Comment of the Week: Church Tithing or Religious Extortion?
Tuesday February 12, 2008
Christian churches and institutions like to portray themselves as being concerned primarily with the spiritual and transcendent — rather than squabbling over the problems of this world, they are focused on eternity. That might be nice rhetoric and perhaps some adherents even believe it, but the evidence indicates a great deal of concern with and interest in this world — including and especially where money is involved.
People often ask me why I have such an issue with religion. There are, of course, the obvious issues, like its tendency to instill anti-intellectualism in the congregants and to induce politically disastrous group-think, but I also often point to this sort of economic wastefulness. "Religion doesn't hurt anybody", they say -- but millions of people are pumping their hard-earned wealth into what are at best inefficient charities and social clubs but are more often, as seems to be the case here, basically pyramid schemes.
[original post]
Jeremy comments on the same post, revealing the degree to which churches really can be more social clubs than "spiritual" or charitable organizations:
Reminds me of something that happened to a co-worker of mine a few years ago. He loved his church but after he got married he and his wife moved into a new house that was on the other side of town. So he decided to look for one closer to home. It took close to a year before he found one as most of the ones he looked at claimed that, in the opinion of the church, their yearly income was simply not high enough.
Country clubs and social clubs might turn down prospective members because their income is too low, so what does this say about churches which behave the same way? They clearly don't exist to spread the gospel, to minister to the sick and poor, to help those in trouble, etc. It's hard not to think that such churches exist to enrich themselves and prop up the egos of members who want to be seen as belonging to a "rich" and "exclusive" religious organization.
Comments
I lived in one of the “belt-buckle” cities of the bible belt for 18 years. It was considered a “belt-buckle” city because it has the largest number of churches per capita. This is usually taken as a sign of how “religious” the town is.
In reality it is a sign on how people cannot get along. The reason there is so many churches is not because the churches are growing, but because they are splitting. Every time a new church leader takes over a congregation - the church splits.
What a great use of funds. Tons of money goes to build the large church facilities, and then the minister leaves. 1/2 the congregation doesn’t like the new minister so a new church is started. Then the new church has to raise money to build new facilities. (and the old church is only at 1/2 capacity)
I knew of several large churches this happened to, and I didn’t even go to church. I simply heard about it from friends.
It’s not just Christianity either:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/902369.html
http://judaism.about.com/od/americanjewry/a/amjewcost.htm
Your colleague Lisa Katz seems to suggest that the high costs of practicing Judaism in the United States are actually driving people out of the religion.
I totally agree with what you’re saying. What might be interesting is that I’m a Christian. The longer I follow Jesus and the more I learn about what it means to live for Him, the more I’m disgusted and frustrated with most established churches. Unfortunately, many western churches actually exist only for their self preservation. It’s an awful representation of God because so much of what the church spends it’s money on has nothing to do with God’s heart and purposes. The western church in many ways has simply accepted the materialism of their culture. I think Jesus would say the same kinds of things to us today that He said to the religious leaders 2000 years ago.
Hoping and praying that things will change…
Without a source of financing from the government, religious institutions will need to rely on individual contributions. However, the ideal Church is supposed to operate on the principle of a gift economy - i.e. We give to help you, so please give to help us. Some synagogues will ask for a reasonable pledge from members of a congregation. Therefore, if all parties are willing, and there is no harm, then no foul.
However, it would go against the principles of many religions to simply ‘boot’ someone out because they did not have recourse to payment. Its one thing if one refuses to contribute to one’s organization of choice, its another if one cannot contribute a sufficient amount due to one’s means.