Redstate

although we are pretty generous personally.  

I also agree with Medved's conclusion-liberals tend to view the government as the savior, while conservatives think the private sector is better suited to help.

You're right about conservatives tending to prefer the private sector while liberals view the government as the savior.  I'd also guess that some of the states near the top of the "having rank" got there by being tightwads, LOL.

#2 in "Giving Rank" is heavily Mormon Utah; #1 is less heavily Mormon Wyoming.  Coincidence?  And #3 is my home state of Tennessee.

Mississippi and Louisiana should be especially commended considering that many of their residents faced one of the worst natural disasters in our nation's history in 2005.

On this a few months ago on NPR, and the gist of it was that people of faith tend to donate more of their disposable money to charities:  it's not a myth, it's a fact.  The challenge for people at NPR and elsewhere is to tap into that stream of money, which is why NPR was airing it.  I'm being as cynical as possible, because there are a few NPR programs that treat faith as something other than a mass hallucination, but not very many.

when you realize that because so many of them cannot take other than the standard deduction, they do not deduct their contributions from taxable income.  Many people of faith tithe a full 10% and give extra on top of that.

It gets dicey when you start talking about primarily Black churches in our inner cities.  Really, all the racial fangs come out then when you have to try to explain why Pat Robertson doesn't connect with the inner-city Reverend.

Is to try to convince a lot of Christians that Capitalism isn't evil.  If you go to a Wal-Mart in a small town and strike up a conversation with the people outside the store, I'm sure you can push the conversation either way.  Recently, Robertson has had a few interviews on the 700 Club where he talked with Christians who are also business leaders, but frankly from my experience, especially in our cities, if you want to be a professor at a Christian university, you'll be much better off during the application process if you're a leftist.  

There have been plenty of sermons about how we all have to take care of each other, citing how the Christians in Jerusalem had all things in common, and how the church took care of the widows, and many more.  

Frankly, capitalism isn't evil, but in this world I don't think there is any perfect good either.  Capitalism could use some tweaking so that Bush's goal can be realized.

We're not going to rest until every American who wants a job can find one. We're going to continue to work for good policies for our workers and our entrepreneurs. I'll continue to push for pro-growth economic policies, all aimed at making sure every American can realize the American Dream.

But in general just as academia in the secular world is infected with liberalism, so is academia in the religious world.  But some sects aren't nearly as infected as others.

Of people whose beliefs I thought were genuine in academia; there are a few of them, but not nearly so many as I think people would otherwise like to believe.  And I don't object to institutions that are purely secular:  what I find intersting is that there are so many people who are either agnostics or atheists who are professors at religious institutions, and who choose to keep that fact essentially a secret, even on "official" diversity surveys conducted by PriceWaterhouseCoopers.  

I know several seminaries have/had proffessors who teach the Bible as if was myth and similar non traditional things.  I imagine it gets more interesting at the colleges where you move into subjects that aren't biblical in nature.

a private Methodist university (it's also liberal arts) and many of my professors are downright liberal, and most of the professors in social sciences are not very religious.  In fact, I think there is one professor who is an atheist (though I can't confirm that.)  The problem is that the vast majority of postgraduate institutions are either state-run or private and secular.  I can think of only a handful of universities that have any religious affiliation and that offer graduate programs, and some of those (Duke comes to mind) are basically only nominal.  My sociology professor explained to me that in academia, because the vast majority of professors range from liberal to very liberal, there is some pressure for Ph.D. students to adopt these philosophies.  It doesn't really apply to undergrads, who are not planning to spend their lifetimes in academia and thus do not feel like they have to conform to this.  But for graduate students, many feel as though they must conform to the philosophy held by the overwhelming majority of college professors.

Even religious institutions are picking their professors from this pool of Ph.D.'s.

as with all the Blue State-Red State taurine byproduct is that there are no blue states and red states. There are only a whole lot of purple states. (OK: Utah looks about as close to red as can be, and DC was very very blue; but other than that purple ruled the map). So we must also ask why it is that conservatives in blue states are stingy while red states liberals are generous. I think someone above suggested it's cultural not political-- the old Puritan miserliness of New England vs Southern grace and hospitality.