If all Christians would tithe (or give generously, if you prefer) 10% of their income, think of the people that could be fed and housed, diseases that could be eliminated, lives that could be saved, and so on. Unfortunately, studies show that Christians give only 2-3% of their incomes, the same as non-Christians. For a group where a major part of the teaching is on giving to help others, this is surprising and disturbing.I'm not so sure many churches today would spend the money wisely even if they had it. Many seem more interested in building big buildings and keeping the flock comfortable and entertained than they are in helping the poor. Not that there's anything wrong with going to a service that's done in a nice place and with excellence, but so many have taken it to an extreme.I hang around Christians quite often and I can verify that most of them are against "big government." And yet their giving (as a group) could make the government much smaller. But they're (as a group) not willing to make the personal sacrifices required to give as they should. Kind of ironic, isn't it.
All this said, Christians do give a ton of money, just look at giving dollars in the absolute. You'll see that "religious" giving is always at or near the top. All I'm saying is that if it was three or four times greater (the amount, on average, that it would be if every ChristianThis post isn't meant to be a debate on tithing, I've just used that amount to set a standard. I've written enough about tithing in other posts, so check those out and comment there if you have a beef with the concJust because many Christians don't give as they should doesn't mean that all are cheapskates, of course. I'm not saying that, so don't accuse me of it (I know someone was thinking of it.) All I'm saying is that Christians have a mandate to help the poor and IMO we've fallen way short of the standard. As a result, government has had to step in to fill the void. Agree or disagree
Saturday, September 11, 2010
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