New survey shows that 20% of Americans think God loves free-market capitalism

A Baylor University survey has shown that 20% of Americans believe that God plays a role in the world's economy, especially blessing nations he favors with wealth and economic prosperity while depriving other nations he does not favor of the basic necessities of life.

The survey shows that 20% of Americans also believe that God specially favors America (especially American evangelicals) and its free market capitalist system above all other forms of socio-political economic systems.

According to the survey results, Americans who think God opposes government regulation and that he loves  America and  its  free-market capitalism more than other nations (with the exception of "God's chosen people" Israel?)  tend to be of conservative religious persuasion. According to Paul Froese, co-author of the Baylor Religion Survey of the Baylor University Waco, Texas:

They say the invisible hand of the free market is really God at work…They think the economy works because God wants it to work. It's a new religious economic idealism with politicians invoking God while chanting "less government."…When Rick Perry or Michele Bachmann say "God blesses us, God watches us, God helps us," religious conservatives get the shorthand. They see "government"  as a profane object — a word that is used to signal working against God's plan for the United States. To argue against this is to argue with their religion.

The Baylor Religion survey also shows that 20% of Americans fall on the opposite pole to this conservative religious class. These Americans do not see God as involved in the daily working of the free market economy and they are more concerned about reducing income inequality through taxation. Froese says of these far-left Americans:

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.

The survey which involved 1,714 U.S. adults was conducted in the fall of 2010. The survey results show that:

Nearly three in four Americans (73%) say "I know God has a plan for me." Within this group: 49% say the government in Washington is trying to do too many things that should be left to individuals and private businesses; 9% say able-bodied people who are out of work shouldn't receive unemployment checks if they are passing up jobs they can do; 92% say anything is possible for those who work hard.

JohnThomas Didymus

Transmodernist writer and thinker. Author of "Confessions of God: The Gospel According to St. JohnThomas Didymus"

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