I was speaking with a fellow Christian a while ago, and he was lambasting the giving of evangelicals. I believe it was during the election season, and this particular person said that liberals were more caring people because they cared about the poor and various political issues that favored poverty. I remember saying that this wasn't true, and that numbers time and again prove the conservatives give more money to the poor. This person didn't believe me. I don't remember who it was, but I told you so. This kind of criticism is typical of the postmodern evangelical rancor (Donald Miller, Brian McLaren, etc.), which is wrong. They are just plain wrong, but that isn't to say that evangelicals shouldn't give more. We should. But check this article out: liberal writer, Kristoff, admits that liberals give woeful amounts to the poor while conservatives regularly out-class them.
It's true that religion is the essential reason conservatives give more, and religious liberals are as generous as religious conservatives. Among the stingiest of the stingy are secular conservatives.
Courtesy of In Media Res, you have got to read this article. No matter how Kristoff sliced the pie, conservatives always gave more to the poor.
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2 comments:
Do you think that this sort of debate goes into an unhealthy "us versus them" attitude? Like you said, regardless of which faction gives more money, all of it is nowhere near enough and we all could do more. Myself definitely included on that one.
Yeah, you're totally right on this one Daniel. And I really don't care if it's conservative versus liberal. I think the point is that in religious folks (religious or conservative), their is an embedded sense of helping the poor. It's in our DNA. So, I'm sick of hearing from liberals that they are more compassionate. This person that I spoke with, again I don't remember who they were, demanded to see proof of my claims that religious people give more. So, here it is.
But I don't think the Christian principle to give to church and the poor is 10% of gross/net income. I think the principle is give until it hurts. It's not a sacrifice until it's a SACRIFICE. Giving of the firstfruits of a crop is always giving the best, and it's always a sacrifice, and we should dip harder into our pockets in a recession.
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