While the Islamic world was the cradle of the invention of Arabic numerals and those numerals made a huge computational improvement over the unwieldy Roman numerals by making double-entry bookkeeping possible, the modern money system from which we presently benefit could not have been invented except among people where there is both rule of law and confidence in the personal integrity of all economic agents. That was only possible in the Western world, where Christianity, especially post-Reformation Christianity, provided that seed bed of morality in which our present money system could be sown. While it is not the primary goal of Christianity to provide that seed bed, it is a necessary corollary of evangelical Christianity as it arose from the Reformation.

Money and its value presumes a kind of faith and confidence in those who issue it and use it as a medium of exchange. What makes those banknotes in your wallet able to be used to buy a happy meal at McDonald's? What do those numbers in your bank statement actually represent? We believe that they represent actual value. The present flight to gold is an alarm bell signaling a dying confidence in the human promises which back the money in our economic system. We think it is possible to eradicated Christianity from our culture while in no way injuring the collateral benefits that arise out of uniquely Christian patterns of thought. It is somewhat like killing the goose that laid the golden egg, and then wondering why there are no more golden eggs. We still must be able to trust the promises of men if our economic system is to survive.

Business deals used to be done with a promise and a handshake. No one doubted that those promises would be fulfilled by the economic agents acting in a moral way in a morally constructed universe. That is no longer possible. Christianity is the deep structure of our society no matter how vehemently its detractors may deny it. As we continue to undermine that foundation of our society it will necessarily crack and totter. The law of unintended consequences will increasingly give rise to pernicious results as those who think Christianity is one of the great ills in our society continue to replace it with the pottage of corruption, self-centeredness, and greed.