Secularists Donate to Haiti, Too . . . So Can You

Many people of all races and creeds are donating to disaster relief in Haiti. The secularist Center for Inquiry has established a fund going to Doctors without Borders. Why should you use it?

The Skeptics and Humanists Aid and Relief Effort (SHARE) is a project of the Center for Inquiry and its affiliates, the Council for Secular Humanism and the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. 100% of donations through SHARE will be forwarded directly to Doctors without Borders.

Why should I give through SHARE instead of directly to Doctors without Borders?

There is a longstanding perception — supported by research — that secularists donate less of their income to charity . . . even to secular charities. However, donations to groups such as the Red Cross, Doctors without Borders, and the like are not tracked by religion, and the data are self-reported and linked to “religious participation” rather than actual belief:

How do religious and secular people vary in their charitable behavior? To answer this, I turn to data collected expressly to explore patterns in American civic life. The Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey (sccbs) was undertaken in 2000 by researchers at universities throughout the United States and the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research. The data consist of nearly 30,000 observations drawn from 50 communities across the United States and ask individuals about their “civic behavior,” including their giving and volunteering during the year preceding the survey.

From these data, I have constructed two measures of religious participation. First, the group I refer to as “religious” are the respondents that report attending religious services every week or more often. This is 33 percent of the sample. Second, the group I call “secular” report attending religious services less than a few times per year or explicitly say they have no religion. These people are 26 percent of the sample (implying that those who practice their religion occasionally make up 41 percent of the sample). The sccbs asked respondents whether and how much they gave and volunteered to “religious causes” or “non-religious charities” over the previous 12 months. Across the whole population, 81 percent gave, while 57 percent volunteered.

The differences in charity between secular and religious people are dramatic. Religious people are 25 percentage points more likely than secularists to donate money (91 percent to 66 percent) and 23 points more likely to volunteer time (67 percent to 44 percent). And, consistent with the findings of other writers, these data show that practicing a religion is more important than the actual religion itself in predicting charitable behavior. For example, among those who attend worship services regularly, 92 percent of Protestants give charitably, compared with 91 percent of Catholics, 91 percent of Jews, and 89 percent from other religions.

By donating through SHARE (you can use THIS SECURE LINK), you make it clear that your donation is coming from a secular-minded person, and help demonstrate that we are, in fact, “Good without God”.

Not excited about SHARE? The American Humanist Association’s Humanist Charities has established the Haiti Earthquake Relief Fund.

Related articles:

1. Coming Soon: AFA ‘documentary’ could save the Republic from secularists and gays
2. Proselytizing in Haiti: Not Just for Christians
3. Secretary of State for Education encourages Catholic schools to shield themselves from ‘meddling’ by secularists
4. Action Alert: South Bend will to vote on unconstitutional plan to buy and donate land to church school
5. American Family Association Supports Pat Robertson's Haiti "Satan Pact" with Lies

Mike Daniels is co-editor of Secular News Daily.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry.