God or Godfather? When did giving become a protection racket?

You moved into the neighborhood, got settled in, and were enjoying the wonderful neighbors, beautiful scenery, and perfect amenities. One day, you answer your door to find a well-dressed, grim-faced man standeing before you, holding a book. Before you can ask him the nature of his business, he informs you, "I serve the God-father. I am here to inform you that your continued peace and tranquility can only be maintained by paying a small protection fee. I will collect this fee on a weekly, by-weekly, or monthly basis. The fee is 10% of your income."

Startled, you look at this man for a trace of a chuckle, then over his shoulder in hopes of seeing a video camera indicating that this is an elaborate prank. His lips never curl, and he begins inventorying your possessions, noting that "it would be a shame to lose all these nice things. You never know when something bad could happen. Protection is a lot cheaper than replacement." After a few minutes, he leaves, promising to return in a week, and hoping that you make the right decision before "something unfortunate happens..."

A recent discussion on tithing got me thinking about how much of what passes for teaching about giving/tithe paying sounds like a thinly-veiled threat from Don Corleone. Instead of a dead horse in your bed, dire threats of unemployment, sickness, or misfortune are presented to you as the consequence of failing to maintain timely payments to the local representative of the "God-Father." Not wanting to risk it, you pay, or, not wanting to roll over, you protest. If you do the former, you are praised for being wise enough to trust in the protection of the God-Father, but if you do the latter, your name is bandied about the neighborhood as a selfish, money-grubbing parasite who wants to live in the neighborhood but doesn't want to support it. Of course, no one told you about this requirement when you accepted the invitation to move in, but now the representatives tell you that it was right there in the contract.

I know that "tithe" means "tenth." I also know that there are no passsages of Scripture where that tenth was made of a person's silver or gold, but rather as I once read in an email on the subject, "tithes were counted from a family's assets, not from their income." In other words, you tithed from your cattle, flocks, and crops, not from any income that you might have derived from them.

This is a simple proposition, one that, if I am wrong, I should have been shown such long ago. Instead, I get mocked, accused of having poor theology, or threatened with dire calamity for daring to speak against what I see as an extortion scheme. Perhaps there is no way to prove me wrong, because the words that would do so were never written in Scripture. The expectation that Christians will be generous with their resources is found in Scripture, along with promises that this generosity will not go unnoticed by the generous Savior. This call to generosity for others, especially other Christians, is different from the demand for payment made based on Malachi 3:9-10, which, if it were admitted, was not written to a single Christian, but at the most, to the nation of Israel, and, according to some, specifically to the very Levites who were beneficiaries of the Holy Tithe which consisted of flocks, herds, and crops produced within the land of Israel.

To me, the image of a generous Christian community is far more consistent with the message of the New Testament than is the image of a taxed community, forking over 10% of their income in order to have a comfortable life protected from the vagaries of living. Do tithe payers really manage to avoid such things as sickness, car accidents, getting traffic tickets for speeding, and I.R.S. audits? I wonder. Last time I checked, even Rev. Fred K.C. Price had to pay the hospital bills that his wife incurred when fighting cancer. They didn't magically vanish simply because he paid himself 10% of the money that was given to him by his congregation in hopes that they would be spared the bumps and bruises of life. I've known of rich tithe payers, and poor tithe payers, and I've known of rich non-payers, and poor non-payers. There doesn't seem to be any correlation between an individual's willingness to pay and their possession of wealth.

Of course, as I once said when I first began studying this issue, I would love to be wrong. After all, if a small investment of 10% of my income would open the doors to fantastic wealth, I would be a fool not to fork it over! That would certainly be no more than the various multilevel promoters have sought to separate from me in recent years, with some slight degree of success. Unfortunately, I have had as much success handing over my payment as I have after purchasing the latest book. If godliness were a means of gain, then I must have somehow failed to get my payments properly credited.

More to the point, I think that, again, the Christian model of giving is the generosity desplayed by our Lord, who, seeing that we needed someone to save us, provided the exact resources that could meet our dire need - His life and blood. He purchased our redemption with his blood, and when our brother or sister is hungry, without shelter, in need of aid, or struggling, we can also be generous in finding and supplying the resources that will meet their needs. The God and Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is not the Godfather Don Corleone, He is not a mobster, and we are not buying protection under the guise of giving.

