Religious People Are More Charitable, Says Expert

By Monisha Bansal
CNSNews.com Staff Writer
December 19, 2006

(CNSNews.com) - Faith "swamps" all other factors when it comes to which Americans give to charity and which don't, an economics professor said Monday.

"People give because of their values," Arthur Brooks of Syracuse University said during a discussion at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C.

Even secular charities benefit more from donors who have a religious faith than they do from secular donors. Religious people are 10 percent more likely to give to secular causes than secular people, he said.

But Brooks also found that "charity follows political lines in this country," with conservatives more generous in their charitable giving than liberals -- a factor he linked to the idea that more conservatives tend to be religious, rather than to political ideology. Continue reading

Posted by Mohamed at December 21, 2006 11:38 AM