Michael Kruse reviews the book “Who Really Cares?” by Arthur C. Brooks, a study from a secular viewpoint of charitable giving in the USA and elsewhere, and how it relates to political and religious orientation. The basic conclusion of the book seems to be that religious people give much more to charity than secular people do, but that there is little difference between the giving of political conservatives and liberals. I must say I am surprised that Brooks and Kruse call this “The Surprising Truth”; to me it is rather predictable.

I was more struck by one paragraph from Kruse’s review:

One particularly interesting question Brooks deals with is the casual (sic) relationship between charity and prosperity, which seem to go together. Brooks concludes that charity actually leads to prosperity. Charity makes you feel good about yourself and more connected to others. This connectedness and other-centeredness are precisely the requisite traits that are needed to advance in business and to improve economically. Also, givers are considerably more happy than non-givers. (150)

(I assume that he means “causal” rather than “casual”.)

Now this sounds very like the teaching of the “prosperity gospel”, that the more people give, the more they will receive. Of course the prosperity preachers say that this is because God will bless the giver, whereas for Brooks it is a matter of the attitude of the giver. But perhaps there is no clear division here, God blesses the giver by giving them the right character to receive and to prosper. Certainly generous giving releases the person from a kind of mean-spiritedness which makes it very hard to find true prosperity and even harder to find happiness in it.

Now I utterly reject the kind of teaching which I see in the begging letters sent by some Christian ministries, of the kind “Send us money so that God will give you even more”. This is simply playing on people’s greed and gullibility. I suppose that some people teach like this because it works, because many people (but not me) do give in response to such letters. But I consider this to be immoral, although not necessarily a sign that the ministry itself is fundamentally wrong.

Nevertheless, there is teaching in the Bible, as well as in Brooks’ secular study, that giving leads to prosperity. Jesus said:

Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

Luke 6:38 (TNIV)

So let’s not use wrong teaching about giving as an excuse to be mean. Let us give generously, not in order to get rich but in order to bless God and his work in the world. And we can expect that God will provide for us abundantly.