fayfreethinkers.com

Thanks God for generous conservatives and religious people. BTW, The Springdale Rotary Club just gave 1,700 wheelchairs to handicapped people that need but have not had a wheelchair (Nearly all of the chairs go overseas, many, many to Mexico)

From the book... "Who Really Cares" by Arthur Brookes- great book.

People who are religious give more across the board to all causes than their non-religious counterparts

There is a huge “charity gap” that follows religion: On average, religious people are far more generous than secularists with their time and money.

This is not just because of giving to churches—religious people are more generous than secularists towards explicitly non-religious charities as well. They are also more generous in informal ways, such as giving money to family members, and behaving honestly.

Giving supports economic growth and actually creates prosperity

Many studies show that giving and volunteering improve physical health and happiness, and lead to better citizenship. In other words, we need to give for our own good. Cultural and political influences—and the many government policies—that discourage private charitable behavior have negative effects that are far more widespread than people usually realize.

The working poor in America give more to charity than the middle class

The American working poor are, relative to their income, some of the most generous people in America today. The nonworking poor, however—those on public assistance instead of earning low wages—give at lower levels than any other group. In other words, poverty does not discourage charity in America, but welfare does.

Upper level income people often give less than the working poor

Among Americans with above-average incomes who do not give charitably, a majority say that they ‘don’t have enough money.’ Meanwhile, the working poor in America give a larger percentage of their incomes to charity than any other income group, including the middle class and rich.

Plus:

People who give money charitably are 43 percent more likely to say they are “very happy” than nongivers and 25 percent more likely than nongivers to say their health is excellent or very good.
A religious person is 57% more likely than a secularist to help a homeless person.
Conservative households in America donate 30% more money to charity each year than liberal households.
If liberals gave blood like conservatives do, the blood supply in the U.S. would jump by about 45%.


S O U R C E S
2000 Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey
2001, 2003 Panel Study of Income Dynamics
1996-2004 General Social Survey
1998-2001 International Social Survey Programme
2004 Maxwell Poll
2000 Giving and Volunteering Survey
2001 America Gives Survey

People who are religious give more across the board to all causes than their non-religious counterparts

Damn! Ya think? Since religious folk outnumber non-religious folk about 20:1 I would think they would give more. Plus, they get tax deductions for 97% of their giving.

But the truth is the U.S.A. is the least generous nation of all industrialized nations. In many cases the U.S. is less generous than some undeveloped nations. 50% of U.S. foreign aid stays in the U.S.

source: Speech by President Wm. J. Clinton on Giving at the Clinton School of Public Service,
Oct 10, 2007, Little Rock, Ark.

In other words, poverty does not discourage charity in America, but welfare does.

and this humdinger:

Upper level income people often give less than the working poor

This means that not only does welfare discourage giving so does growing wealthy. Therefore we should tax the wealthy more and give to working poor.

I have no idea why "John Galt" was trying to link god with wealthy conservatives. Hey John, when you get down from Neptune explain this to us mere Earthlings.

John Galt wrote: From the book... "Who Really Cares" by Arthur Brookes- great book.

People who are religious give more across the board to all causes than their non-religious counterparts

DAR
It would be good if you would get in the habit of providing a link showing where you obtained your material.

Lets take a closer look:

***
How to measure types of giving?
Saturday, July 07, 2007
RENEE K. GADOUA
RELIGION NOTEBOOK

A review in the magazine The Christian Century questions some of the conclusions Syracuse University professor Arthur C. Brooks draws in "Who Really Cares: The Surprising Truth About Compassionate Conservatism."

Among Brooks' main findings: Conservatives out give liberals in every measurable way, charity is good for your health, and religious people are more charitable - including with secular donations - than secularists.

In June's Christian Century, James Haltman, a professor of economics at Wheaton College in Illinois, faults Brooks for not evaluating the relative merits of different types of giving.

"Giving to orchestras, museums, church building funds and parent-teacher associations is considered just as charitable as giving to aid the poor and disadvantaged. Sorting out motives for and benefits from giving is an impossible task, so readers can only speculate about how these variables might affect" Brooks' conclusions, he writes. "After all, giving and caring are not synonymous."

