A question of generosity

David Briggs describes a slew of new studies that show that American Christians are not as generous as we claim to be. Much of the evidence comes from research that links responses to a national representative survey to actual amounts given to church and charities. The data suggest that we tend to exaggerate the proportion of our income that goes to support our faith communities and the less fortunate in the larger community. Here is one example:

The people most likely to misreport high levels of giving were those who said faith was very important to them and those who attend services more than weekly, according to a report by University of Notre Dame sociologists Christian Smith and Heather Price presented at the recent Association for the Sociology of Religion meeting in Denver.

The findings tend to paint people of faith as either less than truthful or self-deceptive.

"To the extent that some parishioners already rate themselves as high givers, when in fact they are not, then they are essentially able to ignore messages about giving -- they would interpret such messages as not pertaining to them but to somebody else," Vaidyanathan and Snell reported in a paper on "Motivations for and Obstacles to Religious Financial Giving" in the Sociology of Religion journal.

The reality is probably more complex. Many people have seen their expenses go up and their assets disappear because of Wall Street shenanigans, the housing market collapse, and the economic meltdown. It is entirely possible that people were giving 10% of their net income instead of their gross. Or maybe our desire to help others took a backseat to our desire for creature comforts and possessions.

The most recent findings show that rates of giving are lower in 2010 than in the previous decade. In their 2008 book entitled, Passing the Plate: Why American Christians Don't Give Away More Money, Christian Smith, Michael Emerson, and Patricia Snell suggested that "it would appear that American Christians have much soul searching to do about the question of money." Questions of generosity continue to grow.

The 2007 recession and the lingering sluggish economy have hurt church budgets with giving down and expenses rising. A recent survey by LifeWay found budget shortfalls in over one-fifth of the congregations surveyed. A majority of congregations report giving below pre-recession levels.

The survey of 1,000 Protestant pastors asked respondents "how is the economy impacting your church?" Almost two-thirds (64 percent) responded negatively, with 56 percent indicating somewhat negatively and 8 percent very negatively. One quarter of the pastors surveyed said, "the economy has had no impact on my church," while 9 percent indicated a positive impact on their churches.

The larger issue is how well we can respond to those in need when our glorious political caste decides to throw the poor under the bus. Political, business, and even some religious leaders claim that the poor should be the responsibility of people of faith. This is where the reality of what we can afford to give comes into play. If we cannot really afford to make up for the government safety net, then many poor will suffer from hunger, homelessness, illness, and despair.

The other fly in the ointment is that government funding provides the majority of money coming into many Christian charities. Take Catholic Charities as an example. Nearly 70% of the operating revenue comes from the government. Gutting social spending to protect the wealthy, corporations, and the military will leave many large Christian charities underfunded and forced to spend more time and resources on raising money.

We definitely need to do some soul searching. Our country is rewarding greed and punishing need. Mammon seems to be winning.