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Evangelicals Give More Than Liberals |
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Wednesday, 24 January 2007 |
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Americans give more to charity than the citizens of any other country. And while liberals say they are for social reform for the underdog, they want to reach into someone else's pocket to finance that reform. According to research by Arthur C. Brooks, Professor of Public Administration at Syracuse University, it is Evangelicals who are putting their own money where their mouth is.
In his new book, Who Really Cares, Brooks substantiates that conservatives really are compassionate -- far more compassionate than liberals. Strong families, church attendance, earned income (as opposed to state-subsidized income), and the belief that individuals, not government, offer the best solution to social ills-all of these factors determine how likely one is to give. Charity matters--not just to the givers and to the recipients, but to the nation as a whole.
Brooks said, "The conventional wisdom runs like this: Liberals are charitable because they advocate government redistribution of money in the name of social justice; conservatives are uncharitable because they oppose these policies. But note the sleight of hand: Government spending, according to this logic, is a form of charity."
The reality is very different. He said, "To evaluate accurately the charity difference between liberals and conservatives, we must consider private, voluntary charity. How do liberals and conservatives compare in their private giving and volunteering? Beyond strident slogans and sarcastic political caricatures, what, exactly, do the data tell us?"
The conclusion? "The data tell us that the conventional wisdom is dead wrong. In most ways, political conservatives are not personally less charitable than political liberals—they are more so," said Brooks.
In 2000, households headed by a conservative gave, on average, 30 percent more money to charity than households headed by a liberal ($1,600 to $1,227), according to Brooks. He said, "This discrepancy is not simply an artifact of income differences; on the contrary, liberal families earned an average of 6 percent more per year than conservative families, and conservative families gave more than liberal families within every income class, from poor to middle class to rich."
Conservatives are also more willing to give of their time than liberals, according to the study by Brooks. He found that, "People living in conservative states volunteer more than people in liberal states. In 2003, the residents of the top five 'Bush states' were 51 percent more likely to volunteer than those of the bottom five, and they volunteered an average of 12 percent more total hours each year. Residents of these Republican-leaning states volunteered more than twice as much for religious organizations, but also far more for secular causes. For example, they were more than twice as likely to volunteer to help the poor."
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