Money (Part I: Tithe)

A friend of mine (http://www.claytonius.com/) recently sent me a good article (http://www.theooze.com/articles/article.cfm?id=1149). I've got a lot of thoughts about money. Unfortunately, they are too jumbled to put down into one post, so I'm going to break them down into parts. Part One, the Tithe.

I think tithing is a good thing. I think the Bible is pretty clear that my "first fruits" should be given back to God. It's not like God needs it. He's got everything, and I only have what He's given me. My thought is tithing is primarily for my benefit.

I've had people tell me that if I give 10% to God, God will "bless" me financially several times over. Personally, I think that's ridiculous. I suppose God could be a sort of CEO with the Holy Spirit acting as the Chief Operations Officer and Jesus as the Chief Financial Officer. Maybe Jesus has calculator...Maybe it's one of those fancy graphing calculators. It's probably the same calculator He uses to figure out how many jewels I'm going to get in my crown.

There's probably a whole division of accountant angels in charge of logging all transactions and keeping God's books. Tithing is really just a God tax. I don't know if their are any tithing breaks...You know...Maybe you get a rebate if your a pastor or a missionary. There's got to be some sort of monetary incentive for sending your kid to private school...Or better yet, homeschool! I bet missionaries in the 3rd world only owe about 2%, if that. It would seem kind of petty for God to tax pastors and missionaries. I mean their income is post tithe income.

I'm sure there's subset of accounting angels that do audits and investigate fraud. Think about it. I bet the same angels that audited the medieval popes audit those teleevangalists. That could be an interesting job.

Anyway, I think the benefit of tithing is that it reminds me that 1) I need to trust God with everything, 2) God is the one who provides for me, and 3) There are others who need my money. These three reasons might seem odd (or poorly formulated), but I think they get to the issues.

Giving away my money requires me to trust God. It's not easy to give away a percentage of my income...Especially if unexpected things happen, like car repairs. However, in giving money away, I realize that God has always provided for me. That's easy for me to say coming from an upper middle class white family in America. It'd probably be harder to believe that in countries where people starve to death. Those starving people, and many others, need my money more than I do.

The main thing I want to know is where should my tithe go. Most churches tell me my tithe should go to them...If I was the church I'd probably tell you to give me your tithe also. I'm not sure about that though. Can I give my 10% (I'm assuming 10% for now, although I'm not sure about that either) to a third world missionary? How about supporting a child in an impoverished country? Can I give it to the Salvation Army or the Red Cross? Must my money support someone who is specifically spreading the gospel, or can I give it to anyone who is helping the poor and needy?

Part of me thinks that helping the poor is a worthwhile cause no matter who is doing it. I like to give my tithe to the electric company. My electric company has a fund that is used to help people who can't afford to pay their electric bill. I like giving money to them. It's easy (I can do it online when I pay my bill), its anonymous, and the poor get something they really need (air conditioning, which is needed in Oklahoma in the summertime).

Maybe I should give my tithe to my church and give even more to the starving people. Maybe I shouldn't give any to the starving people but instead give it to a building campaign so the other parishioners can have adequate parking and butterfly atrium. Any thoughts?

Casual Friday

I'm in school, but I have a part time job. When I got hired they told me that dress was business casual, meaning slacks and a collared shirt. "On the plus side," they said, "Friday is casual Friday." I asked, "What does that mean?" They said, "You get to wear jeans and a collared shirt." To which I responded, "Oh."

First, what is it about jeans that makes them casual? Sure, they're sturdy and comfortable. They go with almost anything, and they don't need to be washed after just one wear (the proper frequency of washing jeans is up for debate). Why can't jeans be considered formal wear?

Second, why difference does it make if one day a week I get to wear jeans? I mean, is it that big of a privilege to wear jeans? Right now where I live its over 100 degrees outside. It'd be a blessing if I was allowed to wear shorts, but jeans? Seriously, its just a different material. Normally I wear linen khaki pants (I'd like to take this moment to recommend linen pants or even linen suits, especially for those in warmer climates. They are quite comfortable.)

Third, why do I look forward to casual Friday? I admit it, I do. I like being able to wear jeans. It makes me feel more relaxed, more laid back. Why? I don't know. Anyway, that's what's on my mind.

