AmericaInTheWorld's briefing on religion captures the enormous contribution of Christian and other faith communities to public life in America. In particular:
- The civil rights movement:
- Domestic poverty-fighting:
- Questions of international justice:
The pastor who most resembles the breadth of the public policy concerns of contemporary American Christians is Rick Warren. He is profiled in this week's Economist as "the next Billy Graham". The American Christian is caricatured as interested only in abortion and homosexuality. In reality Christians account for much of the $35bn of private aid that the USA donates to the third world.