Join the Conversation
Send your thoughts to Letters to the Editor. Learn more
A new survey by the Public Religion Research Institute indicates that Christians in America are more ambivalent about capitalism then is commonly thought. Among other findings, 46% of Christians think capitalism is incompatible with Christian values against only 38% percent who perceive them as compatible. You can find the full report here.
I suspect that these views need some qualification. Modern, spread eagle capitalism, with its biases towards high finance, is rightly viewed as repugnant to Christian values. I do not think most Christians object to a neighborhood man-and-pop store. And, capitalism, like democracy, is probably, to paraphrase Churchill, the worst form of economic governance except every other form. Still, it is good to discern in the results the Christian insight that a selfishness that has become mutual is not the same thing as mutual generosity.
Mark Silk, at Spiritual Politics, offers his always thoughtful take on the findings here.
