Is it true that God has blessed the United States? If so, why has He done so? Many evangelicals will answer with the thought that God has blessed the United States because of or to encourage a Christian nation and the resulting history of missions giving one would expect from a Christian nation.
I am not suggesting this idea is true or untrue. As a patriot I am drawn to it. As a Christian of the Restoration Movement, I’m not sure there is Biblical support for it, the terrifying little book of Malachi (see 3:10) notwithstanding.
Acting as if this true, however, our own federal government tracks cash contributions of citizens to charities. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (“BLSâ€) Consumer Expenditure Survey tracked the spending habits of 30,000 U.S. families. This data has been analyzed by a ministry known as empty tomb, inc. [lowercase letters are used by the organization].
empty tomb, inc. found that for 2005, Americans gave $114 billion in cash contributions for charity. The organization’s analysis of the BLS data also found that on a percentage basis, “poor†households, those earning under $10,000 annually and those earning under $40,000 annually, reported a higher percentage of their after-tax income was given away. But the next highest percentage belonged to seemingly “well off†families earning more than $150,000 per year.
Unfortunately, the Christian nation that has been blessed in order to foster missions, according to many Christians, is reportedly giving only giving 1.7% of its after-tax income to charity.
Joel Belz reported in World Magazine about this report and offered his conclusion that the report seemed to suggest that Christians were giving about 2% of their income to “denominational world missions.†Belz then went on to suggest that even if evangelicals, which would include Restoration Movement Christians, were actually giving a higher percentage, it was still a frightening idea, especially if, indeed, God’s blessings of the United States has in whole or in part been motivated by missions giving. After all, how long could the less well off carry the well off? How long could the evangelicals carry the ecumenicals?
It should be noted that the empty tomb, inc. report itself suggests that giving to “church, religious organizations†is higher than the 1.7% average for all charitable giving. It also suggests that households with annual incomes up to $50,000 annually gave more than the U.S. average charitable giving of 1.7% to their churches.
The very next week, in World Magazine, Belz suggested that the drought afflicting many parts of the United States might be the result of God spinning the spigots to remind everyone who is in charge. Belz did not link the two articles – I am doing that – so it should not be assumed he meant to go so far in assertions about God’s motives. I doubt if he meant to suggest that Malachi was describing a linear causation rather than a spiritual reality. I think Belz did mean to suggest that our motives, our righteousness, and our fidelity to the Father should be scrutinized in light of these events, and that would include our commitment to missions, both at home and abroad, and I would agree. I am concerned that our comparatively weak commitment to giving, especially to missions at home and abroad, will hurt us.
By the way, for those outside of Oklahoma in the drought stricken regions, Oklahoma, the home of the “Dust Bowl,†has “endured†more rainfall in 2007 so far than in any year since 1908 (more than 53 inches compared to typical rainfall of 21-23 inches). This certainly proves the “rain falls on the good and the evil.†Matthew 5:45.
