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Tithing or a Tax Break?
Tithing: No matter what subject matter we bring up, there is an expert on every corner.
“The fact that Christians should give is an unimpeachable truth,” one author says, adding, “I personally believe that the principles of proportional giving are particularly helpful, and I think the most biblical means of carrying out scriptural principles of giving.
http://zealfortruth.org/2010/09/myths-in-the-modern-church-tithing-is-required-of-christians/
A dance through the files on the Internet reveals:
Firmness and reliability of poll data:
Truthfulness: Poll data on religious behavior and practice are notoriously unreliable. Individuals often describe their own behavior inaccurately; they answer questions according to what they think they should be doing. For example:
17% of American adults say that they tithe (give 10 to 13% of their income to their church). Only 3% really do. 16
Many polls indicate that the percentage of adults who regularly attend a religious service is about 40% in the U.S., 20% in Canada, and perhaps 10% or less in Europe. But when noses are actually counted, the true figures are about half the stated figures (about 20% in the U.S. and 10% in Canada.) The 50% error also appears to apply in the UK. Author Monica Furlong commented: “…people questioned about how much they go to church, give figures which, if true, would add up to twice those given by the churches.” 40
http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_prac.htm
http://newsone.com/nation/casey-gane-mccalla/bishop-t-d-jakes-talks-paying-tides-in-the-recession/
Tithing means giving 10% to God’s work on some level in the minds of most Americans, it seems. Perhaps only a few do on a regular basis, but all of these churches we’ve got on every corner in America got built somehow.
“Gays and lesbians don’t pay tithing, their religion is politics,” according to Orin Hatch. http://qsaltlake.com/2010/06/09/hatch-gays-and-lesbians-%E2%80%98don%E2%80%99t-pay-tithing%E2%80%99/
On the other hand, some people think that tithing is a huge rip off. http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread547606/pg1
The concept seems sound: all of the people give 10% of their money (valuables including grain), and this allows the church to distribute the funds so that the poor, the widows, and the orphans can eat. That does sound like a redistribution of wealth, although not legally mandated by the government. There are implications here though.
Congressman Pence, in an interview with Glenn Becks says it would be best if, “….we pass fast acting tax relief that puts money this year right now in the pockets of working families, small businesses and family farms who can make those decisions for themselves and put our ailing economy back on its feet.” http://www.glennbeck.com/content/articles/article/196/20573/
I’m sure that those who are now hungry can wait until they get a tax refund 6 months from now, if they were working this last two years and are not presently on the street because of a foreclosure. I find it interesting that we want the government to lower the taxes on those who can then afford to give jobs; I wonder what accountability there will be to make sure that a dollar returned is a job created? If churches are supposed to use their funds for the widows and orphans, I wonder what accountability there is that their tax exempt status is taking care of the issues they are charged with? Granted, we are not forced to go to church, but we are forced to supplement the supply of funds they themselves take in and do not pay taxes on. One website put it like this: “The tithe is God’s tax to support God’s social order.” http://www.amprpress.com/income_tax.htm
We want social order, and we want others to be orderly. The question is, “How do we get others to conform to what our idea of orderly is?”
Position Salary
President
1789 $25,000
1873 50,000
1909 75,000
1949 100,0001
1969 200,0001
2001 400,0001
Vice President $208,1002
Senator 162,100
Representative 162,100
Majority and Minority Leaders 180,100
Speaker of the House 208,100
Chief Justice, U.S. Supreme Court 208,100
Assoc. Justice, U.S. Supreme Court 199,200
Read more: Salaries of the President, Vice President, and Other U.S. Officials — Infoplease.com http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0875856.html#ixzz13Cm65WsH
Judith Sheindlin, a former judge who now hosts the cable TV series Judge Judy, earned a salary of $25 million last year. By contrast, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, presiding over the nation’s highest court, brought in less than $200,000. http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/WaterCooler/story?id=124545&page=1
Lobbyists spent out the whazoo:
Industry/Total
Pharmaceuticals/Health Products$1,957,028,643
Insurance$1,427,752,637
Electric Utilities$1,345,379,505
Computers/Internet$1,080,969,699
Business Associations$1,068,462,638
Oil & Gas$1,003,530,221
Education$916,895,186
Misc Manufacturing & Distributing$872,735,711
Hospitals/Nursing Homes$847,968,184
Real Estate$830,173,587
Health Professionals$761,595,958
Securities & Investment$760,205,758
TV/Movies/Music$755,069,734
Civil Servants/Public Officials$724,906,476
Air Transport$715,990,983
Misc Issues$645,578,729
Automotive$599,306,976
Telephone Utilities$597,591,866
Telecom Services & Equipment$574,748,292
Defense Aerospace$504,475,101
Worldwide, at the bottom of the economic trough, when things were really down, the planet was 72 trillion dollars in the hole. Now that’s a lot of need. If the government can’t fix it, won’t fix it, or can’t stop bickering long enough to do anything about it, and the system is in a stalemate as the right and the left, the pundits and the other fools, the rich and the disenfranchised, the hyper-capitalists and the Fabian socialists, or whatever buzz words we want to use to mitigate our taking responsibility for our country, can’t get their acts together to make this happen, then I vote that we go back to square one and look at the crib note that we wrote ourselves. It was in the form of a declaration: “….whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.” As President Bush has stated, “We are addicted to foreign oil.” We’ve certainly sold the farm to China in several different ways. We pay TV judges more than the ones on the Supreme Court! People who can put a ball in a hole make more than people who can assist your child in learning how to communicate. We are willing to pay over $1,000 a gallon for breath fresheners 1/9th of an ounce at a time, and we don’t mind paying $32 a pound for pork rinds, which are 90% fat. Maybe we should just plain fire ourselves and start from scratch!
What we need is a line-item veto for the people. I would like to fire everyone. We can rehire on the basis of their ability to build a stronger country that has no government at all! We can let Glenn Beck go at it with Michael Moore. We can let Jon Stewart go at it with O’Reilly. I say, let’s do it MMA style and let all these people argue themselves into a frenzy! In the meantime, we can all sit down and rationally go through this mess and make some real progress. Social security, a mess. Check. Health care, a disaster. Check. Military waste, outrageous. Check. The entire political system of our being gridlocked into numbness, mind blowing! Check. The complete process of our having a country that is so disconnected from the rest of the planet in terms of the amount of affect that we have on world resources, beyond the pale. Check. The hubris involved in remaining so ignorant about how far we have sold our children a bill of goods concerning how late in the game this is to pitch in and take an active role in the community and the home, unpardonable. Check. And finally, for today, the out of touch way that we handle our personal affairs, like taking up tithes and then not using them for the purpose intended within the public trust of our allowing you tax free status if you will take care of the widows and orphans, appalling. Totally unchecked. The church does not seem to be doing any better than the federal government in this respect. If you can’t make better use of it, then revoke your own tax exempt status and let people use their money to pay their own bills. 10% is a raise that most people could use right about now.
runningturtle87
Having completed 32 years of public school service, Chris Herrington lives, with his wife, in Appleby, Texas, and his writing consists of blogging and essay writing concerning an array of topics including education, mediation, self-development, and human interests. He teaches at the Martin School of Choice, plays racquetball, and enjoys his job.
Chris Herrington can be reached at herrington@everythingnac.com
Amazing article! Well put!