Why, then, has the same country now built an administrative state with tentacles reaching into nearly every corner of economic life? Churches and other local institutions provide a wide range of services, ranging from childcare to food for the poor. Empty pews don’t fully account for the backslide in American community institutions, but they have an important ramification for government. Pew’s latest Religious Landscape Study finds that Americans with low levels of religious engagement are much more likely to prefer a bigger government. The recent growth in federal regulations is stunning.