USA Today ran a story recently about how Americans' religious views serve as a lens through which they view how the economy works (or should work). From this study one may be able to venture a guess at the predominant religious view of the folks taking part in the "Occupy Wall Street" movement. Read on...
Here's an excerpt from the story referring to the work of Paul Froese, one of the authors of a study by Baylor University:
Most (81%) political conservatives say there is one "ultimate truth in the world, and new economic information of cost-benefit analysis is not going to change their mind about how the economy should work," Froese says.
At the opposite pole, another one in five Americans don't see God stepping in to their daily lives and favor reducing wealth and inequality through taxation. "So they're less likely to see God controlling the economy. Liberal economic perspectives are synonymous with the belief that there is no one 'ultimate truth,'" Froese says.
At the opposite pole, another one in five Americans don't see God stepping in to their daily lives and favor reducing wealth and inequality through taxation. "So they're less likely to see God controlling the economy. Liberal economic perspectives are synonymous with the belief that there is no one 'ultimate truth,'" Froese says.
So to Conservatives (at least to the religious ones) government fiscal policy stands in opposition to God's dominion over economic life. God is, or should be, in charge. But to Liberals (at least to the secular ones), government fiscal policy is an example of how humans work together to create social order; God has nothing to do with it.
This is another example of how the vitriolic partisan rhetoric of Republican vs Democrat is masking a more serious divide - an ideological one. Looking back on past ideological divides (independence, slavery, prohibition) one gets the sense that this one could also get violent without too much provocation. It's not about party affiliation. It's about worldview. And worldviews come from deep-seated convictions, which people will defend at great cost.
2 comments:
i've recently been thinking a lot about politics and religion. my pastor pointed out something in small group the other night that i really appreciated. it's the story of elijah and obadiah.
elijah is the outspoken politician saying the society is hell-bent (as it was with an evil king ahab reigning) and yet he was friends with obadiah. the king's right hand man, who almost certainly participated in pagan rituals and yet, at great risk/peril to his own person, sent resources and saved hundreds of jewish prophets of Yahweh. same God, different ways of serving him.
there's a place for christians in politics of course! on all sides. but let's not let the church tell the farmer what to plant. that's the politician's job. let's not let the politician tell Christians what's moral. that's the church's job.
what are your thoughts? i'm trying to think through a lot of the religious fervor that seems to be making up the political platforms of late.
There's as much of an ideological divide today as there was in the days of Elijah and Obadiah, I think - it's just a different divide. In Elijah's day it involved which God (YHWH or Ba'al) would rule the affairs of humanity and the state. Today it is more about whether or not God has any standing at all vis-a-vis the affairs of humanity and the state. So, the debate is different now. Ever since Constantine, the Church had been co-mingled with the state, sharing in its authority. Then when the Enlightenment came along, the church became marginalized, when it was overthrown right along with the states by the political revolutions of Europe. Since then the church has been trying to figure out what happened to its old position of authority and what to do now? To some extent it's still fighting the last war...
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