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?