Here in the U.S. the political Right regularly bashes the Left for being "socialists" threatening to take us in the direction of the European brand of supposedly oppressive state socialism. Various Republican candidates thus lambast the President for trying to take us down the path of "European socialism." The so-called Christian Right adds the term godless to oppressive. In their lexicon, socialism is godless and anti-Christian.Here's another take on the relationship of European socialism to the church. Peter Berger, Grace Davie, & Effie Fokas suggest in their book, Religious America, Secular Europe? (Ashgate, 2008), that one key source of European welfare states is in their experience with state churches. The idea that the state should care for its citizens, that is, comes "naturally" because European governments used to be in the religion business. They had state churches. In the past, they associated the state with priest or pastor, church, litrugy, and hierarchy as well as with politicians and government. For Americans, that is a negative association, but for many Europeans even today it is not. They don't go to church much in places like Sweden, but they still cherish Sweden's Lutheran heritage.
It's a thought worth pausing over. The roots of European socialism could well be in the church.
