From John Armstrong:
Brooks challenges conventional wisdom about who really cares for the poor, showing that it is conservatives who give more to the needy. Each year, he notes, conservatives give 30% more to charity than liberals. And the more religious people are the more charitable they are likely to be. Believers are actually 57% more likely to help the homeless, for example, than secularists.
Worth reading. Despite my cynicism regarding the Evangelical subculture, this does not surprise me at all.
I do want to get Brooks’ book.
Still, it’s funny (in a sad sort of way) how Armstrong’s remark reflects American blinders when talking about the options. It’s either conservative, small-government Christians, or liberal, big-government Christians.
Ignored here is European-style Christian Democracy. Here we have conservative, welfare-state Christians.
I don’t want to go whole hog here on Christian Democracy – the government is a bit too big for my taste – still, it’s sort of funny that it doesn’t even seem on the radar screen of most Christians, whether conservative or liberal.
I guess because they never evolved in English-speaking countries (because, for whatever reason, English-speaking countries never experienced the anti-clericalism to which CD parties initially resopnded).