At Christianity Today, Mark Galli reflects on W. Brad Wilcox’s recent article that argues: “If the European experience with the welfare state and religion is any indication, the Obama revolution could well lead the United States down the secular path already trod by Europe.” Galli goes on to comment:
This line of argument, while no doubt accurate statistically and sociologically, cuts two ways. It makes socially conservative Christians sound like one more interest group, and an insecure one at that. As if the success of the Christian faith hinges on whether a society produces enough poverty and other forms of social instability.
I am no friend to socialism, but if indeed a state can ameliorate a large number of social problems, it seems that Christians of every political stripe might rejoice. That living in a socialist state seems to make it harder to take religion seriously not only suggests a flaw in socialism but, much more so, a serious flaw in what we promote as Christian religion. A Christianity that depends on massive social dislocation for its success is a religion we of all people would be happy to see die away.
Read Galli’s full response, including a number of readers’ comments, here.