Numbers don't lie, but what do they mean? The Middle

Much of the discussion/debate about financial support of a ministry, at some point, turns towards claims of benefit or loss from the practice of tithing, or that of sacrificial giving. On the one hand, someone tells the story of how they gave their mortgage money and, miraculously, enough money showed up, just before the default deadline, to make the payment, and sometimes with extra thrown in. On the other hand, someone describes, in gut-wrenching terms, giving in response to a request, writing a check with money that isn't actually in the bank yet, or paying that tenth of his/her income and being short on the power or water bill, but then nothing else comes in, and they are left having to explain to family and friends why they are "suffering in the name of the Lord."

I know that both scenarios have happened - to someone - and that there is the possibility that such things can happen, either for good or for ill. I bet, though, that neither of these experiences are the norm. Instead, I suspect that most people either give or not, pay or not, and life goes on. Since, according to research by the Barna Institute, tithing has been practiced consistently by less than 10% of Christians, generally hovering between 5-7% in the years 2000-2008, apparently the positive anecdotal evidence has either not spread to the general Christian public, or we don't believe it.

Of course, regarding things of faith, as the old saying goes, "one plus God equals a majority." If the things that tithing proponents say are valid, then the statistics don't matter. If less than 10% of believers give 10% of their income, then that means they get more of God's blessings that might have gone to the other 93-95% of church attendees who are rejecting God's offer of protection and provision. If anything, maybe this information should be kept a secret, lest unbelievers take advantage of the spiritual imperative that the principle seems to hold forth. After all, if God is obligated to bless those who tithe, as I have heard preachers say on occasion, then even those who reject the Gospel, but in a pragmatic investment move, support a ministry, will receive abundance from God, in the manner of someone buying the protection of a local mafia family against business competitors. After all, Malachi 3:8-12 has no disclaimer statement limiting the results to those who are baptized believers. It simply promises results to those who "try" God to see if He will "open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing..."

What I have found, in my own experience, is that these anecdotes remind me of similar promises made on late-night television about real estate investment plans, tax certificates, multi-level marketing concepts, and other offerings that promise results that only a small segment actually experience, no one of whom most of us know personally (do you know any Publishers Clearing House winners?). They sound great, and, if true, would make my life so radically different from what it has been for much of my adult life, as to make it seem foolish to not try it out, at least for a while. I admit it, I have closed my eyes, taken a deep breath, and wrote those checks. I have waited, watching my mail box and my bank account, for the promised windfall. "Is my living in vain? No, of course not," I sang with all the energy that I could muster, watching for my change to come.

Unfortunately, just like my attempts with Dean Graziosi, Kevin Trudeau, and Matthew Lesko, I tried and fell short. According to some, like Creflo Dollar, it's my fault. I lack either the necessary faith or the necessary joy. If I doubt, God doesn't have to do anything. If I am less than completely happy about obeying, God can be less than abundant in His response. Of course, Dean, Kevin, and Matthew said the same things, but they don't have a heaven or hell to put me in for disbelieving them, they just say that I'm already there, and I'll stay there for not following their perscriptions for wealth.

Now, that's my anecdotal story, or at least the Cliff Notes version of it. Sorry, I didn't drop names, telling about the pastor that benefitted from my largess, but I don't think that my anecdote should be more weighty than anyone elses. I'm hoping to hear from people who have had what I didn't, who can, perhaps, tell me what step I might have missed. One thing upon which I think we will agree, God has no problem with providing resources, for "the earth is the Lords, and all of its fullness" (Ps 24:1). Most of my adult life, while I have never been rich, I have not been destitute either. Like most members of the middle class, I have moved from payday to payday, making enough to live contentedly, and give regularly, but still needing to get up every Monday to go to work, rather than simply working for the joy of having work to do. There is enough space in the comments for your anecdotal stories which explain the way to do it right, so that we get the promised results. If there is a right way to start a car, and I'm not doing it, it's a lot cheaper to find out the proper technique, than to leave the car sitting on the driveway and take the bus. So tell me your story.

Otherwise, I shall move on to the next part of this saga, a different view on giving. In it, I shall discuss what the concept of Spirit-led giving is, and what it is not. If nothing else, it only offers me the prospect of helping others because I love God, giving me the opportunity to share His love in a way that matters, to God, to others, and to me. Any positive economic change that happens afterwards is just collateral blessings, due to the gracious mercies of God.

