Evangelicals, Liberals, and the Poor
***Check out the article in the November 27 Wall Street Journal by Arthur C. Brooks, "A Charitable Explanation." Everybody knows that France cares more and does more for the poor than other nations. And everybody knows that liberals in America care more and do more for the poor than conservatives. NOT! on both counts.
Americans give, per capita (gross as well, by a long shot, but the per capita is the real kicker) more in the month of December than most countries give all year. France turns out to be one of the stingiest, laziest, and least couragous countries on the planet when it comes to giving to charity or lifting a finger to help the poor.
Conservatives in America are not only four times more likely to attend church, they outpace liberals by a long shot on giving to charity, volunteering for charitable causes and offering hands-on help to the poor. Conservatives even out-pace liberals and secularists with money and time contributed to non-church-related social organizations.
But wait! Conservative evangelicals are fixated on making money, stopping abortion, and yelling at homosexuals, right? Well, liberals are carrying home barrels full of money too, and now we know they are choosing to keep much more of it for themselves than conservatives do. Go figure. And apparantly, conservatives have energy left over to actually help the poor even after expending themselves in making money (so they can give more than the liberals I guess), defending the unborn, and speaking biblical truth to power regarding God's loving warning against homosexual behavior.
And conservatives do all this in the face of patronizing ridicule from everybody from the Mainstream Media to the cultural secularists to Oprah and especially their own liberal and progressive Christian brothers and sisters who scold them for not caring more about the poor!
I just know Jim Wallis and Tony Campolo must be tickled about these numbers. A next book title suggestion for either author: Learning to Love the Poor From Conservative Evangelicals--And Getting our Own House in Order.
Message from conservative evangelicals to liberals looking for ways to help the poor: "Jump on in. The water is fine."
Americans give, per capita (gross as well, by a long shot, but the per capita is the real kicker) more in the month of December than most countries give all year. France turns out to be one of the stingiest, laziest, and least couragous countries on the planet when it comes to giving to charity or lifting a finger to help the poor.
Conservatives in America are not only four times more likely to attend church, they outpace liberals by a long shot on giving to charity, volunteering for charitable causes and offering hands-on help to the poor. Conservatives even out-pace liberals and secularists with money and time contributed to non-church-related social organizations.
But wait! Conservative evangelicals are fixated on making money, stopping abortion, and yelling at homosexuals, right? Well, liberals are carrying home barrels full of money too, and now we know they are choosing to keep much more of it for themselves than conservatives do. Go figure. And apparantly, conservatives have energy left over to actually help the poor even after expending themselves in making money (so they can give more than the liberals I guess), defending the unborn, and speaking biblical truth to power regarding God's loving warning against homosexual behavior.
And conservatives do all this in the face of patronizing ridicule from everybody from the Mainstream Media to the cultural secularists to Oprah and especially their own liberal and progressive Christian brothers and sisters who scold them for not caring more about the poor!
I just know Jim Wallis and Tony Campolo must be tickled about these numbers. A next book title suggestion for either author: Learning to Love the Poor From Conservative Evangelicals--And Getting our Own House in Order.
Message from conservative evangelicals to liberals looking for ways to help the poor: "Jump on in. The water is fine."
posted by Mark DeVine at 8:29 PM
3 Comments:
thanks for the post. I'll definitely check out the article. It is funny how these things work out.
You know, in many ways the only reason France exists today because of the generosity of the American people. If it wasn't for us they'd all be speaking German with funny little mustache's. Maybe they'd be known for beer and not wine anymore too.
I guess we're speaking in terms of political conservatives and liberals, rather than theological conservatives and liberals, since it's the Wall Street Journal. Still interesting, though. It's really good that conservatives are leading the way in terms of social justice praxis. However, division along political lines isn't too helpful for Christians, in my opinion. I don't think Jesus would side either way. He didn't seem to in matters political or religious.
Steve. Thanks for this.
Part of the poll the WSJ reported concerned religious conservatives, not just political conservatives. My aim was not to suggest that Jesus was on anyone's side, per se—except the poor of course. My aim was rather to let the numbers speak for themselves. Among other things, the numbers suggest that conservatives, both political and religious do not fit the stereotype propagated about them by liberals. Periodically, numbers like this come out, but they are not widely reported, and not long remembered. Why not? I suspect that part of the reason is because such statistics are not welcomed by those who need to have the caricature of conservatives as heartless despisers of the poor maintained.
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