Are Christians really mean and selfish?

By Tom Quiner

“The more some people profess to be “Christians,” the meaner and selfish they seem. Their refrain seems to be, “It’s my money, and I know best how to spend it.”

These are the words of a letter writer in this morning’s Des Moines Register. They reflect the thinking of the political Left in this country, thinking that feels a need to denigrate Christians who don’t go along with the radical Left’s agenda for America. It reflects the Left’s propensity to stereotype broad swaths of society with whom they disagree.

The question is: is she correct?

Syracuse professor, Arthur Brooks, agreed with the above writer’s premise, that liberals were probably more generous than conservatives. He set out to research and quantify the results. What he discovered astounded him:

• Liberals make more money than conservatives.

• Despite this income gap, conservatives give 30 percent more to charity than liberals.

• Religious conservatives give an average of $2367 per year to charity compared to $1347 for the rest of the country.

• Religious conservatives give more to secular charities than everyone else.

• Conservatives donate more blood, sweat, and tears than everyone else as measured by blood given to blood banks and personal time devoted to directly helping others.

• Brooks looked at attitudes of folks concerning distribution of income and religion. Folks who do not believe in income redistribution schemes and attend church services gives away a hundred times more than folks who do believe in income redistribution schemes and don’t attend religious services.

• Secular liberals are the “whitest” and richest of the four groups Mr. Brooks identified. Nonetheless, they give 19% less to charity than religious conservatives.

Mr. Brooks said “I had no option but to change my views.” Read more about his study in his book, “Who Really Cares?”

If the amount of blood, time, and money given to others is a good gauge of compassion, religious conservatives are quantifiably more compassionate than secular liberals.

Secular liberals like to talk about it.

Secular liberals like to set up government programs to let someone else (government workers) do it.

Religious conservatives believe Christ has called them to roll up their sleeves and do it themselves.

That doesn’t sound very mean and selfish to me.