Tithing 10% of your income good or bad?

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I came across this a want to know what you think ?
Churches sometimes engage in questionable practices.* To attend a Church participants are frequently being encouraged to become members by attending “membership classes”.* In these classes you are frequently asked (although usually not obligated) at the end to sign a covenant to the church and/or to God.* This covenant usually includes a number of provisions and usually a commitment to tithe.* The bible teaches that if you bind yourself to such a commitment you will be held to it by God.* Therefore do not enter into such agreements.* Jesus said, "Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not break your oath, but keep the oaths you have made to the Lord.’ But I tell you, Do not swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.” * Matthew 5:33-37.* * Learn to take the good and leave the bad or is it a good or bad practice ? What I you don’t want to thithe or can’t afford it however I mean if the moneys helps the poor and stuff it might be good for 10% of your income to help other ? What do you think ?
 
I tithe around 10%, with 6% or so going to some friends of mine who fundraise their salaries as a part of their missionary work, and the other 4% going to my parish.
 
But is it good or bad to do that pending on the bible verse above ?
 
Chuck1 said:
I came across this a want to know what you think ?
Churches sometimes engage in questionable practices.* To attend a Church participants are frequently being encouraged to become members by attending “membership classes”.* In these classes you are frequently asked (although usually not obligated) at the end to sign a covenant to the church and/or to God.* This covenant usually includes a number of provisions and usually a commitment to tithe.* The bible teaches that if you bind yourself to such a commitment you will be held to it by God.* Therefore do not enter into such agreements.* Jesus said, "Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not break your oath, but keep the oaths you have made to the Lord.’ But I tell you, Do not swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.” * Matthew 5:33-37.* * Learn to take the good and leave the bad or is it a good or bad practice ? What I you don’t want to thithe or can’t afford it however I mean if the moneys helps the poor and stuff it might be good for 10% of your income to help other ? What do you think ?
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God’s legitimate authority on earth is the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church alone has the authority to bind/loose people under covenant oaths on matters of faith and morals.

Our covenant oaths are our promises when we recieve the sacraments of initiation. The sacraments of initiation are our entry into the family relationships formed by the new covenant in Christ’s Blood and our promises are the terms of the covenant. These promises are requested of us by God’s authority - the Church - as the terms of the covenant.

We are called to give not only from our surplus. John the baptist was asked point blank, “What must we do to be saved?” and the reply was “If you have two tunics and your neigbor has none, give him one.”

I am struggling with this right now. To me, ten percent is just the beginning. Giving mental assent to the idea and actually doing it are two different things. It is difficult.

-Tim-
 
TimothyH said:
God’s legitimate authority on earth is the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church alone has the authority to bind/loose people under covenant oaths on matters of faith and morals.

Our covenant oaths are our promises when we recieve the sacraments of initiation. The sacraments of initiation are our entry into the family relationships formed by the new covenant in Christ’s Blood and our promises are the terms of the covenant. These promises are requested of us by God’s authority - the Church - as the terms of the covenant.

We are called to give not only from our surplus. John the baptist was asked point blank, “What must we do to be saved?” and the reply was “If you have two tunics and your neigbor has none, give him one.”

I am struggling with this right now. To me, ten percent is just the beginning. Giving mental assent to the idea and actually doing it are two different things. It is difficult.

-Tim-
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This.

BUT at the same time, I’ve never experienced a Catholic parish that has asked any parishoner to sign any kind of contract or promise to tithe 10%. Any parish that I’ve belonged to asks their parishoners to give what they can, when they can. They have sometimes given a “standard” or “suggestion”, but never asked anyone to sign any kind of oath or contract to do so.

It is good to tithe 10% or even more, it is bad to require it for “membership” in a parish.
 
Melchior said:
Thanks Tim, you just saved me some typing! 😃
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TrueLight recommended the book “Happy Are You Poor” and said it was life changing for her.

It has really challenged me to my core.

It is one of those books that you almost wish you had never read - at least you could plead ignorance if you had not read it, but now there is no excuse.

-Tim-
 
I think that 10% is just a number that could make sense for some people but not for others. We are to give financially until it hurts and then a little bit more. We must also remember that we are not going to heaven just by writing a check even if it hurts. We must also devote our time and talents and not according to what feels good but to what is good.

Last night I had a very interesting conversation with my son. He is planning to teach catechism with me starting next year and he knows all of my thoughts and reservations in regard to the program in our parish. He made it quite clear to me that even if things will not go my way I still have an obligation to do my best given the circumstances and I cannot stop teaching because I have already been told that I am needed at a specific time for a specific day of the week.

