The Ann Coulter Critique of Christianity

My Sunday column discussed recent remarks from President Obama and the sociologist Robert Putnam on American churches and the fight against poverty, in which both men suggested that culture-war fixations have sidelined American Christianityâ??s mission to the poor. Given the sums raised and man-hours invested by religious groups in charitable work, this is not a particular compelling argument; in fact, itâ??s pretty dumb, as a number of writers had already pointed out by the time I got around to the subject. So I added my voice to their chorus, but I also tried to raise one possible way in which you could argue that the churches are failing poorer Americans: Not in their charitable works, but in the actual business of soul-winning itself, as evidenced by the fact that downscale Americans are both less likely than the affluent to attend church and less likely to attend, period, than in the recent past. And I noted that you donâ??t even have to believe in the soul to see this as a failure: Since the social benefits of religion seem to flow through participation and belonging, even from a purely secular perspective (well, if such a thing exists) Americaâ??s churches would probably be doing more for the poor than charity alone can offer if they were keeping more people in the pews.