From Mild-Mannered Musings, "Mormons Give More," summarizing a Christianity Today article that reports on the findings of three sociologists regarding charitable giving by denomination. The top three groups were Mormons, Pentecostals, and "other Protestants," a category which appears to include Evangelicals whose congregations have no clear denominational affiliation. Trailing the pack were mainline denominations, and bringing up the rear were Jehovah's Witnesses. Interesting results.
Give a little bit
Thursday January 1, 2009
Categories: Christianity
Filed Under: christian charitable giving
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David Banack is an attorney living in Jackson Hole. He joined the LDS Church at age 15 and later served a two-year LDS mission to France and Switzerland. He has lived up and down the West Coast, as well as in Fiji, Samoa, Sweden, Utah, and now Wyoming. Dave has been running the Mormon Inquiry site discussing LDS and Christian issues since 2003. He is a website editor for Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought and also participates at the LDS weblog Times and Seasons. The views expressed on this blog are his own.Search This Blog
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What do you think, Dave, of the discussion of donations once you delete "mandated" offerings. (i.e. tithing to the Church) I can see it both ways. For one Mormons have already given a lot of their discretionary spending and there's little left for other charities. (BTW - what counts as a charity? Does the NRA, the ACLU, the Sierra Club? Does it only count if you declare it on your taxes?)
@ Clark
I think it might be reasonable to examine LDS donations net of tithing if certain other factors are controlled for. For example, does the sample includes only LDS people who all truly treat tithing as a "mandate" as opposed to a more realistic cross section of members including less-actives, non-full-tithers, and those described above.
Similarly, while other Christian denominations may or may not have a declared 10%, there may be unstated-but-generally-accepted contribution levels in many other; in other words, if we net out tithing for Mormons, some effort to net out a reasonable approximation of "mandated" donations in other denominations should be made.
I have to say, I have never really understood this "mandated" thing. I mean, I understand tithing as a condition of temple worthiness, and all that means. It is a powerful incentive. But, during my adult life I have been a full-tithe memeber, a partial-tithe member and a no tithing member. All while attending church and participating pretty fully. No one ever "mandated" that I do anything. When wanted to pay, I paid. When I didn't, I didn't. No tithing police were dispatched. Where does the mandated tithes thing come from?
Its amazing to find the differences between these marketing firms (churches) with the same product they spend most of their times/lives marketing...Jesus Christ, and one of them came up on top. The LDS.Church must be doing something right, isn't it? Their TITHING I understand is basically building schools, chapels, temples, etc...but their FAST-OFFERING is aimed mainly to their welfare & their charity outreach. Don't you think these other churches should learn from the Mormons & stop trying to compare themselves with them? "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free" I believe thats what the Jesus of the Bible said.
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