Most Christians today remain unaware of how Christian leaders since the 1930s have been intentionally co-opted (or, more bluntly, bought) by powerful corporate leaders in America (and elsewhere) to provide theological opposition to socialism and support for capitalism. Through this bought-and-paid-for leadership, to be Christian means to oppose socialism, which means opposing any significant regulation of mega-corporations, which means weakening and shrinking government so that it can be “drowned in a bathtub” (to use Grover Norquist’s memorable phrase). “Free enterprise” and its sister slogan, “small government,” have come to mean blind, fanatical trust in unregulated, unconstrained corporations to do the right thing, leading to blind, fanatical distrust in democratically elected and democratically accountable governments. The “invisible hand” of the marker demanded such trust and obedience that capitalism became, for all intents and purposes, an idol, a religion, deserving the name Theo-Capitalism.
In the United States, and through U.S. influence, in many other places as well, the love affair between Christianity and Theo-Capitalism grew so strong that Princeton historian Kevin Kruse subtitled his important book One Nation Under God as follows: How Corporate America Invented Christian America.
From “Do I Stay Christian: A Guide for the Doubters, the Disappointed, and the Disillusioned” by Brian McLaren