Poll: Only 13% of professing Christians tithe consistently

by Seth Udinski
Poll: Only 13% of professing Christians tithe consistently

Seth Udinski, FISM News

 

One of the most important acts of obedience for Christians is the practice of tithing, giving a portion of one’s money back to the Lord, knowing it all belongs to Him anyway.

However, according to a poll from Grey Matter Research called “The Generosity Factor: Evangelicals and Giving,” many professing Christians do not give regularly to their church or another religious organization.  The poll revealed that of the 1,000 evangelicals in the study, only 13% of them regularly give 10% of their income.

Additionally, the study concluded that half of those polled give less than 1% of their income to churches and charities combined:

The median for church giving is 0.57% — yes, that’s just over one-half of one percent — while for charitable giving, it is 0.1% (or one-tenth of one percent). Total giving to church and charity combined shows a median figure of exactly 1%. Think about that figure for a moment: half of all American evangelical Protestants give less than 1% of their household income to church or charity.

The study also included the the average monetary amount that most Christians give to churches and charities in the last year. The number for churches was $1,923, and the number for charities was $622.

The study affirmed that this trend exists across the financial spectrum:

The average generosity for the lowest-income evangelicals is 2.4%, rising to 3.2% for those earning $30,000 to less than $60,000. But then it only bumps up slightly to 3.5% for those earning $60,000 to under $100,000, and slightly again to 3.7% for those with six-figure incomes. So the lowest-income evangelical households show lower giving levels, but there is relatively little difference in average generosity levels between an evangelical in a household earning $50,000 and in one earning $150,000.

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