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<\/a><\/p>\nConfidence in church is rising.\u00a0 Giving away free money doesn\u2019t help people.\u00a0 And Publishers\u2019 Clearing House goes bankrupt, welching on past winners.<\/p>\n
Confidence in Church Is Rising<\/h4>\n
Americans\u2019 trust in the church as an institution had been dropping, but now it\u2019s on the rise.<\/p>\n
So reports Anugrah Kumar in the Christian Post<\/a>.\u00a0 According to an annual Gallup poll<\/a> that tracks institutional trust (more on that later), 36% of Americans say that they have \u201ca great deal\u201d or \u201cquite a lot\u201d of confidence in \u201cthe church or organized religion.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n That\u2019s much less than it was 50 years ago, when the 1975 answers to that question reached a recorded high of\u00a0 68%.\u00a0 Then the confidence declined, reaching rock bottom with 31% in 2022.\u00a0 The next two years the number plateaued at 32%.\u00a0 But this year the percentage jumped up to 36%, which is said to be the first meaningful increase since 2020.<\/p>\n Republicans increased their confidence in the church from 49% last year to 64% today, but Democrats\u2019 confidence fell, from 22% to 21%.\u00a0 Here is some good news:<\/p>\n Women, younger Americans and lower-income households showed marked increases in trust toward the church over the past year. Women\u2019s confidence rose eight points to 36%, closing the previous gender gap. Americans aged 18 to 37 experienced the largest increase, rising from 26% to 32%. . . .<\/p>\n Those with some college education but no degree reported one of the steepest increases \u2014 up 11 points to 36%. People earning less than $50,000 per year also grew from 31% to 39% in confidence, while those in households earning more than $100,000 rose from 29% to 36%.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Why do you think confidence in the church has gone up?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n A new liberal on-line magazine entitled The Argument<\/a> has published an article by Kelsey Piper entitled Giving people money helped less than I thought it would<\/a>, with the deck, \u201cEnding the war on poverty will take more than cash transfers.\u201d<\/p>\n She reports on research findings as to the effectiveness of multiple programs across the country that just gave money to people in need.\u00a0 Here is her summary of what she found:<\/p>\n A few years back we got really serious about studying cash transfers, and rigorous research began in cities all across America. Some programs targeted the\u00a0homeless, some\u00a0new mothers\u00a0and some families living beneath the poverty line. The goal was to figure out whether sizable monthly payments help people lead better lives, get better educations and jobs, care more for their children and achieve better health outcomes.<\/p>\n Many of the studies are still ongoing, but, at this point, the results aren\u2019t \u201cuncertain.\u201d They\u2019re pretty consistent and very weird. Multiple large, high-quality randomized studies are finding that guaranteed income transfers do not appear to produce sustained improvements in mental health, stress levels, physical health, child development outcomes or employment. Treated participants do work a little less, but shockingly, this doesn\u2019t correspond with either lower stress levels\u00a0or\u00a0<\/em>higher overall reported life satisfaction.<\/p>\n Homeless people, new mothers and low-income Americans all over the country received thousands of dollars. And it\u2019s practically invisible in the data. On so many important metrics, these people are statistically\u00a0indistinguishable<\/em>\u00a0from those who did not receive this aid.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Read Piper\u2019s entire article<\/a> for the details.<\/p>\nGiving Away Free Money Doesn\u2019t Help People<\/h4>\n