Theoconomy

That famed 27% of USAmericans who are deluded may be as large as 31%. We're sure it's w/in the margin of loon error either way.

As we suspected (Our prejudices confirmed; why should we question it, although Baylor is a hotbed of academic leftism.):

To put this more concretely, approximately 31 percent of Americans, many of whom are white evangelical men, believe that God is steering the United States economy, thus fusing their religious and economic interests. These individuals believe in what I call an “Authoritative God.” An Authoritative God is thought to be actively engaged in daily activities and historical outcomes. For those with an Authoritative God, value concerns are synonymous with economic concerns because God has a guiding hand in both. Around two-thirds of believers in an Authoritative God conjoin their theology with free-market economics, creating a new religious-economic idealism. Nearly one-fifth of American voters hold this viewpoint, signaling that it can be a major political force.

Religious-economic idealism is the belief that the free-market works because God is guiding it. (Its adherents are, of course, not your typical laissez-faire, Ayn Rand devotees.) The popularity of this ideology explains two supposed paradoxes. First, it indicates why some religious working-class Americans have embraced the GOP. It is not that these individuals ignore their class interests, but rather that they believe issues of abortion and gay marriage are linked to whether God is willing to help solve both social ills and their economic woes.

The author advises not to bother asking what's wrong w/ Kansas; the contradictions there are in our minds, not in what passes for a mind among the Kansans, who have a mighty gawd indeed in Mammon, Moloch, or whatever his name is.