BACKWARD

Religion is more popular in the U.S. than in the rest of the developed world. Yet Americans are becoming less and less willing to support social programs through taxes and direct engagement with government. This is backward.

Europeans, who suffered through the labor pains of the Reformation in a way which the U.S. avoided in its infancy, evolved gradually from religious observance to application of social programs in civil society. Social programs in Europe do not suffer currently from their secularism. They suffer from the joint pressures of American capitalism and overpopulation.

Asian societies, such as Japan and Taiwan, have more civilized social programs than the U.S.. These countries do not base their social responsiveness on Christianity, obviously, or even on Buddhism, which is not a philosophy of social interdependence by any means. These societies have evolved through wars and privation to reach their current level of social responsibility to the individual. Education, health care and elder care are pillars of their social programs.

So, America the Religious is America the Uncaring. This is backward. And, it is hard not to separate it from the current materialism of the Judeo-Christian message, based in equally religious capitalism.