A Generosity of Words

Is there anything more satisfying than being right? ...OK, but besides that?

I've written before about how Evangelical Christians are the most caring and generous people in this country... And now an economist agrees.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Syracuse University professor Arthur C. Brooks is about to become the darling of the religious right in America -- and it's making him nervous.

The child of academics, raised in a liberal household and educated in the liberal arts, Brooks has written a book that concludes religious conservatives donate far more money than secular liberals to all sorts of charitable activities, irrespective of income. In the book, he cites extensive data analysis to demonstrate that values advocated by conservatives -- from church attendance and two-parent families to the Protestant work ethic and a distaste for government-funded social services -- make conservatives more generous than liberals.

The book, titled "Who Really Cares: The Surprising Truth About Compassionate Conservatism" (Basic Books, $26), is due for release Nov. 24.

The book's basic findings are that conservatives who practice religion, live in traditional nuclear families and reject the notion that the government should engage in income redistribution are the most generous Americans, by any measure.

Conversely, secular liberals who believe fervently in government entitlement programs give far less to charity. They want everyone's tax dollars to support charitable causes and are reluctant to write checks to those causes, even when governments don't provide them with enough money... he says it forcefully, pointing out that liberals give less than conservatives in every way imaginable, including volunteer hours and donated blood.

His main finding is quite startling, that the people who talk the most about caring actually fork over the least.
http://www.beliefnet.com/story/204/story_20419_1.html

"People who talk the most..." Liberals talk a good game. They effortlessly claim the moral high ground for themselves... with words, catch-phrases, and sound bites that fall noble on the ear and stir our innermost desires for justice and equality. Their kind and politically correct words have been duping the masses for decades.

We Evangelical Christians are as hypocritical, spoiled, and hedonistic as the next rich American, but we should never fall prey to the fable that we are somehow callous and less caring than the secular liberals. It seems that liberal charity is limited to a generosity of words.