HOW AMERICANS SUPPORT FINANCIALLY THEIR C HURCHES - EMPIRICAL-RESEARCH ON GIVING

American congregations are supported entirely by voluntary contributio ns; no money comes from the government. Levels of contributions vary w idely from denomination to denomination. In 1993 we studied 125 congre gations in each of five denominations, representative of the nation - Roman Catholic, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Presbyterian C hurch (USA), Southern Baptist Convention, and Assemblies of God. We ra ndomly selected congregations in each, and 84,8 % agreed to participat e. We visited all the churches, filled out a financial report on each, then mailed shea questionnaires to random samples of 30 members in ea ch; the response rate was 61,2 %, producing 10,902 questionnaires. Per -household giving was highest for the Assemblies of God and Baptists. It was much lower for Catholics than for the others. These differences are explained by differences in theology, teachings, and financial pr ocedures. Assemblies of God and Baptists much more than others teach t hat a tithe (10% of income) belongs to God and should be given; these two denominations have a high percentage of members who title. Luthera ns and Presbyterians have a habit of annual pledges more than the othe rs. The level of church attendance is highest for the Assemblies of Go d and Baptists. The main predictors of giving by households are the le vel of family income, level of church participation, theological belie f that Christians should help others to commit their lives to Jesus Ch rist, and making annual pledges. Size of the parish is a secondary pre dictor for Catholics in that per-household giving is lower in the larg est Catholic parishes. In other denominations, pariah size was unimpor tant. Contrary to past writers, Catholic giving is not lower because o f anger among Catholics or the feeling by Catholics that the church is wealthy and needs no money.