I was a fool thinking that the head of the family was the spiritual guide of the family. Now I have a 16 year old telling me how to use my time and talents. Now if I can hold a few more years until we ship him to seminary, then I will have only to answer to my wife. 😃
 
TimothyH said:
TrueLight recommended the book “Happy Are You Poor” and said it was life changing for her.

It has really challenged me to my core.

It is one of those books that you almost wish you had never read - at least you could plead ignorance if you had not read it, but now there is no excuse.

-Tim-
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I wonder if there’s a Kindle version of that book…hmmmm.

A priest I greatly respect came visited my parish a year or two ago and gave a tour de force homily on tithing, which reminded me that if I truly want to live a mendicant life I need to give more than simply money (but also give money). I knew this already of course, but reminders never hurt! (That’s one of the reasons we say the Creed, after all).

Great priest, and an even better confessor. Sadly, not everyone was receptive of his message.
 
Melchior said:
I wonder if there’s a Kindle version of that book…hmmmm.

A priest I greatly respect came visited my parish a year or two ago and gave a tour de force homily on tithing, which reminded me that if I truly want to live a mendicant life I need to give more than simply money (but also give money).

Great priest, and an even better confessor. Sadly, not everyone was receptive of his message.
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Kindle version!

However, it might be better to by a used copy than wasting money on extravaganzas like a kindle! :D:D:D
 
PatriceA said:
This.

BUT at the same time, I’ve never experienced a Catholic parish that has asked any parishoner to sign any kind of contract or promise to tithe 10%. Any parish that I’ve belonged to asks their parishoners to give what they can, when they can. They have sometimes given a “standard” or “suggestion”, but never asked anyone to sign any kind of oath or contract to do so.

It is good to tithe 10% or even more, it is bad to require it for “membership” in a parish.
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I have heard of the practice of signing a covenant in the Evangelical Churches. I think that is what the OP is referring to.

Covenants form family bonds. That is their purpose, to bind people together as family. Covenants come with blessings for remaining faithful and curses for unfaithfulness. Moses laid this out for Israel in Dueteronomy 30 yet Israel had to learn about blessing and curse over and over and over.

Our entry into the New Covenant is through baptism, and ongoing through pennance and reception of the Eucharist. Even dipping our hand in the holy water, making a sign of the cross and saying “Amen” is a reminder of our baptism and in some way a renewal of the covenant. We actually renew our baptismal promises every Easter.

We promise to renounce Satan at our baptism and renew that promise very Easter. All else follows. Embracing love for our neighbor means that even if we give ten percent, we will never leave a human being out in the cold or let another human being go hungry. What form that takes and how that is played out in our lives is up to us.

I have never heard of a Catholic Church which requires one to sign an agreement. That sounds more like a contract than a covenant. We can withold our funds if we think it is being used to hurt God’s kingdom or if we think it will contribute to sin. Susan G. Komen is a good example of where some have witheld their funds. But our local parish deserves our support. The man who confects the Eucharist for us and prays for us seven times a day deserves to eat. The boiler cost money to run and the charcoal in the thurible isn’t free. Altar wine and unleavened bread cost real money.

Everyone want’s to drink the Precious Blood but somebody has to pay for the Chalice.

-Tim-
 
Cristiano said:
Kindle version!

However, it might be better to by a used copy than wasting money on extravaganzas like a kindle! :D:D:D
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Hey now, my tablet is super useful! I can carry 50 books at once, plus have three Bible translations and a Catechism. I’d give myself a third hernia if I had to carry all of that with me!

(PS: Thanks for the link!)
 
Per the suggestion of the Denver Archdiocese: 5 percent to one’s parish,1-2 percent to the Archbishops’ Catholic Appeal,the balance to charities of the individuals choice.Also,someone mentioned these offerings should come from ones surplus.My understanding is that thithing is to be sacrificial.🙂
 
Thanks for responses guys but aside from all that is it right to tithe and what does god say ? What does the verse mean in my op ? Some say that it is a misreading of the Bible, a practice created by man, not God. They say they should be free to donate whatever amount they choose . Should you be obligated to give a tithe at all what are the pros and cons ?
 
Melchior said:
Hey now, my tablet is super useful! I can carry 50 books at once, plus have three Bible translations and a Catechism. I’d give myself a third hernia if I had to carry all of that with me!

(PS: Thanks for the link!)
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Haven’t you memorized those books yet? :confused:

:D:D:D
 
Can anyone list pros and cons or Tithing ? And simple is it good or bad ?
 
