Sarah Posner in her book, God's Profits, claims that one of the driving forces of the religious right is laissez-faire. She claims that modern prosperity gospel preachers fit into this system by suggesting government handouts are sinful. To solve economic problems, one needs only to rely on faith which implies sending money directly to the mega pastor. Posner calls the Word of Faith gospel, "the ultimate in laissez-faire capitalism, regulated only by God." (p. xii).  Pastor John Hagee is quoted in the book saying that government welfare is a distortion and a deception from Satan. (p. 7). Earlier this week, I heard Hagee claim that you can make more on welfare than laboring for fifty thousand a year in New York City.  He stated we needed to abolish the program and several in the congregation stood and applauded. On the other hand, Bishop Long, himself a prosperity gospel preacher, received a million dollar grant from the Bush administration to use in his children's ministry at the church. (p. 33).  It appears to be an economic system that blesses the top of the pyramid - and those at the bottom gotta just believe.

The Georgia Baptist Index wrote in an editorial in 1900 that the majority of the poor were poor because they were immoral. Later on, Southern Protestants blamed laissez-faire capitalism for the depression.1 They appeared to have made the connection. The religious right never did.

When Obama talks about reversing the tax breaks given to the higher income portion of the society granted so by the Bush administration, his critics see this as redistribution of wealth - and the "s" word is used (socialism). More emotional critics use the "c" word (Communism).

If you need economic help in your journey, the DeVos and Freemarket crowd have some advice for you:  Work harder or have more faith. The hatred of Obama by these types reaches extremes. One of the factors is that they view him as a product of the system that used the government to attend schools and move up the economic ladder. I have heard snide remarks about the fact that the government assisted in his education. In the system suggested by the religious right, government aid to the needy is only supposed to cripple, as J.C. Watts used to say. Aid to bail out those at the top of the pyramid is just as embarrassing, but not as evil. As the Amway folks would explain it - that's just the way it works.

1  Kenneth Bailey, Southern White Protestantism, Harper & Rowe, NY, 1964, pgs. 17, 115.