Rika Christensen - Big Business And Christianity: The Reason Behind The ‘Christian Nation’ Lie

 2015 article.

Big business starts fighting the New Deal.

During the Great Depression, with business on the defensive, and reeling from a soiled public image, big business embarked on a campaign that, according to Kruse, “painted capitalism as the handmaiden of Christianity.” These two philosophies had been put together before, but now they stood together against the socialism that was the New Deal.

Kruse says that, starting in the late ’30s, and going into the ’40s, business leaders waged a campaign that combined Christianity with anti-government libertarianism. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the manufacturing lobby both pressed this ideology, funded through generous donations from prominent and not-so-prominent business leaders, like Conrad Hilton, Harvey Firestone, and Fred Maytag.

This is likely where we get today’s ideas that helping the poor and the everyday American, and reining in business and extreme wealth accumulation, are terrible, horrible, no good, very bad evils that will destroy the country. Far from sticking to Christ’s teachings, the religious right very selectively cherry picks the Bible to suit their agenda of greed.

This may also be the root of why so many on the religious right vote against their own interests. Many of them live in poorer states, with fewer economic opportunities and yet they keep voting for these so-called “Christian” politicians that make their situations worse, not better.

Rika Christensen - Big Business And Christianity: The Reason Behind The ‘Christian Nation’ Lie