Other bits you won't see paraded around much
To be fair, I think that brings up an important point about charity. The reason Utahans give so much to charity is that Mormons give 10% of their income to the Mormon church. I think religious charities may account for a good percentage of Republican charitable giving.
Does giving money to your church necessarily equate to charity? Let's say you're just giving money to your local church. It's somewhere you go once a week and your donations are necessary to keep that institution going. Isn't that more like paying your gym membership? Sure, if you're giving money to your local religious soup kitchen, that's definitely charity. But, giving money to your church is basically a membership fee so a fair accounting would exclude that from the totals.
Yeah, reminds me of when Romney talked about how he gave so much income to charity when almost all of it was to the Mormon church.
