The Brunch Table

Just a sad little article from Der Spiegel about the lives of some former textile workers in North Carolina. The tone of bemused pity is what caught my attention:

Nicholas Gennett and Jeanie Moore say that they would have liked to take him along to Philadelphia to receive their award. Why? Because he is what they call a success story in their “Special Group of the Labor Force.” Johnson, an ailing man pushing 60, who works 15 hours a day so that he won’t lose his house, is their success story.

So the U.S. Journal of Religion and Society publishes a study suggesting that, around the world, religious belief in society is inversely proportional to social health. But it takes the London Times to report this. The conclusion is pretty grim:

None of the strongly secularized, pro-evolution democracies is experiencing high levels of measurable dysfunction…Indeed, the data examined in this study demonstrates that only the more secular, pro-evolution democracies have, for the first time in history, come closest to achieving practical “cultures of life” that feature low rates of lethal crime, juvenile-adult mortality, sex related dysfunction, and even abortion…The United States’ deep social problems are all the more disturbing because the nation enjoys exceptional per capita wealth…[but is] the least efficient western nation in terms of converting wealth into cultural and physical health.