When times get tough, as they are now, people turn to all sorts of things for comfort, drugs and alcohol among them. According to a recent report in the New York Times, they also traditionally find comfort in that great opiate of the masses: religion. Especially of the evangelical kind. Evangelical churches are reportedly booming because of the fear and uncertainty that people feel at a time when unemployment is at a record high and more people in this country are hungry, homeless and without healthcare than ever before.

Catholic and Protestant congregations are experiencing a windfall as well, but not to the extent of the fire and brimstone religions that make their preachers into media stars, not to mention very wealthy men. It’s a good time to be in the business of that old-time religion. As one evangelist preacher told the Times, “We have the greatest product on earth.” The world’s oldest profession might dispute that.

Upsurges in evangelicalism during difficult times are nothing new. In 1857, during the great financial panic that started with a bank failure (sound familiar?) and a sunken shipload of gold and led to railroads collapsing, a prayer revival meeting in Manhattan eventually prompted the conversion of tens of thousands and the creation of the Salvation Army.

David Beckworth, an assistant professor of economics at Texas State, in his recent study of evangelicalism and economics (Praying for Recession: The Business Cycle and Protestant Religiosity in the United States) recounts that during downward swings between 1968 and 2004, membership in evangelical churches increased by 50 percent. Mainstream Christian denominations did not fare as well.

As one businessman (a former Catholic) described it, by joining a fundamentalist church he’s found a sense of “God’s authority over everything -- I feel him walking with me.” That’s all well and good, but will God pay the mortgage to keep the bank from foreclosing on the house?

Beckworth’s study didn’t go unnoticed by the evangelical preachers who make their living peddling sin and salvation and donations to the collection plate. One of them called Beckworth to thank him for the info. This Seventh Day Adventist told the Times that fundamentalist preachers need to “leverage this moment.” As any good businessman would do.

Religion is big business. And business takes advantages of people’s weaknesses. Nowhere is this more evident than the teen market. Teens are manipulated into buying all sorts of crap they don’t need, but if they don’t keep up with the kids in their class, they suffer from major self image problems. Not to mention lack of popularity or dates or both.

Adults do the same thing. They walk around with all sorts of must-have gadgets attached to their bodies -- everything from cellphones and ipods to beepers and headphones. In the 60s, it was called “keeping up with the Joneses.” Now it’s just plain old crass consumerism.

Religion is just another crass thing we consume when we feel helpless and alone.

Tommi Avicolli Mecca is co-editor of Avanti Popolo: Italians Sailing Beyond Columbus, and editor of Smash the Church, Smash the State: The Early Years of Gay Liberation, which will be published next year by City Lights Books. His website: www.avicollimecca.com