Competition and Religion

Here is a provocative article, from today's New York Times.  Eduardo Porter writes, in "Give Them Some of that Free-Market Religion:

Americans are more churchgoing and pious than Germans or Canadians because the United States has the most open religious market, with dozens of religious denominations competing vigorously to offer their flavor of salvation, becoming extremely responsive to the needs of their parishes. . . .

The suppliers of religion then try to stoke demand. "The potential demand for religion has to be activated," said Rodney Stark, a sociologist at Baylor University. "The more members of the clergy that are out there working to expand their congregations the more people will go to church."

[Sociologist Roger] Finke notes that this free-market theory also fits well with the explosion of religion across Latin America, where the weakening of the longstanding Catholic monopoly has led to all sorts of evangelical Christian churches and to an overall increase of religious expression.

The supply-siders say their model even explains secular Europe. Europeans, they argue, are fundamentally just as religious as Americans, with similar metaphysical concerns, but they suffer from a uncompetitive market - lazy, quasi-monopolistic churches that have been protected from competition by the state. "Wherever you've got a state church, you have empty churches," Mr. Stark said.

Porter adds:

Whatever its shortcomings, the free-market theory might also offer solace for those concerned about the creeping influence of religion in American government. That's because the theory posits that for religion to thrive, it must remain clearly separate from the state.

"Our pluralism helps religion expand," said Gary Wills, the historian. "The separation of church and state protected religion from anticlericalism."

My only quibble with the piece would be to question what appears to be the premise, in these latter paragraphs, that the "creeping influence" of religion in American government -- which I take to refer to religion's influence in politics, and in the public square -- involves a retreat from the "separation of church and state," properly understood.

Rick