Passing the Plate shows that few American Christians donate generously to religious and charitable causes — a parsimony that seriously undermines the work of churches and ministries. Far from the 10 percent of one’s income that tithing requires, American Christians’ financial giving typically amounts, by some measures, to less than one percent of annual earnings. And a startling one out of five self-identified Christians gives nothing at all.
This eye-open… More >>
Passing the Plate: Why American Christians Don’t Give Away More Money
“Passing the Plate – Why American Christians Don’t Give Away More Money” by Christian Smith, Michael O. Emerson with Patricia Snell, Oxford University Press, 270 pages.
I was attracted to this book because I am a Christian that believes in the biblical principal of tithes and offerings. America has many mega-churches and my hometown of Houston is home to some of those churches such as Lakewood (Pastor Joel Osteen), New Light Christian Center Church (Bishop I.V. Hilliard), Windsor Village United Methodist Church (Kirbyjon Caldwell), Brookhollow Baptist Church (Pastor Ralph West), Second Baptist Church (Dr. Ed Young), and Woodlands Church (Pastor Kerry Shook) to name a few. The ministries of these few churches alone would lead the average person to believe that American Christians must be putting something in that plate when it passes.
The book’s introduction states, “The goal of this book is not to morally chide or condemn American Christians for their tightfistedness… the primary goal of this book, rather, is to try to better understand and explain American Christians’ lack of generosity, from a sociological perspective.” And on that note this book made me reflect upon the many research papers that I had to write when I was in graduate school earning my Master of Business Administration Degree.
The book comes off as a scholarly research paper with the following chapters: Giving to Change the World, Failed Generosity, Toward Explaining Ungenerous Giving, The View from Pulpits and Pews and A Mental Experiment in Raised Expectations. The Appendix provides all sources of information used in the book.
I felt like the most informative section in the book was found in Appendix A: Christian Church Teachings on Financial Giving. The different hypothesis makes for great debate among book clubs, church members or God robbers.
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Rating: 2 / 5
I read this book expecting to find something of interest. Immediately I was turned off by the dry, if scholarly presentation but the subject was interesting, so I kept reading in hope that I’d find out something I didn’t know. I was disappointed! The only items I found at all informative were charts outlining how much money would be collected if the Christian Churches in America began mandatory tithing (the amounts reported are staggering!)
Otherwise, this book will gather dust at the back of my shelves.
Rating: 2 / 5
This book is completely flawed, from beginning to end, for a number of reasons, from disingenuousness to an inability to construct a logical argument.
The authors start out saying their purpose is not to chide or condemn Americans for “their tightfistedness”. The choice of words right there reveals the lie in the statement. Throughout the book they harp on the ideas of selfishness and greed.
That the authors lust after the money that they have decided people are immorally holding back is painfully obvious from the long, pointless section in the book that describes in detail, down to the penny, what they would do with that money if they could get it. Fantasy budgeting means nothing. If you analyze their fantasy spending, however, it gets a bit strange. Hiring 55,200 ministers at 150% of the average US income? $75 million dollars for “cross-race immersion programs”?
Then we get to the numbers that “prove” Americans’ tightfistedness. Take the graph with percentage of income given on one Y axis and total dollars of income on a second Y axis (calendar years is the X axis). The graph shows that as income increased, *percentage* of income given remained basically flat. While the graph looks damning, the hidden meaning in mixing percentage and total in the comparison is that the total amount given *increased* along with income. However, the authors says that one would “reasonably expect that percentage given would grow along with the total amount of income”. However, this “reasonable” expectation does not take into account real demands on a family’s income that have also changed over time. The authors even mention one economist’s estimate that over the past 30 years a family’s fixed costs have risen from 54% to 75% of income. But they dismiss this with little more than ‘we don’t think that matters’. Then they come up with a list of things they think people shouldn’t be spending money on. A very flawed list, not least in the fact that it uses dollar amounts for *all* Americans, when most of the rest of their analysis is based on dollar amounts for Christians only.
And so it goes. The final chapter includes 10 pages of suggestions for wresting those dollars from church members’ tight fists. One is left wondering where the greed really is to be found.
The single greatest flaw of the book is to be found in Appendix A, in which the authors excerpt the teachings of various denominations, reprinting only the paragraphs dealing with donating money. What they inadvertently reveal here is that selfishness and greed is not the problem characteristic of church-goers: The authors have missed the simpler and more compelling argument that, if a person joins an organization (such as a church) and identifies himself by the name of that organization, shouldn’t he feel an obligation to observe the rules of that organization? And the authors show that many churches have very specific financial obligations outlined in their teachings. And yet people ignore them, as we all know they ignore many other aspects of their church’s teachings. The problem of tightfistedness of the congregation is not a financial problem, it is one aspect of a general disconnect between the individual and the church, a disconnect that is present in *all* aspects of church life. The answer to getting that desired 10% tithe is not financial auditing, or teaching children about financial giving, or “anything churches can do to create critical distance between their church members and mass consumerism”, or any of the other of the author’s suggestions. The answer lies in figuring out the paradox of why so many people consider it necessary to declare themselves a “member” of a particular church and simultaneously ignore large portions of *all* the teachings of that church, not merely the “give us your money” parts.
Rating: 1 / 5
This book tries to explain why American Christians aren’t giving enough money to their church. It provides a lot of demographic information and charts that are useful in some respects to church leaders and even the general public. While some may question the authors including Mormon and Catholics as members of the Christian faith, the information provided is perfectly valid and in some cases very interesting. I am not sure how this book will actually change anything, except perhaps to serve as a reminder to Christians of all denominations that giving is necessary and important for the health and growth of the church.
I’d recommend this book for casual reading but not as a serious text to help churches get more income if they are struggling. A better solution would be to have the pastor have a heart to heart talk with the congregation and let them know how important their giving actually is to the health of the church.
Rating: 3 / 5
Don’t be fooled by the title, this is really a reference book. As such, it’s probably readable — but for someone wanting to know, say, why church pledge campaigns have such a difficult time, the information is hidden. There, but hidden.
Rating: 4 / 5