Pay more to creditors or in tithing?

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The Catholic Church does not teach tithing. If any Catholic parish sets a specific percentage of money you have to give away to Church or charity, that is extortion. It is a non-Catholic teaching. You are under no obligation whatsoever to follow it.

I would simply not belong to a parish that “requires” a set amount of money from me. That is a heretical requirement. And if they are teaching one heresy, it is very likely they are teaching others.

I would get out of there as soon as possible. Plenty of other parishes. You don’t HAVE to, of course. But I certainly would.
 
Remember, when many people use the word “tithing”, they don’t mean 10%. Rather, they have adopted the word to mean “reasonable giving”, “helping the poor”, “giving to the Church”, etc. They don’t seem to grasp that they evoke the idea of 10% in the minds of others when they use the word. So, when they say, “you must tithe”, they just mean you don’t get to keep gobs of money all to yourself to spend on frivolity, with no concern for the rest of humanity. They mean you are responsible to use your property with love, as is reasonable.

The other common problem is that some Catholics listen to random radio/tv preachers and get the idea of tithing from there, “learn” it is biblical, and so assume they must do it as those preachers told them. This happens when they lack knowledge and good formation and guidance (“good formation” when used by me means they have had open access to opportunities to hear a full set of sound doctrine and they have had the ability to avail themselves, etc). Sadly, many Catholics have been left at the mercy of whomever preaching whatever to them.
 
whatevergirl said:
my husband and I have ‘acquired’:o roughly $5k in credit card debt…we make more than the minimum payments, montly…but we try to stick with our 10% tithing, weekly, for our parish. Should we pay off our credit cards first, and decrease our weekly tithing? Of course the ideal would be to do both–but we are also saving to move to Florida, SO…my husband thinks that we should make higher payments to the creditors, because God speaks of paying our debtors in the Bible, as being significant. I also know that if I lowered our tithing, we would probably pay off our debt much quicker–that is for sure.

Now, we should avoid getting into debt…but once you’ve accumulated some, where should the balance of your monthly income go? (as in prioritizing)

So–which is the smarter/moral route? I look forward to your replies.🙂
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Lower your tithing. Ten percent is mandatory for Protestants. Catholics are asked to pay what they can reasonably afford. Pay off your debts as quickly as possible, THEN when you are in the black, pump up your tithing to help make up for what you did not give.

I currently am too poor to give to the ADA or even to my parish every week, but when I get more hours soon at work, I will pump it up. I even was short last year on my ADA so I will do what I can to make up for that. My conscience is clear. 🙂

Easy, sneezy, lemon, peezy. 😉
 
whatevergirl said:
my husband and I have ‘acquired’:o roughly $5k in credit card debt…we make more than the minimum payments, montly…but we try to stick with our 10% tithing, weekly, for our parish. Should we pay off our credit cards first, and decrease our weekly tithing? Of course the ideal would be to do both–but we are also saving to move to Florida, SO…my husband thinks that we should make higher payments to the creditors, because God speaks of paying our debtors in the Bible, as being significant. I also know that if I lowered our tithing, we would probably pay off our debt much quicker–that is for sure.

Now, we should avoid getting into debt…but once you’ve accumulated some, where should the balance of your monthly income go? (as in prioritizing)

So–which is the smarter/moral route? I look forward to your replies.🙂
Click to expand...
Lower your tithing. Ten percent is mandatory for Protestants. Catholics are asked to pay what they can reasonably afford. Pay off your debts as quickly as possible, THEN when you are in the black, pump up your tithing to help make up for what you did not give and as a Thank You to God for helping you pay off your debts.

I currently am too poor to give to the ADA or even to my parish every week, but when I get more hours soon at work, I will pump it up. I even was short last year on my ADA so I will do what I can to make up for that. My conscience is clear. 🙂

Easy, sneezy, lemon, peezy. 😉
 
I give whatever I decide I should give to the Church. No more, no less. Anything else would be dishonest to my conscience.

I cannot understand why Catholics even discuss tithing at all (giving 10% of your income to the Church.) This is a non-Catholic teaching. It is Protestant. Catholics are under no obligation to follow it.

It doesn’t even make rational sense. Why give a precise minimum of 10% to the Church? Why not 30%? Why not 2%? The 10% figure is entirely arbitrary, plucked out of the air for absolutely no good reason at all. The Church doesn’t teach it for precisely this reason. It doesn’t make any sense - morally, or logically. And when something doesn’t make any sense, we are not rationally justified in believing it.

I look forward to a day when NO Catholics ever discuss tithing. It disturbs me to see Catholics taking seriously a non-Catholic teaching. It’s just bizarre.
 
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