Dear friends,
whatever you may have heard from Protestant pastors on TV (( and some of these men and women’s teachings, the televangelists, are SO WAY OUT THERE, so to speak, that many PROTESTANT theologians regard these televangelists as Rankly Heretical and have said so repeatedly )), but despite what any non Catholic may tell you, and no matter how many scripture verses they bring forward,
TITHING, giving 10% of your Gross income, is, strictly speaking,
only binding under the Law of Moses, it was one of the provisions of the Law of Moses
for the building, support and maintennance of the Holy Temple on Mount Moriah as well as for the financing and feeding of the temple Priests and other temple workers and those who lived perpetually at the Temple and prayed and fasted perpetually for the People of Israel.
Tithing is not and never was, a requirement, strictly speaking, for members of the
New Covenant.
Is it a good idea? It sure is !! But never let anyone scare you into questioning your salvation if you cannot afford to tithe. Don’t let them. Some, though overwhelmingly they are nonCatholics, WILL try to do so in this matter.

So is tithing good? It definitely is. Giving 10% of your gross income to your parish and the Lord’s work is a wonderful thing to do.
And depending on how wealthy you are, you might want to prayerfully consider
giving a LOT MORE than a mere 10%. Plus lots of donations to really good, trustworthy needful causes like Catholic Relief Services, Catholic Charities, St. Vincent dePaul Society, Prison Ministries ( dismas.org ), the ProLife Movement, traditional values promoting organizations, and even good, 100% Trustworthy Secular Groups too,
such as Feeding America (( feedingamerica.org )), where each $10 donation literally provides 90 POUNDS of food for poor people, for the unemployed, for children whose parents can’t afford to feed them adequate nourishing food, etc.

Tithing is not strictly required under the New Covenant. Don’t let any preacher scare you.
Some will try to, especially to scare you into giving gobs of money to their ministries which, in a lot of cases, is spent on luxurious living for themselves and not on the Lord’s work at all.

But remember, though we are not required to tithe, if we save up hundreds of thousands, or millions, for ourselves that we or our heirs will never truly NEED ( and I mean NEED, not “Want” so that they can live luxuriously) God will one day ask us why we did that instead of helping His work and, equally, helping our fellow human beings in need.
For, “to him to whom much has been given, much will be required” and,
despite the Callous Question asked by Cain, defiantly to God, the answer in fact
is, YES, we ARE our Brother’s Keepers, and we do not have the “right” to shirk that responsibility toward others by claiming that what we earn is OURS alone and that if we give to anyone else, it is strictly our right to do so voluntarily if and only if we feel like it.
That is not true, based on the teachings of scripture, for we in fact ARE our brother’s keepers and not just if we feel like voluntarily giving to help them.

At my church, in an upper middle class neighborhood, the average per capita gift per week
per member, is under FIVE dollars. That’s per capita. Most people literally give ONE buck per week or less to God’s house, in this fairly well-incomed church community.
THAT is really shameful. And, not surprisingly, it is the lower-income people who actually are, in most cases, the ones who are giving the MOST to the parish, often $10 a week or more. A few, a few, of the middle to upper income members, are giving quite a bit.
Most of the members, including the middle to upper middle income ones, are giving a buck or less a week, in total, to our struggling parish, which is, I truly believe, extremely sinful and inexcusable, as they manage to be able to afford nice late model cars, nice homes, designer clothing and jewelry, fine perfumes and colognes, expensive Sunday brunch, Ipods, Ipads, Xboxes, WiFi, numerous Laptops, GPS devices, movies & treats at over $100 for the family in addition to brunch, etc., etc, etc, but cry the financial blues when it comes to giving to the church, to charity, or to the prolife, profamily movements.
They aren’t “doing without,” they are living the American Dream and letting the PARISH and it’s NEEDS, do without. And that, sorry, is absolutely not right, no way, no how.
(( I am sure, from reading many many posts on these topics, that THAT is NOT the behavior of most folks here on the Catholic Answers Forums, thank God. ))
Tithing is not required, again, it is not. But we are required by God to do what we can for His House and Work, and for our Brothers and Sisters, according to our MEANS, not according to our Whims.
God love all of you and prosper you richly, both spiritually and materially.
Love,
Jaypeeto4
+JMJ+
 
**My understanding is that thithing is to be sacrificial. **

Dear JeanneS, and others, this statement is correct. Though “tithing” is not required by the New Law,
ones’ giving IS to be sacrificial and NOT from one’s “surplus” alone.

Want proof? Jesus never praised those who only gave out of their “Surplus.”
Sitting in the Temple treasury, he noticed the wealthy coming in to give their
LARGE (but utterly disproportionate to their great wealth) donations to God’s house,
which, out of vanity, they would announce to all by having someone walk in front of
them BLOWING A HORN as they sanctimoniously and publicly (for the praise of others)
gave their BIG (but proportionately really tiny) Donations to the Temple.
(( Kinda like people who only give to a religious order in order to get their names boldly
emblazoned on a big bronze plaque or on a stained glass window )).

