The poor are poor not because the rich are rich but in spite of that fact. Father Schall sees an important role for religion as a wealth-creating institution, but he strenuously opposes the church's persistent opposition to democratic capitalism - the last great hope for the poor.

This iconoclastic book trenchantly analyses numerous religious sacred cows and finds them all wanting. Father Schall, a Jesuit priest who is a member of the Political Science Faculty of Washington's Georgetown University, views social justice as an attempt to wrest control of the economy from the citizen and thereby strengthen the state. He lauds the profit motive as a great boon to the poor, and criticizes government welfare programs for being dependence creators.