for those of us who won't believe revelation...
I was listening to the radio on the way home from work today. The Sabbath had already begun, so ordinarily I "should" perhaps have taken some action to change the station, or even have turned the radio off, rather than listen to my default evening drive-home fare of National Public Radio. I'm not actually a fan of public radio, mostly because I consistently detect a liberal bias in their programming (which for politics I'm ok with but when they celebrate gays and lesbians I just want to throw up!). But when I'm driving by myself, I usually prefer talk radio to music or silence, and FM sound quality to AM, which in San Diego in the evening currently rules out everything except NPR (and even they let me down after 7 p.m.!). And I find it can be highly informative. So I usually tolerate it, and this evening was no different. Through inaction and by default, therefore, I found myself listening to Marketplace. And I heard something interesting,... and remarkably appropriate.
Friday, December 14, 2007 - Marketplace - It's a fact: Charity pays dividends
(http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2007/12/14/philanthropy_dividends/)
As I've attended various churches in my life, I've heard it preached repeatedly that God instructs us to give 'tithes' and 'offerings' to His earthly administrative representatives, mostly as a matter of faith. Of course for a church to have this money is also considered useful and important in a practical sense, to facilitate the church's public and private ministry, and to be redistributed to the needy. This could be seen as self-serving by the skeptics; but with very few exceptions, churches in the Judeo-Christian tradition have a strong moral basis for this or similar teachings: Personal giving of time, resources, and money is part of the Judeo-Christian way of life: it's part of being good. So while some theologians may dispute whether religious giving is technically required for Christian spiritual salvation, every church would teach monetary generosity, both to the church itself and to others who need it.
But one of the most interesting (and seemingly humanly illogical) teachings there is about giving money to the church, is that while doing so, one may literally become richer. In the Bible, God promises to bless those who pay tithes (see Malachi 3). And I've heard dramatic testimonies to the effect that these blessings, for some people, have even included increased wealth. Still, to a pragmatic capitalist, the idea that deliberately giving away cash will result in a higher bank balance is usually a hard argument to sell.
And then today on the radio (you can hear it archived at the link I gave above),... on a secularist radio network (NPR), a university economist essentially claimed that it was true. He presented hard numerical evidence from scientific studies, showing that both individually and nationally, philanthropy tends to result in greater monetary wealth. He discussed some possible explanations, but mostly he just presented the fact of the correlation that he had discovered. It certainly wasn't a religious argument, nor did he discuss who the money should be given to; but still, I was amazed at how parallel his scientific conclusion was to the assertions we have been told to accept as a matter of faith in the word of God. I find it fascinating how as years go by, and scientists study the nature of our planet, our life, and our society, in our modern era of great knowledge, at a painstakingly slow pace, the teachings written down in the Bible thousands of years ago keep being confirmed. Perhaps our incredible Creator really did inspire that book, and perhaps he knew what he was talking about. ;)
Friday, December 14, 2007 - Marketplace - It's a fact: Charity pays dividends
(http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2007/12/14/philanthropy_dividends/)
As I've attended various churches in my life, I've heard it preached repeatedly that God instructs us to give 'tithes' and 'offerings' to His earthly administrative representatives, mostly as a matter of faith. Of course for a church to have this money is also considered useful and important in a practical sense, to facilitate the church's public and private ministry, and to be redistributed to the needy. This could be seen as self-serving by the skeptics; but with very few exceptions, churches in the Judeo-Christian tradition have a strong moral basis for this or similar teachings: Personal giving of time, resources, and money is part of the Judeo-Christian way of life: it's part of being good. So while some theologians may dispute whether religious giving is technically required for Christian spiritual salvation, every church would teach monetary generosity, both to the church itself and to others who need it.
But one of the most interesting (and seemingly humanly illogical) teachings there is about giving money to the church, is that while doing so, one may literally become richer. In the Bible, God promises to bless those who pay tithes (see Malachi 3). And I've heard dramatic testimonies to the effect that these blessings, for some people, have even included increased wealth. Still, to a pragmatic capitalist, the idea that deliberately giving away cash will result in a higher bank balance is usually a hard argument to sell.
And then today on the radio (you can hear it archived at the link I gave above),... on a secularist radio network (NPR), a university economist essentially claimed that it was true. He presented hard numerical evidence from scientific studies, showing that both individually and nationally, philanthropy tends to result in greater monetary wealth. He discussed some possible explanations, but mostly he just presented the fact of the correlation that he had discovered. It certainly wasn't a religious argument, nor did he discuss who the money should be given to; but still, I was amazed at how parallel his scientific conclusion was to the assertions we have been told to accept as a matter of faith in the word of God. I find it fascinating how as years go by, and scientists study the nature of our planet, our life, and our society, in our modern era of great knowledge, at a painstakingly slow pace, the teachings written down in the Bible thousands of years ago keep being confirmed. Perhaps our incredible Creator really did inspire that book, and perhaps he knew what he was talking about. ;)