Passing the Plate: Why American Christians Don't Give Away More Money. By Christian Smith and Michael O. Emerson, with Patricia Snell. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008. xiv + 274 pp. $24.95 cloth.

摘要

Americans, and American Christians in particular, pride themselves on being angenerous people. According to the authors of Passing the Plate, that is a ratherngenerous use of “generous.” Giving more than non-religious people is fairlyneasy to do, since their average giving rate nationwide is 1.1 percent.nAmerican Christians, by contrast, give an average of 2.9 percent. Thenfaithful of other religions in America give more—3.3 percent—a figure thatnis pumped up a bit by the 5.8 percent giving rate of Mormons, who are notntreated as Christians by the authors, despite their own claims to that identity.