AUSTIN — Gov. Rick Perry has never been shy about putting his faith on display, from speeches at prayer breakfasts to his 2005 signing of abortion restrictions into law at a church school's gym to inviting the nation's governors to a prayer meeting at Houston's Reliant Stadium that some are calling “Prayer-a-palooza.”

But when it comes time to giving, the governor doesn't come close to the biblical guidance of tithing.

From 2000, when Perry became governor, through 2009, he earned a total of $2.68 million according to his tax records. Of that amount, he gave half a percent to churches and religious organizations, or $14,243.

By comparison, Americans averaged gifts of nearly 1.2 percent of their income to churches and religious groups from 2004 to 2008, according to Empty Tomb Inc., an Illinois-based research firm specializing in U.S. church-giving trends.

In 2007 — a year in which Perry reported an income of more than $1 million — he gave $90 to his church, according to the Perry family's tax return. Twice since becoming governor, in 2000 and 2009, he reported no contributions to churches or religious organizations.

As he wades deeper into the pool of potential presidential GOP candidates, Perry's prayer pitch can't help but endear him to the Christian conservatives who dominate Iowa's GOP caucuses and whose beliefs include tithing to a local congregation and giving generously to charitable causes.

But is Perry giving enough? His track record could be a problem said Michael Lindsay, incoming president of Gordon College and author of “Faith in the Halls of Power,” about the growth of evangelical politics.

“He's going to have a hard time with this,” Lindsay said. “While that may be acceptable for someone who does not aspire to leadership, evangelicals get very concerned when their leaders don't walk the talk.”

Perry declined an interview request by the San Antonio Express-News to discuss his views on prayer, personal religious observance and charitable giving.

“He never talks about his faith,” Perry spokesman Mark Miner said.

In a prepared statement, deputy press secretary Catherine Frazier said: “Gov. Perry agrees tithing is important and what he has given to the church should not be discounted. Additionally, tithing is only one aspect of a person's faith, and the personal decision of each family.

“Gov. Perry has followed his words with action regarding his own faith, having taken many opportunities to stand up for people of faith and promote values important to the church, including signing legislation that protects religious expression, protects unborn life and promotes adoption.”

Perry's leading role in organizing a national day of prayer and fasting on Aug. 6 in Houston is taking the governor's Christian faith further into the public square.

And it opens him up to closer scrutiny, particularly since he's considering a presidential run and has scheduled the prayer gathering one week before the Iowa Republican straw poll.

Virtually all politicians, especially those at the higher levels, make references to their faith, said the Rev. William K. McElvaney, retired Dallas-area United Methodist minister and professor emeritus of preaching and worship at Southern Methodist University.

Perry's Reliant Stadium prayer gathering “just automatically raises deep questions for thoughtful citizens about what is he up to?” said McElvaney, also a former president of Saint Paul School of Theology in Kansas City, Missouri.

People serve their faith in many ways, he emphasized, adding that a person of Perry's means could contribute significantly — if he wanted.

“I can forgive him for that if he were really strong on public policy from a faith standpoint,” McElvaney said. “If his public policy really showed care and support for our children and single mothers and aging people and all the most vulnerable people ... that Jesus Christ was most concerned about.

“If he would encourage public policy in that direction, then I would be less interested in how much he gives, although I wouldn't say it's totally irrelevant,” the pastor-professor said. “The influence comes through the public policy issues and when that doesn't square with one's faith, then, yeah, it ought to raise some very deep questions for the public.”

The governor's level of charitable giving raises eyebrows for Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, D-San Antonio, chairman of the 39-member Mexican American Legislative Caucus, which has routinely tangled with Perry over immigration issues which the caucus says are in conflict with Christian teachings on compassion and justice.

“A person's relationship with their God is personal, but when you choose to flaunt your faith in the public square, I think that makes you fair game to questions,” he said.

“The fact that the governor chose to spend more on subscriptions to things like Food and Wine Magazine than to his place of worship is not only troublesome, it's counterintuitive to everything I have been taught as a lifelong Catholic,” Martinez Fischer said. “Actions speak louder than words, even in a place as big as Reliant Stadium. If Perry would like to lead the faithful, then he might want to read up on caring for the least of our brothers and sisters, provide safe refuge for the sojourner and practice acts of mercy.”

