Are We Really That Generous?

During the
Christmas season, no one wants to be called a Scrooge, which has become an
enduring cultural name for a tightfisted, joyless person. We Americans like to
think of ourselves as generous, not as Scrooges. But the current recession is
exposing our miserly streak.

According to
the Giving USA study, donations from individual Americans dropped 2.7 percent
compared with 2007. This is the first such decline since 1987.  You may
read headlines that total giving last year exceeded $300 billion and think that
is a lot of money. In some ways it is, but if you break it down, you’ll see
that the average American barely gives daily the cost of a premium cup of
coffee. 

Christians
are doing better, thank God. But by how much?

In the book Who
Really Cares, Arthur Brooks documents that people who place faith and
family at the top of their priority list tend to give more to people in need
than those who are not religious. Further, there is a link between fervency of
faith and generosity in America. The more active you are in church, the more
generous you are likely to be with your time and money.

While the
average person in America-religious and nonreligious-gives about 1 percent of
his or her income, Roman Catholics give, on average, 1.5 percent apiece, Mainline
Protestants 2.8 percent and evangelicals nearly 4 percent. And it’s not
all going to the church, either.

While the
single largest chunk of Christian giving goes to religion, a study
entitled “The Charitable Behavior of Americans” indicates that 73 percent of
all contributions that go to nonreligious
charities also come from the same group that supports religion and
claims religious membership and involvement. Why might this be? The study notes
that local churches provide the spiritual and moral underpinnings that motivate
individuals to give.

And yet we
Christians might qualify as Scrooges, too. Self-identified Christians in the
United States (about 76 percent of the population) have seen their giving
steadily decline for 40 years in real terms, after adjusting for inflation.
Even as we have grown wealthier, we have given less. Does that remind you of
anyone?

A recent
study published by Oxford University Press, “Passing the Plate,” found that if
we Christians would increase our giving to 10 percent, which many believe is
the biblical standard, the amount to help the needy and other good causes
nationally would jump by $85.5 billion a year. With needs growing all around
us, can we afford not to?

But with
economic indicators bleak and growing apprehension about the future, joy and
charity may both be in short supply this season. More and more of our giving is
coming from our leftovers rather than off the top, as Scripture suggests.

Scrooge is
the epitome of the miser in our cultural imagination. So we need to remember
that he actually ends A Christmas Carol as a reformed man. “I will
honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year,” Scrooge
proclaims. “I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future…” His newfound
generosity is not a flash in the pan. It becomes part of his character.
Scrooge, the ex-miser, now gives from the heart, not simply because the season
calls for it.

As people of
faith face Christmas and the New Year to follow, we are in a position to make a
dramatic difference in charitable giving and to help fulfill the Great
Commission. Let’s put generosity at the top of our list of resolutions for
2010. Scrooge didn’t remain a miser and, by God’s grace, neither should
we.

Wesley
K Willmer is Senior Vice President of the Evangelical Council for Financial
Accountability (ECFA)–(www.ecfa.org). Recent books include “God and Your Stuff” and
“Revolution in Generosity.”