I'm Warren Smith and today you'll be listening in on my conversation with author speaker and

the founder of the Acton Institute, Father Robert Cerrico.

He has a new book and it's called The Economics of the Parapses.

What Jesus does is deal in the real world when he talks about private property or contract

disputes or wage levels or the conflict between people who are being paid different wages.

He's dealing with a backdrop of economics.

Robert Cerrico is one of those men who defy easy categorization.

He was raised in an Italian Catholic family in Brooklyn but he now lives in Grand Rapids,

Michigan, the heart of Dutch reformed country.

He rejected his Catholic upbringing to become a gay activist in one of the early leaders

of the Metropolitan Community Church movement, which is a denomination made up mostly of

gay congregations.

He was also ordained a Pentecostal minister and pastored churches in the Pacific Northwest.

To add to his interesting associations, Father Cerrico's brother is Tony Cerrico and

acclaimed actor, best known for his roles in Woody Allen movies and as Polly Gwalteric,

Polly Walnuts, and the hit show The Summaranos.

Now this eclectic background doesn't make Robert Cerrico an obvious candidate to become

one of the most significant Christian thought leaders in the nation.

And the picture clouds even further when you consider that his college training is an

English and theology but it is in the field of economics that he has emerged probably

most prominently as an articulate Christian thinker.

If you think it through though, it kind of makes sense because that theological training

...