Taxes Taxes Everywhere

I'm sitting in my office watching the Tea Party protesters marching around Westside Park protesting high taxes and government bailouts and deficits and such. Having just sent in our tax return, I feel their pain!

Ironically, I'm sitting at my desk working on a sermon on Generosity.

And I'm sitting here reading a book that gathered together a host of studies on the giving habits of Americans. Please know that I am not making a political statement. I would just as soon pay lower taxes, given the choice. The following comments have more to do with church than with state. This isn't about taxes. It's about generosity. There is a difference. I'm pretty sure.

But I just can't get over these statistics. Rather discouraging.

According to one study, 50% of non-religious people in America reported giving ZERO dollars per year to any kind of charity or ministry or social service organization.
And the average non-religious person gives away less than 1% of their income.

Well, thank goodness for religious people, right?
Maybe not.
22% of Christians gave ZERO dollars away (that includes giving to church, united way, salvation army bell ringers, etc).
(AND yes you read that correctly, more than 1 in 5 Christians give away not one thin dime).
And the average Christian gives away less than 3% of their income.
Interestingly, other religions are more generous than Christians with Mormons leading the way at 5.2%.

But not us right? I mean us Presbyterians are well educated, usually rather successful, and, one would assume, more generous than the average giver.

Well, according to a 2000 study by the Center on Philanthropy, Presbyterians reported giving an average of 1.8% of their income. That's TOTAL giving with about half (.9%) of it going to religious giving and about half going to non-religious giving.

One last surprising statistic: The more people make, the LESS they give. It holds true for religious people and non-religious people. Somewhere in the 6 digit income range, people start to give a higher percentage, but until then, the people who have the highest capacity to give actually give the least (in terms of % of income).

PS. Its tempting to think that the numbers must be flawed. They probably are. The truth is probably even uglier. Numerous studies have shown that people almost always over-report their actual giving when answering surveys.

I'm not ready to make any summary statements about the statistics. And, again, I'm not making a political statement here.

I just hope those folks out there protesting higher taxes aren't counting on the church to step in and meet the real needs of people in our community and our country.

What do you think?