Dawkins suggests we abandon the promotion of religion as grounds for charitable status. I can’t say I altogether disagree with him, but his reasoning I do disagree with.
“The benefits of this to society would be great,” he says, “Especially in the United States, where the sums of tax-free money sucked in by churches, and polishing the heels of already well-heeled televangelists, reaches levels that could fairly be describes as obscene.”
I wasn’t aware that by some secretly nefarious network of financial back doors and envelopes labeled with secret codes, my charitable giving ultimately ended up further heeling the likes of Oral Roberts and Benny Hinn. Surely I should have been responsible enough to ask the financial officer of my church to ensure my giving was used for things like helping the poor, hosting the community, and generally making people’s lives better. But wait, that is where my money goes.
I do get his point, but his brush is too broad. Like Dawkins, the excesses of some televangelists disgust me, but they are the equivalent of rock stars in the culture and as such are the exception to the rule. The rule is – in the music industry as well the religion industry (for lack of a better word) – for every rock star there are 1000 or more independents working for the love of it. I know because my dad was one who toiled in the trenches, sacrificing an auto industry job of 17 years to become a pastor, making less than his 20-year-old son who was two years into his career at a lower paying factory. I have plenty more stories of people who gave shunned the very thing Dawkins accuses them of pursuing.
So we’re back to making flashpoints into paints and using wide brushes on everyone within reach. But this money-lust is a common accusation and so it deserves further thought. I cannot speak except from personal experience, and in my experience most ministers are not getting rich – not even close, and accusations to the contrary only inspire further battles involving naming the names of who’s bad on the ‘other team’.
“The love of money is the root of all evil.” Not the money itself, but the love of it. In so many cases to mention money in the same breath as religion is considered tantamount to passing wind at a dinner party. You might be surprised to learn that making a living from the gospel is not against the instruction of the gospel itself. Milking it is, earning a living is not.
This is Part V in a series on Richard Dawkins’ book The God Delusion. For more posts on this topic go to my Richard Dawkins page.
