Ten Percent

Even since I was a young kid with a paper route, I was taught and I believed that tithing was a requirement. As a Christian, we were supposed to give ten percent of our gross earnings to our local church. I complied with this rule completely, from my pre-teens until I was 29 years old.

I understood that tithing was intended for general offerings only and it couldn't be designated to anything specific. The church leaders were supposed to figure out the best way to invest my money, not me. The only thing I worried about was whether I should tithe additionally on any cash gifts that I received. I usually made up for that little bit of doubt by donating an extra bit to some secondary cause at church.

At the beginning of every year, I made sure that I got a box of tithing envelopes from my church. At the end of the year I would donate my unused envelopes back to the church so that they could be placed in the back of the pews for anyone that ended them. I would also black out the registration number so that there was no confusion for the accountants. In fact, I was often the one that replenished the envelopes behind the pews when I noticed that they were missing.

Naturally, I always got a receipt from church for my charitable donations, which accounted for a fairly large tax return every year. I had a friend that believed that getting a tax return on tithing was somehow against the principle of tithing because you weren't giving your full amount. I said that this was just smart practice but if they were really worried then they could tithe on the income tax return, too. Actually, I think I started doing this after that discussion.

I was aware of the different verses about tithing, both Old and New Testament. I had heard enough sermons about the blessings of tithing and the curses of selfishly keeping our money. The main verse about tithing from Malachi was usually printed on the tithing envelopes, anyway, so it was pretty obvious.

I knew that the majority of people at church did not tithe. I saw enough church budgets at the annual meetings to know that less than 20% of the church members bothered to tithe regularly. I also knew that because the pastors told me so during a sermon here or there. However, I would never force anyone to tithe. If people said that they really couldn't afford it, I chalked that up as poor budgeting or a personal decision. No biggie, everyone has issues that they have to work through, including me, and we don't need to get all legalistic about it. Let the pastor preach, let the Holy Spirit do his thing, and people will figure it out.

Now take a breath, Jamie...
I don't believe in the requirement of tithing anymore. I don't believe in the general principle behind it. I will go even further than that and say that I believe that tithing is quite wrong. Wrong to do, and wrong to teach. And for my part in this, I am sorry.

I mean, did you see what I wrote up there? I never realized how legalistic it all was. So many little rules and exceptions. It sounds so hard to keep to keep track of it all!

I recognize that part of it was my natural tendancy to find rules and obey them. I'm a goody-two-shoes that automatically does that kind of thing. Even so, tithing has always been a part of my Christian life, and it's been a big part of the churches I attended.

It took me about a year and a half to walk away from tithing. At first, I vaguely questioned the practice. I learned a little more as time went on about the Biblical basis for the current idea of tithing, versus the way tithing was done back in the Old Testament days. My first big step as to stop tithing all of my money to my local church, and give money directly to friends that needed it. After that, I decided to save that ten percent and keep it as my personal giving fund. Then I decided to pull back from the idea of setting any kind of restriction on it and I let that set-in-stone ten percent go. Finally, I had to admit to myself that it wasn't just a nice idea - it was actually the wrong thing to do.

Emotionally, it was hard to let go and I felt quilty for doing it. I still feel a little guilty, kind of. I was walking away from church teaching, and walking away from what my parents taught me. Breaking a habit is always hard to do.

Intellectually, I had to discard the Biblical interpretation and the arguments I had heard for so long. I could have handled that but once I got rid of the idea of tithing, a lot of other ideas fell apart as well. The whole idea of how a church pays it's bills and how pastors get paid became a mess for me, since I was always told that churches survived based on tithes. Like a house of cards, pulling out that one Ace called "tithing" caused a bunch of other cards to fall down.

And so here I am, writing about my journey through the issue of tithing. I intended to write about the Biblical references that we use to support tithing, but I ended up writing a more cathartic assessment of myself instead. I will follow up this post with Part II to get into some of the specifics about tithing...