Religion & Law

A new study finds that while giving to churches is down (measured as average annual giving per member), giving to religious charities is up (measured as size of average annual donation).  This is intriguing, and I wonder if part of this development is due to increasing global awareness among American Christians.  I could be totally wrong on this, but my sense is that Christians, thanks in part to the efforts of folks like Rick Warren, Ron Sider, and yes, even Bono, have become less content to focus on new cushions for the choir loft, and more interested in helping secure clean water in Sudan.  (I have no statistics to back this up, though, so please point me in the right direction if such statistics do exist.)  Another intriguing statistic: 92% of charitable giving by those under age 25 is to churches or religious charities.