Social Policy
Positive Impact of Religion on Social Stability	Religion has a positive impact on society, according to researchers. Surveys of Americans' religious practices and beliefs indicate: Those who attend religious services regularly are more likely to be married, less likely to be divorced or single, and more likely to express satisfaction in marriage. Church attendance is the most important predictor of marital stability and happiness. Regular church attendance is particularly instrumental in helping young people to escape poverty, drugs, crime, welfare dependency and unwed pregnancy. Further, states with more religious populations tend to have fewer homicides and suicides. According to surveys, Americans pray even more than they attend church, with 94 percent of blacks, 91 percent of women, 87 percent of whites and 85 percent of men regarding themselves as people who pray regularly, with 78 percent of Americans praying at least once a week and 57 percent praying daily. Even among the 13 percent who call themselves agnostics or atheists, some 20 percent pray daily. Source: Patrick F. Fagan and William H.G. FitzGerald, "Why Religion Matters: Impact of Religious Practice on Social Stability," Backgrounder No. 1064, January 25, 1996, Heritage Foundation, 214 Massachusetts Avenue, NE, Washington, DC 20002, (202) 546-4400.
A Free Market Benefits Religion	Competition is good for religion. More than 200 years ago, Adam Smith presented considerable evidence in the Wealth of Nations that the Church of England was indifferent to the needs of the British because of its status as the official church. He argued for ending government financing of the church and discrimination against other religions. There is ample evidence today that Adam Smith was right: A study found that the number of regular churchgoers and the strength of religious beliefs was greater in societies with many competing churches than in countries with a single church. In Scandinavia, where the Lutheran Church receives substantial financing from government, only a small portion of the population is interested in religion, whereas religion thrives in the competitive environment of the United States. In South America, the Catholic Church is losing its powerful monopoly and fundamentalist Protestant sects are growing rapidly because too many priests have focused on political goals rather than spiritual needs. In Japan, since the privileged position of Shintoism was abolished after the war, hundreds of religious groups are flourishing. In Russia, where there was enforced secularism, a survey found that more than 22 percent say they used to be atheists but now believe in God, and more than 6,000 Orthodox churches and monasteries have reopened. *Source: Gary S. Becker, "Religions Thrive in a Free Market, Too," Business Week, January 15, 1996.*
Church and Market Economists Agree	A recent conference in Rome on the family, the economy and the future of society brought together economists and officials of he Roman Catholic Church. Participants found increasing agreement between Catholic social doctrine and modern economics on such fundamental questions as the need for growth and opportunity, the unparalleled importance of the family and the idea that people are assets -- not liabilities. When Pope John Paul II talked about the right to economic initiative and put it at the heart of his economic letter, the words he used are close to the definition of capitalism used by Nobel Prize-winning economist Gary Becker, one of the conference participants. When Becker defines economic growth as the opportunity that gives young people the jobs and means to start their own families, he found a sympathetic ear in Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, sponsor of the conference. Even the pope's call for solidarity as an intrinsic social virtue echoes the cooperative arrangements free people make in a market economy. John Paul II, who personally experienced totalitarianism -- both communist and national socialist -- appreciates the free market more than any of his predecessors. And free market economists have come to recognize that virtue is necessary to sustain a free society. Becker pointed out that families have an essential role in increasing society's human capital -- the skills, education and health of each person in society -- and that an open economic system allows this human capital to reach its greatest fruition. Along with the pope, he is concerned about artificial tax and regulatory incentives that push mothers who might otherwise choose to stay home back into the work force. Source: William McGurn, "A Market in the Image of the Creator," Wall Street Journal, March 20, 1996.

Social Policy

Positive Impact of Religion on Social Stability

A Free Market Benefits Religion

Church and Market Economists Agree