Max Boot’s latest Washington Post column chides U.S. Attorney General William Barr’s warning about the moral impact of religion’s decline in America.
Boot points out that in Barr’s lifetime America has improved in many ways, becoming wealthier, healthier, more educated and less racist. Over the last few decades crime and abortion rates have dropped. More recently, divorce rates have dropped, while illegitimacy is no longer rising. All good news, which myopic declinists on the right, including conservative Christians, often ignore.
Unmentioned by Boot, left-wing declinists have their own myopia, typically warning of environmental apocalypse and claiming increasing economic injustice. In fact, by many measures the environment is better protected today than ever before. Wealthier societies have more capacity for conservation. And the standard of living for poor people globally continues to rise.
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