Steyn's Warning

As pointed out by CWN, Mitt Romney made an interesting point on which Mark Steyn did an excellent arabesque.

Steyn picks up on Romney's reference to the great European cathedrals: "so inspired... so grand... so empty." Romney argued: "The establishment of state religions in Europe did no favor to Europe's churches." And Steyn agrees: "In Europe, the established church, whether formal (the Church of England) or informal (as in Catholic Italy and Spain), killed religion as surely as state ownership killed the British car industry."

The steady growth of the state, Steyn argues, led many Europeans to see the government as "the all-powerful beneficent provider of cradle-to-grave welfare." State agencies provided material welfare and moral guidance. And with churches viewed as adjuncts to the state, active religious faith slid into desuetude.

Directly quoting Steyn:

"Freedom requires religion," said Mitt Romney, and, whether or not one agrees, in Europe big government has led naturally to small religion...

Europe's religious decline derives in part from the state's usurpation and annexation of so many of the other supporting structures of society, including the church.

Fortunately, the Founders were smart cookies.

But the growth of the State in the US portends badly for organized religion, even though there is no "state Church."