Andy
: ?One of the terrible paradoxes of American church life is that generosity declines (on a percentage basis) with income. The richer we become, the less we feel able or willing to give money away. There is no surer evidence that Mammon is, as Jesus suggested, more a devious demon than a neutral force. That is one of many reasons that our family gives away 10% of the gross income from our first salary (Catherine's) and my writing and speaking income, and started giving away 20% of the gross income when we added a second salary (mine). (We also save somewhat more on a percentage basis.) I have been tithing since I was 18 and am far wealthier (in assets and income, but most of all in friends and joy) than I ever imagined becoming. I mention these personal specifics because when it comes to money, as mentioned in this excerpt, American Christians are afflicted with a deadly vagueness and unhealthy notions of privacy. We need to bear public witness to just how good it is to give money away. I admit I am sometimes daunted by the amount we give—it is hard to give it effectively and it means that we forego, for example, private education for our children, which would otherwise be within our means. But it is worth it, every penny, and our goal is to give away even more.?[According to the new book Passing the Plate,] twenty percent of American Christians (19 percent of Protestants; 28 percent of Catholics) give nothing to the church. Among Protestants, 10 percent of evangelicals, 28 percent of mainline folk, 33 percent of fundamentalists, and 40 percent of liberal Protestants give nothing. The vast majority of American Christians give very little—the mean average is 2.9 percent. Only 12 percent of Protestants and 4 percent of Catholics tithe.
A small minority of American Christians give most of the total donated. Twenty percent of all Christians give 86.4 percent of the total. The most generous five percent give well over half (59.6 percent) of all contributions. But higher-income American Christians give less as a percentage of household income than poorer American Christians. In the course of the 20th century, as our personal disposable income quadrupled, the percentage donated by American Christians actually declined.
In Chapter 3, the authors evaluate nine frequently offered hypotheses to explain this modest giving. They conclude that five have substantial validity: 1) many Christians have not seriously wrestled with their own tradition’s theological teaching on giving; 2) many churches simply accept low expectations for giving and therefore provide little communal support for generosity; 3) some Christians question the reliability of the churches and organizations requesting funds; 4) because of near total privatization and lack of accountability in the area of charitable giving, there are no real consequences for stinginess; 5) most Christians give on an occasional basis when they feel like it, rather than in a disciplined, planned, structured way.