By the way, while you're commenting, don't forget to check out the sponsors' links, since they are a part of my page, and "the laborer is worthy of his hire." :)

Giving by a New and Living Way - the Beginning

I recently wrote an article about how Christians have responded to the current recession. Like some of you, in addition, I have heard about the $15 million settlement between Bishop Eddie Long of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, and four young men who accused him of sexual misconduct. These two events, along with my becoming more open about my thoughts regarding Christian giving, have caused me to give thought to answering the questions that I have been fielding, so as to make my position clear. Above all, I want the Word of God to be understood, and rightly applied.

The Bible, especially the New Testament, is clear that we are to treat our fellow-Christians as if they were our own family (Gal 6:10). We are to love one another, showing that love, not only by what we say, but by how we treat one another (James 2). Scriptures abound that call us to care for one another, share with one another, and help one another. I believe that even the passages which talk about supporting those who are in ministry are rooted in this concern, rather than in any sort of entitlement that those in ministry may have because of their position or status. After all, if a person is committed to preaching the Gospel to the point that he or she forgoes the normal economic activities that could allow them to prosper economically, offering themselves as an instrument in God's hands to spread the message of the Kingdom, should not the rest of us, who are able to pursue the regular economic opportunities, sustain them in order that they might continue without care?

Recently, the practice of tithing has come under the light of scrutiny as some have questioned whether the Old Testament practice is binding upon Christians, and, if so, how? At one end are those who take the words of Malachi 3:6-12 as directly applicable to Christians, including the offer of blessing and cursing that are included. As a result, pastors and teachers encourage their congregants to set aside 10% of their gross income for the church, in order to reap financial and other blessings and avoid the specter of God cursing them with poverty. At the other end are those who argue that the teaching is flawed and inapplicable to Christians, who are encouraged instead to give generously as an act of ministry to help others, support their local church, and other ministries, as they have been blessed, but only after having met their family needs, and while living a lifestyle that is modest rather than extravagant.

I am not going to write anything today that will give cover for covetousness or an apologetic for avarice. If you are so in love with the money in your possession that the only way you will give it away is when "they pry it away from your cold, dead fingers," I cannot support you, and I implore you to repent immediately. I am suggesting that we have looked at the issue of money in a way that swallows a camel and strains out a gnat, when God has given us everything that pertains to life and godliness through the presence of the Holy Spirit within us (Col 2:8-10). Instead of allowing the Spirit to lead us in the grace of giving (2 Cor 8:5), we pull out our calculators, demand to see w-2 statements, and make promises and utter threats in God's name that we will one day have to answer to Him for.

We are told in the New Testament that we are to be motivated by faith working through love (Gal 5:6), or not at all(1 Cor 13:1-3). This applies to our teaching, preaching, worship, prayer, and giving. The debate over tithing, however, seldom delves into this area, but instead is mostly focused on our obligation, the ministry's entitlement, and God's enforcement. In it, God becomes a loan shark, who loaned money to us, demanding that protection money be paid to His appointed agents in order to avoid horrific economic consequences.

I remember a conversation that I had with a pastor who told me that my questioning on this subject was putting my son in danger. Knowing how close I am to my son, he thought that the possibility of my son suffering behind my exploration would stop me dead in my tracks. It did stop our conversation, and I never brought it up with him again. It didn't stop my research, however. I have seen friends separate over this, people get rejected from service because they dared question it, and people engage in illegal activities in support of it (writing checks by "faith" is still writing bad checks when you know that the money is not there to cover it, saints). I believe that there is a more excellent way.

I will explore this issue over the next series of articles, and I want to hear from you. Pressent your view with your best arguments, avoiding personal attacks, questions of personal integrity, etc, and I shall do the same. In so doing, I hope to look at the impact that the Church has in the Community, and how people view the involvement, or lack thereof, by their local churches and its connection to the financial resources that members make available. I also want to look at the idea that the church gets to play surrogate for us in terms of reaching out to others who are in any trouble. It is this idea that undergirds many appeals to our generosity by both local and television ministries, but is it legitimate? Let's search it out together. The end result should be that we are better representatives of Christ's presence, walking in love, and supporting our ministries out of love rather than by compulsion.

It is my aim to present the truth as it is in Christ Jesus, regardless of the impact of that truth upon traditions, habits, practices and other relics to which we have grown accustomed and comfortable. Walking "by faith and not by sight" applies to everyone, both in the pulpit and in the pew. Above all, I want to help us to "grow in grace," and in the "knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue." This is part of the practical aspect of fellowship, pressing towards the mark of God's upward call. So "don't be skerred," as I promise that I will still esteem you when we are done here, regardless of where we end up on this issue.