We drove by another one last night worthy of mention, but I didn't have my camera...argh!"Tithe if you love Jesus! Anyone can honk!"
I kid you not.
The second week of our class, our professor entertained a lengthy and interesting discussion centered on the question, "Why do evangelicals teach the importance of a 10% tithe?" After examining several OT texts on the purpose of tithing for the Israelites, along with the percentages they were suppossed to tithe, it's more clear that our modern tithing concepts are pretty fabricated. Not only so, but designating only a portion of our income, like 10%, to God or the church, or our ministers seems to convey a completely erroneous concept, that being only a portion of our earnings/worth is God's, the rest if ours as a result of our hard work. This mentality fails to promote the idea that all of our wealth, possessions, and charity are God's.
If our financial perspectives admit that everything in our bank accounts belong more fully to our Creator, it might be easier to love Jesus by giving it away. However, I don't think the church sign was relating this theological presupposition.
I am a BIG fan of the congregation financially supporting their pastors and ministers. But I'm not a fan of it coming forth from legalism or a duty to keep up one's "Christian" appearances.
1 comment:
The Fathers are pretty tough on the use of material wealth. Chrysostom says, in effect, that all of your money and possessions belong to God and thus that when you treat yourself to luxuries you are doing so by taking money out of the offering plate. In his view "personal wealth" is a form of theft.
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