Why do so many Americans lack even the slightest amount of empathy?

[Burgold]

Yeah, seems I woke up on the "right" side of the bed this morning.

[techboy]

There's a very valid reason it makes sense to adjust for religious giving - coercion.

Except that's not what people who study the issue have found. Here's a short article on the subject by David E. Campbell: It’s Social Ties—Not Religion—That Makes the Faithful Give to Charity. A couple of excerpts:

Not only do Americans give generously to charities with religious affiliations, but the most religious Americans are also the most charitable. In our book American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us, Robert Putnam and I show that there is a strong connection between being religious and being charitable. Not surprisingly, the most highly religious Americans contribute their time and treasure to religious causes. But they also give to secular causes—at a higher rate than do the most secular Americans.

and

Rather than religious beliefs, we found that the “secret ingredient” for charitable giving among religious Americans is the social networks formed within religious congregations. The more friends someone has within a religious congregation, the more likely that person is to give time, money, or both, to charitable causes. In fact, even non-religious people who have friends within a religious congregation (typically, because their spouse is a believer) are highly charitable—more so than strong believers who have few social ties within a congregation.

This also means that it actually does make sense to control for religious giving when comparing giving by political outlook, since apparently even being asscoiated indirectly with a religious group can increase giving.

[s0crates]

It makes sense Christians are charitable, charity is a key Christian virtue (though not exclusively).

Still I think most Christians fall considerably short of selling all they have to give to the poor and giving to anyone who asks of them.