I saw an article in the paper the other day about Churchgoers who felt pressured into tithing more than they could afford. Some had taken out loans to meet their tithe amount. Disgraceful and saddening.
It reminds me of when I was younger and I got involved in a group that expected a 20% tithe. This was all fine and good until I got a pay rise. Then around they came demanding a 30% share of my extra income. Whilst I thought the idea of tithing was to give an amount based on how charitable I felt, obviously the new formula was deemed fairer by the administrators. Thus, it was no surprise that when I confessed to another pay rise the tithe was set at around 40%.
At this point I decided that perhaps we could debate this amount. At the time I had no family and no home. But I had plans for both. How could I save if I gave my earnings away?
This is where the threats came in. If I ceased my tithing, I would be in big trouble. Soul destroying stuff, and hell on earth would be my fate. This was back in the 80's, and this kind of carry on was pretty typical. Yet I could see richer people in the congregation paying much less. How fair was that? My protests earned strange retribution. I was now asked to donate an additional 10%. 1986 it was. A tough year. I considered leaving the country to escape, and yet I knew I would more than likely encounter the same issues elsewhere.
Eventually, I did leave the country. I came back though and found myself in the same situation.
But enough about paying taxes, the story was about "mandatory tithing".
If the newspaper article can be believed (and they rarely can) I too would condemn such practice as reading out names of donors and how much they donated. This is certainly not the practice in a Catholic Church, where envelopes are provided to allow anonymous donations. Some people prefer to pay by automatic payment, and may put nothing in the collection plate! Others toss in a few silver coins. So what? There is obviously no cultural pressure to give beyond ones means.
Personally, I am fortunate enough to be able to donate a fair amount of money. However, only a part of that sum finds it's way to my local parish, as there are several other charities I support. There is no need to justify this to my Church. I wonder if the pressure some people feel to donate more they can afford is self-imposed? The Church asks, but that doesn't necessarily mean it demands.
Tithing is a good thing, when it is done from the spirit of charity, not a sense of obligation. It may be a duty of Christians to help others less fortunate (as it is to all people) but the motivation must be as caritas - "love in action".
Give what you can (which can be in time rather than pure money), but no so much you become in need of charity yourself.
It reminds me of when I was younger and I got involved in a group that expected a 20% tithe. This was all fine and good until I got a pay rise. Then around they came demanding a 30% share of my extra income. Whilst I thought the idea of tithing was to give an amount based on how charitable I felt, obviously the new formula was deemed fairer by the administrators. Thus, it was no surprise that when I confessed to another pay rise the tithe was set at around 40%.
At this point I decided that perhaps we could debate this amount. At the time I had no family and no home. But I had plans for both. How could I save if I gave my earnings away?
This is where the threats came in. If I ceased my tithing, I would be in big trouble. Soul destroying stuff, and hell on earth would be my fate. This was back in the 80's, and this kind of carry on was pretty typical. Yet I could see richer people in the congregation paying much less. How fair was that? My protests earned strange retribution. I was now asked to donate an additional 10%. 1986 it was. A tough year. I considered leaving the country to escape, and yet I knew I would more than likely encounter the same issues elsewhere.
Eventually, I did leave the country. I came back though and found myself in the same situation.
But enough about paying taxes, the story was about "mandatory tithing".
If the newspaper article can be believed (and they rarely can) I too would condemn such practice as reading out names of donors and how much they donated. This is certainly not the practice in a Catholic Church, where envelopes are provided to allow anonymous donations. Some people prefer to pay by automatic payment, and may put nothing in the collection plate! Others toss in a few silver coins. So what? There is obviously no cultural pressure to give beyond ones means.
Personally, I am fortunate enough to be able to donate a fair amount of money. However, only a part of that sum finds it's way to my local parish, as there are several other charities I support. There is no need to justify this to my Church. I wonder if the pressure some people feel to donate more they can afford is self-imposed? The Church asks, but that doesn't necessarily mean it demands.
Tithing is a good thing, when it is done from the spirit of charity, not a sense of obligation. It may be a duty of Christians to help others less fortunate (as it is to all people) but the motivation must be as caritas - "love in action".
Give what you can (which can be in time rather than pure money), but no so much you become in need of charity yourself.