Religion and Inequality

Political scientist Tobin Grant, who writes at Christianity Today Online, sums up interesting research he and others have done on the positive correlation between a nation's income inequality and its level of religious identification.  The CT post also links to the fuller research.  The U.S. fits the pattern because, although wealthier than economically advanced nations of secularized Europe, it has much higher income inequality (comparable to "Uganda, Jamaica, Cameroon, and Cote d'Ivoire") and much higher religious identification.

The research undercuts the claim that the poor seek the consolation of religion--and the claim that  becoming wealthy tends to make one less religious (because, say, one feels more self-sufficient).  "In unequal societies, the rich are also religious. By some measures, the wealthy grow more religious and the poor become less religious where there is higher inequality."

That is, neither do the wealthy across the board remain (or become more) religious: the wealthy in more unequal societies do so.  With the appropriate caveats about drawing clear conclusions from the data, Grant says "[o]ne possible explanation for this pattern" is that religions--some religions--justify the inequality:  "religions in unequal societies are more likely to seek out the rich young ruler, not the widow with only a few copper coins."

Tom