Data-Driven Study Finds Christians Are The Most Charitable Americans

Ever hear these maxims? “Put your money where your mouth is.” Or “Where the rubber meets the road.” Then there is this one: “People don’t care about how much you know until they know how much you care.”

So where your money goes is an important measure of what you actually value, as opposed to what you say you value. This fact is even more true if you claim to be a follower of Jesus Christ, who said this at Matthew 6:21 – “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

But does being a follower of Jesus Christ actually make any difference in how Americans spend their money? The latest “State of the Bible” study by the American Bible Society (ABS) of the influence of the most popular book ever published presents a compelling case that Americans who follow Jesus Christ are the most generous people in the country.

“‘Scripture Engaged’ people are far more likely than others to donate to charity. Four out of five of them report giving, compared to just over half of the ‘Bible Disengaged.’ Slightly more than two of three in the ‘Movable Middle’ reported charitable contributions,” according to the ABS study.

“Scripture Engaged people also give far more money than others. Their estimated amount given in 2021 to all charities, not just churches, was $2,907 per household—more than three times the average of the Bible Disengaged and more than four times that of the Movable Middle,” the study continues.

Overall, Scripture Engaged households gave an estimated $145 billion to charitable causes in 2021.

The ABS study is based on interviews conducted between January 10 and the 28th with 2,598 individuals and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percent. Respondents live in all 50 states, plus the District of Columbia, and are all 18 years of age and older.

• By “Scripture Engaged,” the ABS study includes individuals who score 100 or higher on 14 measures of their involvement with the Bible through reading scripture on a regular basis (that is, daily or nearly daily reading and consciously seeking to live by its values).
• By “Moveable Middle,” the ABS study includes those who score between 70 and 99 (that is, occasional reading of Scripture, agreement with or neutrality about its values).
• By “Scripture Unengaged,” the ABS study includes those who score less than 70.

So, given the raw data on charitable giving, it seems pretty clear that people who are most engaged with the Word of God, the Bible, are the most likely to be generous givers to those in need.

When asked, for example, if the Bible has a lot of influence over what they buy with their money,  73 percent strongly agreed and were regular donors to charitable causes, compared to 23 percent who agreed but were not donors.

Among those respondents who strongly disagreed that the Bible has a lot of influence on what they buy, 53 percent were charitable donors, while 47 percent were not.

When analyzed in the context of how a respondent scores on indexes for human flourishing, meaning and purpose and hope, the difference between people who are Scripture Engaged and those who are not is dramatically illustrated.

Using a very low bar of giving only $4 a week to charity, those who give that much scored 7.6 on the human flourishing index, compared to 6.7 for those who gave nothing. The numbers are 7.7 versus 6.6 on the meaning and purpose scale and 18.2 versus 15.9 on the hope index.

The study’s authors add the standard caution about correlation not meaning causation, but not that the data nevertheless “is an invitation to dig more deeply into the relationship between two variables. Does charity create feelings of flourishing, hope, and purpose? Or do people who are flourishing, hopeful, and purposeful want to share their good feeling with others? Perhaps both are true.

“These findings might suggest that people find a sense of meaning by giving to a worthy cause. Or perhaps people give to support causes that fit the purpose they already have. Taken together, these correlations indicate that people live well when they give well, and vice versa.”

Other findings from the ABS study include:

• People who are Scripture Engaged gave six-times as much to churches as those in the Movable Middle and 13-times as much as those who are Bible Disengaged. When it comes to non-church giving, Scripture Engaged Americans gave 9 percent more than the Bible Disengaged and 165 percent more than the Movable Middle.
• Americans tend to support local charities more than nationally recognized organizations: the Scripture Engaged gave 12 percent to national religious charities compared to 72 percent toward their local church.
• Older people are more likely to give, which can partially be attributed to economics. Five out of six in the Elder generation give to charity compared to half of Generation Z, and, while Gen X has the highest income of any group, they are less likely to give than the two older generations.

In other words, the numbers strongly suggest that accepting Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, and making His Word, the Bible, the key influence on your life decisions makes a profound difference in how generous you will be toward those in need in our society.

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