Letter to the Editor, Christianity Today, sent 30 Jun 2000

Letter to the Editor

Christianity Today

sent 30 Jun 2000

In A Lonely Day in the Neighborhood (12 Jun 2000), Robert Wuthnow reviews Robert D. Putnam's book Bowling Alone and worries along with Putnam and many others about the breakdown of community in America. Other well-known books treating this topic are Habits of the Heart by Robert Bellah et. al. and For Common Things by Jedediah Purdy. What they all fail to consider is the role of government activism in causing this weakening of civil society.

As our government has inserted itself into more areas of our lives (especially since the mid-1960s), inevitable consequences have followed. First, people sensed that their own private efforts were no longer needed or wanted, that the government would "handle it," making them less likely to contribute personally. Further, as the state became more aggressive about seizing resources to feed its voracious appetite for power and redistribution, those with resources at risk were given strong incentives to withdraw in any way they could into private spheres. This is not to even mention the negative effects of state interference on personal moral behavior. Many wonder why they should struggle to live virtuously when the state stands ready to subsidize vice?

Rather than blaming evident civil disintegration on the "selfishness" of younger Americans, or on other aspects of private behavior, let's admit that growth of coercive "political society" has been and must always be accompanied by retreat of voluntary "civil society," and strive as Christians to return government power to within its strict constitutional limits. Such a return to limited government will go far toward encouraging virtue and allowing restored trust in each other as neighbors, rather than potential thieves.

Steve Sawyer