Today a friend said:
If budgets are moral documents then Hell is going to be over-crowded with church folk.
and another replied:
also pretty much most families. Do you have a budget? Do you look to the interests of others before the interests of your own?
I have been thinking a bit about church budgets lately. It started when I heard that the U.S. set a new record for charitable giving last year despite the economic downturn (from an article by Philip Rucker in the Washington Post):
Americans donated $306 billion to charities in 2007...most of the donations, about $229 billion, came from individuals...giving from private foundations increased 7 percent and through personal bequests 4 percent, adjusted for inflation...international aid agencies, environmental groups and human service charities saw the largest increases in charitable gifts. Gifts to international groups, which were so small 20 years ago that the category was nonexistent in the survey, have grown steadily, increasing by 13 percent last year to $13 billion.
I've mentioned before that Robert Reich has argued that most charitable donations are made by the rich to institutions that serve the rich:
This year's charitable donations are expected to total more than $200 billion, a record. But a big portion of this impressive sum -- especially from the wealthy, who have the most to donate -- is going to culture palaces: to the operas, art museums, symphonies and theaters where the wealthy spend much of their leisure time. It's also being donated to the universities they attended and expect their children to attend, perhaps with the added inducement of knowing that these schools often practice a kind of affirmative action for "legacies."
It turns out that only an estimated 10% of all charitable deductions are directed at the poor.
I started thinking about churches as charitable institutions and how church-spending typically fits this pattern too. What fraction of American's "charitable giving" to church actually goes to the poor and needy? Churches have ministers to pay and facilities to maintain, so what fraction of a typical church's budget goes to benevolence? For us, it's about 7 %. I'm not saying that the other 93 % doesn't go to good things too, but much of it isn't charity as I would define it.
I'm glad Americans are setting giving records again this year, but I wonder if our priorities couldn't use some adjustment.
Theme by Danetsoft and Danang Probo Sayekti inspired by Maksimer
Comments
This is where I am at
This is where I am at: Jesus talks about giving to the needy in Matthew 6:1-4. He says "when you give" not "if you give."
In preparing to preach from that passage this week I encountered a lot of people who approached that text as an opportunity to push for church contribution.
Yet very little of the vast majority of churches allocate more than a fraction of their budget toward giving to the poor. And in many cases what they do give is almost grudgingly and from a ministry that is not deemed one of the important ones. Instead we give our money to ministers, facilities and ministries designed to entertain and/or comfort the constituency.
Of course, as a paid minister, that means that I see the downfall of organized ministry in the 21st century. I am a part of an organization that is a radical departure from what the vision of Christ was for the church. If I am completely honest I admit that I take from the poor so I can have a full-time career.
And maybe the problem is that we view it as "charity" rather than faithfulness and discipleship. As a result we often in our benevolent ministries perpetuate a hierarchy of haves and have nots because we simply give out of a small allotment of resources and bid them godspeed rather than cultivating a relationship where poverty can be alleviated.