Taxpayers provide Perry with a $10,000-per-month home. An Associated Press report last year found that Perry has spent $130,000 in campaign donations to throw parties, buy food and drink, and pay for cable TV and a host of other services since he moved in to the rented home.

The records also show that Perry's state-paid expenses at the home include $18,000 for “consumables,” including a two-year subscription to Food & Wine Magazine.

A large chunk of Perry's charitable contributions compiled during his years in the governor's office has come in the form of noncash donations — mostly clothing drops — that he valued at $30,768. From 2000-2009, the family's tax returns show at least 21 trips to Goodwill and The Settlement Home for clothing drops.

The Internal Revenue Service keeps taxpayer donations by income groups. The most recent tax year for which those statistics are available is 2008.

Perry fell into the $200,000 to $500,000 adjusted gross income bracket that year. Perry's family income is somewhat distorted because taxpayers cover his housing expenses, including utilities and food — leaving him with more disposable income than others in his income bracket.

The average cash charitable contribution from U.S. taxpayers in his income bracket was $6,529.

Perry gave $2,998 in cash to charity in 2008— not including a pay raise from the Legislature that his staff said he would donate to charity instead of keeping. The governor's pay jumped from $115,000 to $150,000 after legislative action in 2007.

In the 2008 tax year, he gave $34,988 to charity from that pay raise — $9,996 each to March of Dimes; Texas Association Against Sexual Assault (where his wife is a $65,000-a-year consultant), and the Special Operations Warrior Foundation; and $5,000 to the Mansion Restoration project.

The following year, the amount of money that went to charity from his raise dropped to $20,000.

Perry has said he grew up a United Methodist and has previously affiliated with Tarrytown United Methodist Church. But he regularly attends Lake Hills Church, Frazier said, where he started going not long after he and his family moved out to West Austin in 2008 in the wake of the fire at the Governor's Mansion and ongoing restoration project, expected to be completed in 2012.

Perry did not report any contribution to Lake Hills in 2009. The largest church contribution during Perry's stint as governor came in 2008 when he gave Lake Hills $2,850 from an adjusted gross income of $277,667.

Perry's top income year since becoming governor came in 2007 when he reported $1,092,810 in adjusted gross income. The biggest chunk of that income came from a land transaction.

Perry sold his Hill Country Horseshoe Bay property west of Austin that year for $1,138,536 — six years after paying $314,770 for the land and netting him a capital gain of $823,766. His total charitable cash contributions that year totaled $413.

In some respects, Perry mirrors the gradual decline nationally of the practice of tithing — generally regarded as the biblical instruction to donate 10 percent of one's income to a congregation.

But in a survey last February by the National Association of Evangelicals, 58 percent of the organization's leaders said they do not believe tithing 10 percent is required.

Still, they all reported they encourage tithing and generous charitable giving. And 95 percent of them said they personally tithe at least 10 percent.

Looking at Perry's giving to churches since becoming governor in 2000, it falls below the national average of 1.2 percent recorded by Empty Tomb between 2004-2008.

The southern region, which includes Texas, led the nation in that timeframe with an average of 1.43 percent. Evangelicals gave 4 percent of their income to churches and religious groups in 2008.

“Numbers are a good external measure of whether people are integrating what they say they believe to what they are actually doing — and not always doing,” said Sylvia Ronsvalle, executive director of Empty Tomb and co-author of its yearly church-giving report.

In 2008, Vice President Joe Biden, a Catholic, faced criticism when his tax records for the past decade showed he gave an average of $369 or 0.2 percent of his yearly income to charities.

Voters expect politicians to keep up a cultural duty to be philanthropic, said Lindsay, based on a standard of shared, community responsibility.

“It suggests that at least in terms of financial giving,” Linsday said, “biblical teachings don't seem to weigh very heavily on the governor's action.”

Staff Writer Peggy Fikac contributed to this report.