Haltman also says, "It is easy to get lost in all the statistics that Brooks has woven into the prose" and notes that Brooks "does not systematically address the politically moderate middle third of the population."

...snip...

Trust in religion tumbles

It would be interesting to hear Arthur Brooks discuss the connections between a recent Gallup poll that found Americans' trust in organized religion is at a near-record low and a report that U.S. charitable giving reached a record high of $295.02 billion in 2006.

Americans trust the military and the police force significantly more than the church and organized religion, according to a Religion News Service story on the Gallup poll.

Only 46 percent of respondents interviewed in June said they had either a "great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in the church, compared with 69 percent who said they trusted the military and 54 percent who trust police officers, RNS reported.

The figures are among the lowest for institutionalized religion in the 31/2 decades that Gallup has conducted the poll. Peaking at 68 percent in May 1975, the numbers bottomed out at 45 percent in June of 2003.

Last month, Giving USA Foundation reported that, excluding gifts for extraordinary disaster relief including Hurricane Katrina, charitable giving in 2006 rose 6.6 percent over 2005.

Religious congregations received about 32.8 percent of the total amount donated, according to a news release from the Cen ter on Philanthropy at Indiana University.

...snip...

Renee K. Gadoua covers religion and spirituality for The Post-Standard.

LINK

DAR
As one person observed:

"It's bullshit, and it tries to get people to believe that the GOP neo-cons are more caring.

What they refuse to say is that they do it for tax write offs and set up their own "charities" run by family that get paid exorbitant amounts and that if they really wanted to help people and the country they would create better paying jobs and and invest in the nation, communities and people by creating those jobs.

It's like a little kid who picks flowers from the neighbors yard to give to his mom.... he sits there telling everyone what a great little kid he is, hoping noone notices that he stole the flowers and destroyed the neighbors flower garden in the process." --ibid

I have already posted a blatant example of the above here.

And:

"...from the same study linked above... conservatives are 1-2 percentage points more likely to give money, liberals a single percentage point more likely to volunteer. it's a statistical tie for either method of giving." --ibid

So aside from not finding your claims persuasive, I think it is also worth noting that when religious people give, after being taught over and over in church how to do it (they have little practice collection plates for the kiddies to pass around, church gets paid first) they are often doing it because they think they are earning brownie points with the Sky God. If anyone doubts this, watch religious television. Send the money to god's earthly messenger and God will pay back with interest. It's an investment based on a scam.

D.

If I remembered what Doug said my faith was called, I'd ask where I fit in. My last raise inched me, for the first time in my 56 years, over the $25K mark (just under half the U.S. median family income and just over the AR median family income). I give to various political, environmental, and social causes about 5% (yes, I know I have a long way to go before I hit the the "tithe" mark), but over the course of my life I've found I give a greater % of my income the greater my income is. Something about being on or just above the poverty level seems to have an unfortunate effect on charitable giving. I call myself a moderate, but my bet is Galt would call me a screaming liberal.

Darrel wrote:Religious congregations received about 32.8 percent of the total amount donated, according to a news release from the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University.

DOUG
In many cases, this money is not used for helping anyone except the church itself. I figured that's how they have such high numbers.

When my mother was a church secretary, she found out that the money from the collection plates would go mostly to the retired minister's fund. Hardly a worthy charity, I would say. They already received a pension.

Or to the BUILDING FUND, so they can build another multi-million dollar building (a la Central Methodist Church or Pinnacle Hills Baptist Church)

Aw c'mon Betsy and Barb. You know how Ronnie's flock gives out free turkeys every Thanksgiving.

LaWood wrote:Aw c'mon Betsy and Barb. You know how Ronnie's flock gives out free turkeys every Thanksgiving.

DOUG
The rest of the year you have to go to church and look behind the pulpit to see the turkey.

Before the PUBLIC school kids ran a food drive, the food pantry was down to saltines. We're just going into winter. Hope the PUBLIC school and other non-religious organizations/types run another one next month.