Almighty God our Father commands us to tithe (ten percent annually (10%)) as a gift of thanks to God Our creator and our Father. He commands this of us his children. It is an obligation owed. This is fine by me, if God wants it it’s his. It’s the least I can do for my creator and provider, as I owe him so very much.
“Render therefore unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s and unto God that which is God’s.”
This was Jesus response to the Pharisees and the people when asked by the Pharisees whether or not it was lawful or not to pay taxes. It was meant as a trick, a trap for Jesus to see whether or not he would condone not paying taxes thus setting himself above Rome and Caesar and inciting the people to rebel against Caesar by not paying taxes.
Jesus response separated our financial obligations with a fine line between God and the Government. The problem is that in today’s world that fine line is becoming muddied as both Government and Church keep grabbing more and more.
The Government is continuously thinking up more ways of taxing us in order to get more from us. Everything has a price and that price has taxes added to it. The day of trading and bartering is no more, as it was in the days of Jesus, whereby if you had eggs you could trade them for flour, or if you had olive oil you might trade it for wine.
Furthermore Rabbis, Priests and other ministerial clergy, are dipping into our pockets for monies not owed to God and they are doing so for such services as christenings or baptisms, for marriages, even, for funerals. They refer to these monies as “Donations” for services provided, but try to get them to perform any of these rituals without paying for it and see how far you get.
Maybe I should not include Jewish Rabbis for I am not Jewish, nor have I ever attended Synagogue for services, but maybe I am right about them too.
In any case it appears that religion has become “Big Business” and those running things are dipping into our pockets, over and above the “Tithe” God commanded of us.
Here’s a question for you. When you tithe, does that money have to go to the Church, or, can one give it as a donation to some needy Charity Foundation? Is that still not giving it back to God?
The various denominations of churches look for way after way to reach into our pockets for more of our hard earned cash seeking donations for this and donations for that. Soon you could leave for home penniless, and the church wouldn’t care one bit whether you had enough to put dinner on the table or milk for your infant child just so long as they got as much as they could for whatever it was that week they were asking monies for, and what makes matters even worse is they use a guilt trip to get it from you.
I know that Jesus tells us to give Alms to all who would ask, but this is becoming so hard today when every time one turns around, some person down on their luck has their hand out. It is almost impossible to drive through a major intersection today without seeing someone claiming to be homeless and jobless, begging alms.
Now I’m not saying that it is wrong to give tithe back to God. I am not advocating not paying all necessary taxes assessed by the Government, nor am I saying don’t give alms to those in need. I guess what I am trying to say is that I can only stretch a dollar so far, and there comes a time when there is little to nothing left to share and living today is harder and harder not just for me, but for the most of us.