NYT's Brooks: Virtue Without Religion

David Brooks' NYT column today is among the most e-mailed in the paper, for good reason. It's amazingly upbeat.

Brooks talks about a"more civil" society (I'll get to that later) and quotes the stats to support his argument:

• Family violence is down by more than half
• Violent crime is down by 55%
• Violence by teenagers is down by 71%
• Drunk driving fatalities are down by 38%
• Teenage pregnancy is down by 28%
• Divorce rates are declining, teen suicides are down, test scores are up, teen are losing their virginity later (a point tied to the bullet above, although you'd never hear it from Planned Parenthood)

Great news, huh? You might call it a stunning endorsement of President Bush's leadership and the model he is setting for the country -- especially vs. Bill Clinton of "I did not have sex with that woman" and "oral sex is not really sex" fame. But that's not what Brooks credits.

A lot of the credit has to go to the people who have been quietly working in this field: to social workers who provide victims with counseling and support; to women's crisis centers, which help women trapped in violent relationships find other places to live; to police forces and prosecutors, who are arresting more spouse-beaters and putting them away.

The Violence Against Women Act, which was passed in 1994, must have also played a role, focusing federal money and attention.

The Dem view: it's programs, legislation and federal funding.

Nowhere in Brooks' column does the word "religion" appear, which is curious given the huge increases in the size of conservative congregations -- not just protestant, but Catholic, Jewish ... even the Greek Orthodox church is growing, swelled by young people who want a solid, conservative faith.

The growth of conservative religion and the wonderful stats Brooks cites are related primarily because young couples realize that the old way isn't working and they want to live and raise their children in a new way. They're contributing to the better stats, and their children should too, because they're being raised right.

How could Brooks have missed something so obvious?

And for the record, I don't think we're getting more civil. Crime is dropping, but rudeness, pushiness, line-cutting, profanity -- all are increasing. An interesting dichotomy I'll leave to the federally funded social scientists to figure out.