extraordinary. The speakers were not the greedy, unscrupulous “capitalists” so often portrayed in the media, but were principled, godly, informed, and highly-qualified men and women with a passion for seeing both people and societies flourish. They did not speak of abstract, esoteric ideas, but real world truths that their personal experiences have confirmed. While the conference was only four days long, I find myself referring everyday to what I learned there. It has significantly changed my overall perspective of the world and has inspired me to continue learning about the roots of a free and just society.

Dana Ergenbright grew up in Oregon and is currently pursuing a MA in Theological Studies at Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri. After graduating from Hillsdale College (BA in History) she taught English, Spanish, and 7th grade for a number of years at private schools, then co-authored a book with her father, entitled "The Image of God: The Glory of Man."

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Contact Elly Barnette at (616)454-3080 or ebarnette@acton.org