Djelloul Marbrook

I have another entry for the Lost Story Department. Where does the Christian Right stand on Objectivism? Where does it stand on Ayn Rand’s idea of enlightened selfishness? (Now there’s a tortured term). It seems only fair to ask, because the Bush Administration, a slavish disciple of Randian theory, draws its most ardent support from the Christian Right.

Can the Christian Right, watching so approvingly as Atlast Shrugged, countenance Jesus shrugging? And is it beneath the press’s dignity to raise such questions— the same press that indulges in complaints about Americans not saving enough while studiously avoiding the subject of piratical profit margins. And would those who now so vociferously call for a return to values wish us to return to the Puritan value of Christian charity?

How has it eluded so many Christians that Objectivist economics can’t be reconciled with the Christian conscience? And why is the subject beyond the pale?

—DM