And now…More response to George Will…
March 28, 2008

This is a letter to the Austin American Statesman that my fellow AAIM (Austin Area Interreligious Ministries) boardmember, Reverend Bill Young,
submitted in response to George Will's column (link provided to Mr. Will's column at the bottom of Rev. Young's response.)
Thank you,
Sara


To quote Benjamin Disraeli: "There are three kinds of lies: lies,
damned lies and statistics." In his column, March 27, George Will
used all three, but mainly statistics, to argue that conservatives are
more generous than liberals. Reading between the lines, what his
argument really shows is that religiosity correlates with charitable
giving. But since charity includes contributions to churches, there
is no direct correlation between the contributions one claims on a tax
return and the alleviation of suffering in society. Churches provide
wonderful spiritual, emotional and social benefits. But they're often
very inefficient conduits of human services. $100 that a
religious conservative sends to Bennie Hinn likely has much less
direct social benefit than $10 a secular liberal contributes to
the United Way. Is the conservative ten times more compassionate? I
think not. The conservative dogma that religious institutions should
supplant government in providing the social safety net is a cruel and
cynical farce. The famously erudite Mr. Will would do well to put down
that thesaurus and pick up a book on critical thinking.

Rev. Bill Young
Associate Pastor
Metropolitan Community Church of Austin

LINK TO GEORGE WILL'S ARTICLE:

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/opinion/op_ed/view.bg?articleid=1083043&srvc=rss

posted by Sara Hickman at 07:03 am
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