Roy Lloyd: Open Hands, Open Hearts

A report in The New York Times, which primarily focused on what the top two Republican presidential candidates and the president gave to charity, also looked at giving by various sectors of the religious community.  

Thirty-five percent of all donations last year came from people espousing a religious belief.  Members of only one religious group collectively gave more than 5% to churches and charities, while the next most generous group gave but 2.9%.  At the bottom of religious giving was a rate of point .6 percent. 

A graph showed that average giving by church members has steadily trended downward from 1968 through 2009-from 3.1% to 2.4%.  That sad statistic demonstrates that people of faith can talk a good game about being benevolent, but don't "put up" what would validate their claims. 

A professor of sociology at Notre Dame said in the article, "Any religion makes you more likely to engage in voluntary financial giving."  If that's true, it might be time for congregants of all sorts to hear, once again, about open hands and open hearts. 

This is Roy Lloyd.

[Originally presented as a radio commentary on 1010 WINS, New York, N.Y.]