I’ve been writing in this blog for over a year and a half now, and I have yet to say anything about tithing. At first this seemed odd, but on second thought it’s really not. The tithe is honestly not very interesting, in my opinion. I have no doubt hundreds of pages could be written on it, but that’s exactly what makes it so boring. We could dive into the history, see what banal theological conditions surround this or that circumstance. We could argue what it does for us, or whether it does anything at all. I get grouchy with theology because I can only handle so much law research before I pass out from lack of oxygen to the brain.
But it has it’s place.
When I think of the tithe I predominantly think about the costs of operating the church. If no money was given, no dedicated church building would exist. It’s pretty simple. Churches cost money to run. Powering the building costs money, heating and cooling the building costs money. Changing toilet paper in the restrooms costs money. Staff need to live. I think of the pastor at my church, who is one of the most humble and spiritually capable pastors I’ve ever been around. For me to not give money to the church would kind of be like going up to him and telling him he shouldn’t be paid for dedicating his life to the church. I think it’s the poverty spirit that convinces people that all good things should be free and that pastoring shouldn’t be compensated. What’s beautiful about most churches is that you don’t have to tithe or give anything if you can’t or don’t want to. Since I can, I make it a point to do so.
(some people may argue that church should be in someone’s home. I understand the appeal, but these severely limit communities, and I believe a central building is typically the most appropriate because it decouples the community from individual members. Imagine your host family moves away – many churches would just disband, which is not the essence of community. There’s nothing wrong with house churches, though, I just believe there are advantages to dedicated facilities)
Do I tithe? Do I give a full 10%? Now, that’s an interesting question.
Long ago, I wasn’t contributing to a retirement plan. My health insurance was deducted, my FICA taxes were deducted, then my federal and state taxes were deducted. I would tithe a full 10% on my take-home pay, often rounding up to a larger, cleaner number because what-the-hell. Sometimes I gave more, and sometimes, especially during jobless seasons, I gave much less or nothing at all.
Things changed when I started learning about retirement accounts and tax strategies. Your take home pay shoots down dramatically when you start contributing half your income to your 401k, when your insurance costs increase, or when you start contributing to an HSA. My take home is way lower than it used to be.
Should you tithe 10% of your take home pay, or 10% of your income before taxes, insurance, and retirement contributions? I can imagine a bunch of theologians sitting around a table, Bibles out, researching and debating God’s standard-deduction and exemptions and making complete fools of themselves. I don’t doubt you could do the research to see how things were done in ancient Israel, but then you have the challenge of figuring out what is still relevant, something I believe the church still struggles with on numerous issues.
I’ve come to believe that this sort of religious nitpicking may be interesting to some people but completely misses the point otherwise. If God loves a joyful giver, something feels hopelessly out of place about combing through theological tomes and getting too smug over developing an “absolute”, “proper” approach.
I give to the church more than 10% post-tax but less than 10% pre-tax. I give less than I would if I were not contributing to my 401k, but it’s never been in my heart to give nothing in “retirement”. I also have a set dollar quantity I want to give away this year, since I did that last year and it was really fun. This money doesn’t go to the church, but technically means I’m giving more than 10% overall.
“You should be giving it all to the church!” No, not really. Most churches are much cheaper to maintain than a temple, but hey, whatever. I like my church, and I’m not interesting in trying to screw them over. But again, I give more than 10% of my take-home (most of the time), if that really matters. I could just be one of those bozos making good money who is too dumb to realize it and who consequently gives nothing.
I once read an interpretation of the Poor Widow’s Offering that stated the teachers of the law and the Pharisees, as the wealthy, religious elite, would teach that absolutely everybody must give their tithe. But since they were so wealthy, doing so was easy, and they would make a spectacle of how devout they were by tithing publicly. But the poor widow, just trying to please God, gave her tiny two coppers, which was the last of all she had. The interpretation was suggesting that the widow was not righteous because of her checking the good behavior box, but because she wanted to please God, even though what she believed would please God was tainted by misguided teachings.
The key here would come from Luke 20:47 where Jesus says, “They devour widows’ houses and for a show make lengthy prayers”, which indicates there was misconduct from the teachers of the law toward the poor widows, likely through their teachings. It’s a compelling interpretation, in my opinion. Some people say you’re supposed to give and have faith anyway. I don’t doubt this can be rewarded, but I’m not convinced it’s necessary. Now, if you’re making $80,000 a year and think you’re poor, you may want to reconsider more than a few things in your life. But I do believe there are legitimate cases where giving simply is not feasible, and I don’t think God’s goal for those people is fire and brimstone. If you can’t afford to tithe, then don’t.
(and there will always be somebody who thinks this is wrong and gets huffy over it)
Anyway, stay tuned for my next post on giving. I wanted to combine the two, but I ended up writing much more about tithing than I originally planned.