Recently, my Madison, Wisconsin, parish offered to take up a collection to pay my bail and legal fees. The offer while sincere was premature and tongue in cheek. But a proposed change in state law brings with it a real possibility of putting me in legal jeopardy. My congregation’s concern for me stems from the Clergy Mandatory Reporter Act (CMRA) being put forward by Democratic state legislators. If passed CMRA would, according to one of the bill’s co-sponsors, require “that members of the clergy report any instances of child abuse, including sexual abuse, ending the loophole of unjust cover-ups and misreporting currently occurring in our state.” The “loophole” referred to is the priest-penitent privilege that exempts clergy from reporting abuse revealed solely in confession. Catholic League president Bill Donohue said that the “government has no business policing the sacraments of the Catholic Church.” Still, Rep. Sargent takes exception to what she calls “an ‘us vs. them’ narrative” rather than taking seriously what is, in fact, a reasonable concern about the constitutional and practical deficiencies of the legislation. While I wish we lived in a time where it didn’t need to be said, the sexual or physical abuse of children (or anyone) is gravely immoral; it is a sin. In seeking to prevent this evil and redress the harm it causes, the legislation aims at doing a good thing. Good intentions, however, aren’t enough.

Cronyism is everywhere, affecting industries, entrepreneurs and customers and distorting the market through political advantage. So what is cronyism and how does it compromise genuine capitalism? Anne Rathbone Bradley, the current academic director at The Fund for American Studies, as well as the vice president of Economic Initiatives at the Institute for Faith, Work and Economics, comes onto the show to explain how cronyism affects the market and how to combat it. Afterwards, Acton's director of research, Samuel Gregg joins the show to talk about his new book, "Reason, Faith, and the Struggle for Western Civilization." Gregg lays out what he believes defines the West, how the disintegration of reason and faith has caused the West to decline and what can be done to reclaim it.