The Issue of Tithing

A recent Wall Street Journal article, The Backlash against Tithing, discusses how many churches are abandoning the idea of tithing, including conservative congregations. I’ve been intrigued by the question of tithing as I’ve been slowly working my way out of debt and toward a tithing practice at my church. It is a good subject for reflection as we enter the biggest holiday shopping season of the year.

Many churches look to the Bible as requiring tithing. Citing Jacob in Genesis “and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar shall be God’s house; and of all that you give me I will surely give one-tenth to you” (Genesis 28:21) these congregations insist that giving 10% of their income to the church is a biblically scripted requirement. In Mormon congregation’s members are bared from entering church if they don’t tithe and many conservative mega churches offer financial planning to help members learn how to manage their finances and tithe at the same time.

Yet, as the Wall Street Journal article points out, the idea of tithing is being challenged. In such unlikely places as the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C professor Andreas Kostenberger argues in his New Testament class that “if you add up all taxes paid by the ancient Israelites, they exceed 10%, and that in the New Testament there's no percentage rule.”

I think biblically-literal interpretation of scripture (whether for or against tithing), miss the point. I have been persuaded about the importance of tithing not because the Bible requires it of us, but because it is a way of participating in the world; it is a way of saying our humanity counts.

The best article I’ve read on tithing comes from Rebecca Ann Parker’s book, Blessing the World: What Can Save Us Now. In her chapter, “What Shall We Do with All this Beauty,” she connects honoring the Sabbath and tithing as the best practices in a global capitalist marketplace for spiritual deepening.

She argues that in a culture where global consumerism increasingly defines who we are, we need to find ways of being human that aren’t tied up with buying and selling goods. Without concrete practices that affirm our humanity we “lose our awareness that we have intimate and meaningful relationships with one another, that we are connected to and dependent upon the earth, that we have interests that transcend our personal lives.”

The spiritual practice of observing the Sabbath asks us to stop participating for one day in the ways that the dominant culture has determined for us. This is not simply about our own personal need for renewal but an understanding that we can not really comprehend injustice and be agents of change if we aren’t taking time to let ourselves feel the implications of injustice in the world. Similarly and connectedly, Parker argues that we should tithe not only because it helps sustain the causes we care about but it is a way of honoring our role as participants in creation, as stewards of the earth. As one congregational member claims, “to tithe is to tell the truth about who I am. . . I am a person who has something to give. I am a person who has received abundantly from life. I am a person whose presence matters in the world, and I am a person whose life has meaning because I am connected to and care about many things larger than myself. If I did not tithe, I would lose track of these truths about who I am.”