A recent article by George Will in the Washington Post claimed that liberals are markedly less charitable than conservatives. Liberals, he says, regard charitable giving as retrograde , "a poor palliative for an inadequate welfare state and a distraction from achieving adequacy by force, by increasing taxes". Democrats, he tells us, represent a majority of the wealthiest congressional districts, and half of America’s richest households live in states where both Senators are Democrats.
What he doesn’t of course do is to tell us how all this generosity by poor, over-taxed Republicans breaks down. Overwhelming charitable giving in the US goes to churches. Some churches do wonderful work, but where giving simply goes to keep up bricks and mortar and church overheads (and I would add, salaries), this is not charitable giving as I define it. Help for the poor can be given without the intercession of a minister. If you take out the bricks, mortar and maintenance non-church members, atheists probably give quite as much, or more, that conservatives, but give it to charities for a score of causes from Ugandan orphans to help for ex-convicts.
Epicurus would not approve of church hierarchies and funds for the upkeep of the steeple or the bells.
Studies have shown that some people give to charity with a main eye on the tax-deductibility of the gift. Practical, yes. Christian motives…..?
Both Epicurus and Jesus Christ (plus followers of both) would agree that charitable money giving which merely keeps bricks and mortor together is a misappropriation of charitable funds. I therefore believe that your comments are unfair.
I have seen statistics which indicate that enormous sums of money are given by American churches to schools, hospitals and water projects in third world countires.
In England there is an exponential growth in free evangelical churches who (the church is people not buildings – hence the word ‘who’) are are based not in their own buildings but in village halls and schools etc. The money given therefore goes straight to local and overseas projects.
I dont think anyone can necessarily and fairly impute motives of tax evasion to any individual – specially those on average to low incomes. Big business, or the very wealthy, maybe.
Well, I’m very happy to be proved wrong. The extreme right-wing in the United States cannot, I suppose, be wrong all the time! Try this then – – liberals have less disposable income than conservatives because they scrupulously pay their taxes, whereas conservatives avoid them.
Well, you should see the ridiculous, derogatory statements these conservative make, with no evidence. Why can’t I join?