First, I did not say people shouldn’t contribute to a religious charity, I said they should donate to a very specific religious charity, which is a very different thing. A quick Google search would give you lists of options. For instance, I did that and one that came up was L.A. Family Housing that puts 400 people a year into their own homes. People Assisting the Homeless built 850 houses since 2013 and found homes for some 10,000 people. The People Concern in LA helped 1,900 find homes in the last year. The Los Angeles LGBT Center provides home for homeless LGBT youth, many of whom were thrown out of their family homes by parents who believe that’s the godly thing to do.
Second, you are very, very wrong when you claim “the non religious left has the lowest charitable donations compared to the Right.” That is a false claim based on how tax codes work in the U.S. The bulk of that money goes directly to churches, most of which have NO charitable services at all. Many evangelical big wigs use the funds to buy multimillion dollar homes for their pastor along with private jets and the like. The IRS says if it goes to a church it is “charitable” even if the church is question is very uncharitable and vicious.
The IRS makes no distinction between a “charitable church” that spends the money on luxuries for the preacher and one that does actual charitable work (the minority of them).
For instance, the Knights of Columbus is considered a religious charity. Donations were given to them and counted as charity, and then $2 million of that was given to a political organization to stop same-sex couples from marrying. That was consider a “charitable” donation. People who gave donations to defend marriage equality were not allowed to claim their donations as charitable. Money channelled through a church for political purposes is “charity” but donations directly to political campaigns are not charity for the secular.
The state with the highest “charitable” given is Utah but most of it is donations to promote the Mormon sect. While they offer some charity to members they pretty much ignore everyone else. But 10% of disposable income (a tithe?) is given in Utah and almost all for non charitable religious activity. In West Hollywood 9% of all disposable income earned is given to private charities, most of which do actual charitable work, and aren’t fronts for cults and sects.
The Chronicle of Philanthropy, which reports on charitable given, reported:
When religious giving isn’t counted, the geography of giving is very different. Some states in the Northeast would jump into the top 10 when secular gifts alone are counted. New York would vault from №18 to №2 in the rankings, and Pennsylvania would climb from №40 to №4.
They also noted that the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University looked into the claim that residents of New Hampshire were uncharitable and found it false. They gave as much to secular charities as anyone, just less to churches. The head of the Center doing the study said, “”New Hampshire gives next to nothing to religious organizations but their secular giving is identical to the rest of country.”
Giving to most churches is not charitable and that is what conservatives are using. I should note libertarians are not conservatives nor part of the left.