Jesus wasn’t impressed at all, nor did he praise them.
Instead, he watched a poor little old widow lady come hobbling in and, with no fanfare,
drop in two tiny copper coins (the “widows mites” we have heard of).
About two cents, compared the wealthy’s impressive gifts which might have amounted to tens of thousands of dollars in those days. He had no praise for their gifts.
Instead, he praised the DIRT POOR widow and her almost ZILCH gift to the Temple.
Because, as he said, THOSE (the wealthy) gave out of their surplus ((and thus not sacrificially and would never “miss” what they were giving)), whereas SHE
gave out of what she had to live on, really sacrificial giving. Plus, for giving out of
their surplus (while continuing to live in luxury) they demanded public thanks and praise by blowing the horn in front of themselves as they came in to make their donations.
This vanity, you can tell from the account, also factored in to the deliberate lie of Ananias and Sapphira to the apostles, and hence to the Holy Spirit, when they pretended and schemed to pretend, to be giving ALL the proceeds of the sale of their property to the Church. They planned to continue to live in luxury, give only a portion of their property’s worth (which no one forced them to sell or give a penny of it) to the church and claim the praise and glory for giving the whole amount. God only knows where they would have taken their deception of God’s Church from there had they been allowed by God to live on. Their hearts were bad, and He struck them dead for this vain, deliberate deception of the Church, lying to the Spirit boldly and brazenly and vainly.

The story of the wealthy givers vs. the poor widow is the New Testament recapitulation of the story of Cain and Abel. Cain, while he may have given the Lord a beautiful vegetable offering, perhaps arranged nicely and very attractively, DID NOT give the Lord his very best, whereas Abel, who offered a fine and unblemished lamb offering, gave God his very best, intending to give him his very best, not just a pretty lamb, an excess lamb,
but the choicest lamb in his flock, the best lamb he had.
God utterly rejected Cain’s offering of vanity ((which made Cain murderously furious with jealousy at Abel)), and accepted Abel’s offering, because it wasn’t “right.” It wasn’t done from right motives and it wasn’t his best. It wasn’t right. God even TOLD Cain so,
saying, “Why art thou sullen and crestfallen? If you do RIGHT, will ye not be lifted up?”
And he warned him to get rid of that jealous rage, because a serious sin was crouching at his door but Cain, angry at God as much as at Abel, schemed to get Abel out into the fields alone and helpless, and murdered him out of jealousy and out of rage toward God Himself for favoring Abel’s good-intentioned, choice offering, over his half-hearted offering.
(( and how did Cain react? When God, after Cain had brutally murdered his generous brother Abel, when God asked Cain, “Where is thy brother Abel?” Cain, smarting-off to God right to God’s Face, replied like a smart-asp: “What?! What, am I my Brother’s Keeper?” — the answer to that is, of course, Oh Yes Cain, you ARE, whether you like it or not. And that answer has not changed, despite modern attitudes about holding on to our wealth. ))

Giving must be sacrificial, according to our means, and not our whims. Now, it must be voluntary, but if we don’t FEEL LIKE giving voluntarily, that doesn’t excuse us, we must, rather, pray to God for the GRACE to FEEL like giving generously and cheerfully, because God DOES NOT LIKE tightwads, and, look at this gorgeous Universe, at our beautiful earth, and look at a realistic, horrifyingly bloody crucifix (not a lovely gold and silver one) and you will see clearly that God Himself is infinitely far from being any sort of Tightwad.
And He expects us to become as generous, proportionately, as He is.
That’s the whole point of Him filling us with His Spirit, to help us become more loving (charitable, caritas, agape,) just as He is.
 
Chuck1 said:
But is it good or bad to do that pending on the bible verse above ?
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I don’t believe the bible teaches us to tithe our income; however, the early church practiced this concept and you can find those writings in the Didache an early 2nd century document. I was with the Assemblies of God for 12 years and I struggled with the methods and what I believed were outright manipulation that turned an offering into a Church tax. What I have experienced in my own life is that when I tithe I do well in my job and it stays secure. Everytime without fail that I have stopped tithing I lost my job. But I think this is an iussue strictly between me and God and it is an issue between you and God that cannot be manipulated by others seeking financial gain for their owm ministries (see 1 Tim 6:3-10). When you tithe it is by faith an act of worship in thanksgiving to God for what he has intrusted to you. This must be understood by the heart and until than its a tax. So don’t sign any agreement this is between you and the Lord.

Peace,
David
 
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