Friday, 31 August 2007 by Paul Dubuc.

Given a fair reading, this book will be an eye-opener for some, and an encouragement to others. I hope there’s no cause for cynicism or gloating. Keep in mind that this is a broad brush, “big picture” kind of book. Brooks is careful to point out that his study is not predictive of individual behavior, but measures influential factors on a large scale. Subtitled America’s Charity Divide: “Who Gives, Who Doesn’t, and Why It Matters“, this is fascinating and well documented study of correlations between charitable giving and things like religion, sociopolitical and economic views, family structure and work ethic. Brooks finds a very strong correlation between religion and giving; not just giving to religious charities but to secular ones as well, giving time and money to help others. Conservatives were much more charitable as a group than Liberals owing largely to a difference in philosophy on who is responsible for caring for those in need. Those who place less responsibility on government are more generous with their own time and money. The working poor tend to give a much larger percentage of their time and money for helping others than any other group. Charitable values are largely passed on by example from parents to children in intact healthy families. Brooks also draws some interesting comparisons of charitable activity in the USA and Europe. He finds that where government becomes more of a caretaker, people become less charitable and less prosperous. Brooks finds a strong correlation between charitable activity and the economic prosperity of a country, seeing trends that discourage personal giving a worrisome. Many commonly held stereotypes are contradicted in this book. Brooks was very surprised to see his own findings contradict the assumptions he had going in to the study. I came away from the book feeling encouraged that there are a lot of good people in this country who ought to get to know one another better. I highly recommend it.

[Edit 19 January 2008] An interesting review of this book from Books & Culture can be found here.

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Tuesday, 26 June 2007 by Paul Dubuc.

PBS recently aired a very interesting documentary that explores the concept of the “Wall of Separation” between Church and State, its history and relationship to the First Amendment of the U. S. Constitution. I think that, on the whole, this is a fair and balanced presentation. It offers a needed corrective to the extreme separationism that has dominated our church-state legal relations over the last half-century. So the program has come under some harsh criticism from those who favor that extreme as well as some gushing praise from those who feel they’ve been persecuted by it. You can search the Web for opinions, but there’s a good summary and response to the feedback in the PBS Ombudsman Column, “Is That Church-State Wall Just a Metaphor?“ I share this program’s point of view and I think it describes a delicate balance that must be maintained for our society to stay healthy. The program hasn’t been aired widely yet. Call your local PBS station and ask for it. The DVD is available here.

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