|
“How Does Christian Debt Relief Relate To Teachings About Prosperity And Tithing?”
Welcome back!
Christian debt relief has become a significant topic in Christian churches as more and more Christians struggle with debt, foreclosure, and bad credit. How does Christian debt relate to Christian teachings about tithing and prosperity?
Money As Rotten Fish
The first answer is that the relationship is complicated. Money is such a complex topic in Christian history. Every church needs money to operate and expects its members to contribute money to pay the bills, pay salaries, and do various charitable good works. At the same time, many churches treat money as if it is rotten fish. Smelly, dirty, and best kept far, far away from sensitive noses. It’s unfair to stereotype churches to cartoon versions of themselves. At the same time, there are conflicting tendencies within churches that lead to dramatically different approaches to money.
Alan Wolfe, director of the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life at Boston College, said the problem for some church members is that “Christianity has always had a complicated relationship with money.”
On the one hand, Wolfe said, believers are told that the love of money is the root of all evil. Then there are those who preach a prosperity gospel, which promotes that God wants believers to have an abundant life with extraordinary financial blessings.
Alan Wolfe
And so churches with the idea that “money is rotten fish but we can’t live without it,” operate with a double standard. Money is bad when you have it and spend it on yourself, but money becomes good when you give it to the church, and let the church do God’s work with it.
Tithing
Tithing is the practice of giving ten percent of your income to the church. Some churches insist that tithing is commanded by God in the Bible. Other churches never mention the idea of tithing, but instead ask people to pledge a certain amount of money during annual stewardship campaigns.
Not surprisingly, the churches that teach tithing as a requirement tend to be churches with more income than churches that treat offerings as a matter of personal convenience.
As a matter of logic, it would seem that the best way for the church to get more money to pay its bills and do what it perceives as its mission is to help people create more wealth so that they will have more to contribute to the church.
If you are going to tell people to tithe, it would be better for the church to get a tenth of $1000 than a tenth of $100, and it would be even better to get a tithe of $100,000 or $1,000,000. The higher the income level within the church, the more money the church would take in from its tithing members.
But logic doesn’t always apply. Money is so highly charged, and laden with so much theological baggage, that churches tend to teach mixed messages about money.
And so it is a strange juxtaposition. You will hear sermons about the evils of having money and sermons about the blessings of giving money. It’s the same money, but when you have it, money is evil. When you give it to the church to God’s work, money now becomes good.
The Missing Piece About Wealth Creation
This is why you will often hear sermons about giving and tithing, but not very many about how to manage your own money to create wealth.
“What we are trying to get over to people is that we have to teach about stewardship the same way we teach about forgiveness,” said the Rev. Kerry A. Hill, president of the Collective Banking Group, a consortium of pastors in Prince George’s and the District who help area churches finance projects. “A lot of pastors agree that we have talked about tithing, and we need to talk about the other 90 percent.”
Kerry A. HillÂ
Prosperity GospelÂ
Obviously, there are many exceptions. Prosperity gospel churches will tell you it is good for you to have money. The prosperity gospel message goes on to teach that one way to ensure that God blesses you with more and more money is for you to give more and more to the church. Prosperity churches often teach financial literacy to their members and take away the stigma of wanting and having money.
So, on the one hand, you have churches teaching you that money is bad stuff until you give it us, and churches that teach that money is a sign of God’s blessing. The more money you have, the more obviously God has blessed you.
The Rock And Hard Place Of Christian Debt
Between these two extremes, there is the middle ground where most Christians live. And these days, that place is between a rock and a hard place, in an economy that is making many people struggle for money while others grow richer. The rock is rising costs without higher wages, and the hard place is rising debt and tighter credit.
Historically, many Christian churches have helped people in trouble, but most have not taught people how to handle debt. This is changing, as churches are beginning to teach people how to deal with money. And for many Christians, that means learning how to deal with debt.
The article, “Calling On Gospel To Call Off Debt,” provides glimpses of what some churches are doing to help their members deal with debt.
Dr. Kalinda Rose Stevenson
August 18th, 2009 at 11:31 am
I agree with you wholeheartedly with regards some churches attitude towards money – they really treat it as a bad thing when you spend it on yourself but as a good thing when you give it to them.
From personal experience, I noticed that many churches that promote tithing as a means to financial prosperity and are heavy on this prosperity doctrine are usually in denial when it comes to debts of its members. They blame the members’ “lack of faith” as the reason they are still in debt. And it is quite painful!
They really need to teach people how to manage money and manage their debts, instead it seems the only use for the congregation is their tithes and offerings.
I truly will like a very realistic way to get out of debts and would like pointers in that direction.
Many thanks
August 18th, 2009 at 4:27 pm
Hi Tony,
One realistic way to get out of debt is to pay close attention to the language you are using.
I wrote a little book DEBT OR ALIVE: How To Get Out Of Debt And Feel Abundantly Alive
http://www.debt-or-alive.com/
It’s a simple book, but I do think that the solution you are looking starts with a few simple ideas about who you are, what money is, and your relationship to money.
The basic point of that book is that when you begin with “debt” it is very difficult to get out of debt. The real solution to debt is to start with a different perspective. Instead of trying to get out of debt, start with a vision of your life as financially free.
This is all related to the way our minds work. If you keep telling yourself that you want to get out of debt, you are simply repeating to yourself that you are in debt.
It also means that you are oriented to the problem rather than your real goal.
All the best,
Kalinda