Chestless

I told my wife last night that I didn't have a chest. She just looked at me quizzically. I gave her a brief explanation of how Plato viewed the person. Plato thought that there were basically three parts to the self.

The first and lowest part was the passions. The passions were centered in the loins. The passions included most emotions and desires like hunger, lust, tiredness, etc. The passions were mostly associated with physical needs.

The third and highest part was the mind. The mind is centered in the head. The mind reasons and learns. The mind can make rational decisions and figure out what is best for the body as a whole.

The second part is the will which is centered in the heart or the chest. Plato thought that the mind should decide what's best for the body. It was the will's job to take what the mind had decided and enforce it on the passions. The will is an enforcer of sorts.

C.S. Lewis wrote an essay about men without chests. Plato's model was basically what Lewis was talking about. I think my chest is defective. I know that I'm defective by nature as a result of original sin. I'm not sure to what extent I'm depraved.

Perhaps I'm completely and utterly depraved, or at least I started out that way. Maybe my mind, will, and passions are all corrupt. I'm certain my passions are corrupt, and my will seems to fail me fairly often. I'm not sure about my mind.

I know sometimes my mind makes mistakes. My mind's mistakes could be explained by my mind being finite. I don't have an infinite mind so my mind can't do everything or do everything right because there's only so much mind to go around. A mistake wouldn't necessitate it being corrupt though. It could be finite but not corrupted.

Maybe God regenerated my mind completely and now my will and passions are slowly being sanctified. What I mean is that maybe God has restored my mind, but He's slowly restoring my will and passions. Or maybe my mind was never corrupted. Maybe everyone's mind is free of corruption, and God just has to begin to regenerate our wills and passions.

Any thoughts on the self or corruption?

Prope

Admittedly, I'm a Protestant with a Reformed bent. However, a little over a year ago I became a semi-convert to Roman Catholicism...for a day. I was required to read an article by a Russian historian. The article was basically a synopsis of why Roman Catholics and Protestants were clearly in error and Orthodox Christians had it right.

The main critique of Protestants was that they (we) have no authority. We have nothing infallible. Sure, we have the Bible, but that clearly requires interpretation. Of course the Holy Spirit aids us in interpreting the Bible, but we have no one true interpretation. The more I thought about this lack of authoritative interpretation the more I wanted it. I wanted to know whether I should be dunked or sprinkled. I wanted someone to tell me that Spiritual Gifts are more than just the gift of "helping." I wanted answers.

It started to make me angry that all of these silly Protestants were running around preaching whatever they felt like. It made so much sense to set up an authority structure who could decide once and for all that God's call is irresistible and that "once saved, always saved" was an unnecessary cliche developed by short sighted Wesleyans. We needed a Protestant Pope (Prope?) to rule over the dissenting divisions. A Prope unite all Protestants. It'd keep disgruntled parishioners from starting a church across the street.

A friend of mine helped me come to my senses. He helped me realize two things: 1)I don't want a Prope so much as I want to be Prope. I think a Prope would be awesome so long as it was me. A Prope that wasn't me would be fine too, he (or she) just couldn't make me believe anything I didn't want to believe. 2)We're all fallible. This foundation of Protestantism keeps us from having infallible authority.

A Prope really doesn't work if he (or she) is fallible. No body listens to a fallible guy in a funny hat. If anyone's got ideas on where authority can be found, I'd love to read it.

Microphone Syndrome

If you've ever had the opportunity to be in or work on a stage production of any kind you may have seen or experienced microphone syndrome. Its an interesting phenomenon. If you put a person on stage by themselves with a microphone and no audience, the person will begin to speak. The person will continue to speak even though no one is listening.

I think people just like to hear the sound of their own voice. Hopefully that's not all I'm doing. Besides, hearing the sound of my own typing or reading my words on the page isn't near as gratifying as hearing my voice echo through an auditorium.

First Day

Welcome to the first Fluffy Thought post. In many ways its like the first day of school. I'm a little nervous and I don't know who my friends are yet. I'm hoping not to embarrass myself.

This blog will be my thoughts. The thoughts are fluffy in that I may have some interesting observations, but those observations will be accompanied by plenty of fluff. Hopefully you'll wade through them.

I welcome your comments. This blog will hopefully evolve into something interesting. Peace.