US - religion: the wound not the bandage

A recent study, reported in the UK and US media, has examined the question of whether religion and social dysfunction go together. 18 prosperous democracies where ranked by scores for church going and prayer as well as ratings for things like violent crime and child mortality. From the results it looks like the sun doesn't shine on the righteous after all. The U.S. has the largest percentage of people who take the Bible literally and also has by far the highest levels of murder, abortion, teen pregnancy etc. more from the LA Times... This was one of the LA Times recent 'most e-mailed stories' so I can imagine Blue state mail software buzzing as 'I told you so' notes are sent to Red state cousins.