AMERICA AND ITS MONEY
While Americans’ spending power increased 31 percent from 1968 to 1985, the percentage of disposable income they gave decreased 8.5 percent. In other words, they found that people valued their “lifestyles” more than their church. Have things improved? The researchers waited two years and updated their study recently for the North American Conference on Christian Philanthropy. They found statistics for 26 of the 31 denominations, including all of the large ones such as Episcopalians, Methodists and Southern Baptists and 99 percent of the membership in the 1968-85 study. They told the conference that things had not improved. Things had gotten worse. From 1985 through 1988 — the latest figures available — Americans’ disposable income after taxes and inflation increased by 8 percent, while the percentage of income given to those churches studied decreased by 5.64 percent. Though the Ronsvalles acknowledge that their surveyed churchgoers’ donations keep increasing in dollars — $302 a member in 1988 as compared with $296 a…
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