How much money do people in different churches make?

Last updated on: October 12, 2016 at 10:08 pm

October 13, 2016 by Gene Veith

This is an unspiritual topic that is none of our business and appeals only to our morbid curiosity. The Pew Research Center has released findings about the income levels in different religious groups. (Not just churches but religions and no-religions.)

It’s notable, for one thing, in including the Lutheran Church Missouri-Synod separately, unlike most polls that group us into categories that we have little affinity with.

Go here to see the chart: How income varies among U.S. religious groups | Pew Research Center.

I have a few comments after the jump and then I’ll invite yours.

So Jews are #1 and Presbyterians are #4. That might suggest there is something to that “chosen people” concept after all.

Except that Hindus are #2, and Atheists and Agnostics are #5 and #6. Though “nothing in particular” is way down there.

Episcopalians are the highest ranking Christian group at #3, which shows that we still have a class system from the British colonial days.

Among Lutherans, the ELCA is pretty prosperous, at #9. The LCMS is #13, with the income ranges, while above the national average, showing a solidly middle class church.

Catholics are right at the national average. The Orthodox, in contrast, make quite a bit of money at #7.

Religious groups more likely to believe in the Prosperity Gospel tend to have low incomes. Which doubtless makes them more susceptible to the Prosperity Gospel.

And let us not forget the camel and the eye of the needle.

October 12, 2016

Ben Sasse is a "Lutero-Calvinist"

October 13, 2016 What we learn from John Podesta's emails