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UGANDANS should abide by the teachings of the Bible and give a tenth of their income back to God through the church, the First Lady and the Minister of State for Karamoja Affairs, Janet Museveni, has said.
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Wall Street leaders are being called to donate a tenth of their expected bonuses this year to help rebuild Haiti.
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Members of the scientific community are often seen as doubting Thomases, but the reality is more complex. Even Charles Darwin may have made room for God.
Today, a century and a half after Charles Darwin published “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection,” the overwhelming majority of scientists in the United States accept Darwinian evolution as the basis for understanding how life on Earth developed. But although evolutionary theory is often portrayed as antithetical to religion, it has not destroyed the religious faith of the scientific community.
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Pastors who may be hesitant to mention tithing during stewardship campaigns might be even more reluctant during a recession. Mary Jacobs spoke with experts, however, who say a down economy is a perfect time for a “teachable moment” on tithing.
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While nearly half of all churches have reported a decrease in tithes and offerings, many have still increased their budgets this year, a new survey shows.
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Q: I helped prepare a tax return for a man with a low income, about half from unemployment compensation. He had donated 10 percent of the total to his church. If he didn’t need this taxpayer-provided money, he should have refused it or saved it in case his benefits expire. Isn’t there an obligation not to be a burden to others before giving away money? – L. Warner, South Carolina A: You define “need the money” a bit austerely. Would you…
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During economic tough times, should Christians tithe? Columnist Howard Dayton examines that question.
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Taken together, along with declining trends in spending beyond the local congregation and decreasing membership as a percent of U.S. population, these statistics paint a conflicted picture of what would be expected from a country with a large church population functioning with great resources and in a free society. The church is active but people are worried. There’s freedom to act on religious principles, and great resources are available—as of the year 2008, Christians in the U.S. were functioning in a $14 trillion economy. But many in society are scared.
There’s no question the church is engaged in quite a bit of activity. But wouldn’t we expect more “good fruit” if the church’s temperature were really hot? Is it possible that the church has been lulled by available comforts into a lazy status quo that misrepresents who Jesus Christ is?
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Americans are now passing on their financial pain to churches and other non-profit organizations by cutting back substantially on their giving during the fourth quarter of 2008. Those reductions – occurring during the most important quarter of the year for donor-driven organizations – will cripple thousands of smaller and less stable donor-supported organizations. –
Barna.org reports During the past three months, one of the ways
that adults have adjusted to their financial hardships has been by
reducing their charitable giving. In total, one out of every five
households (20%) has decreased its giving to churches or other
religious centers.
Church cutbacks have been most common among downscale
households (30%) and those families which are struggling with “serious
financial debt” (43%). Not surprisingly, 31% of those who have lost 20%
or more of their retirement fund value have sliced their church
donations, as have 29% of the people who have lost 20% or more of the
value in their stock portfolio.
The degree of reduction in giving is significant for churches.
Among people who have decreased giving to churches and religious
centers, 19% dropped their giving by as much as 20%, 5% decreased their
generosity by 21% to 49%, 17% reduced their giving by half, and 11%
sliced their provision by more than half. In addition, 22% said they
had stopped their giving altogether.
The most widespread reduction in amount of money given to
religious centers was detected among people under 25 (47% who had been
affected by the downturn reduced their gifts by more than half of what
they usually gave); upscale households (48%); Hispanics (43%); non-born
again Christians (40%); and sociopolitical moderates (39%).
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A new survey from The Barna Group finds that churches stand to lose several billion dollars in donations as the economy continues its slide.
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One News Now reports The survey finds that more than 150 million adults said they have been
affected by the economic downturn, and most of them expect it to take
several years before the nation fully recovers. George Barna, founder
of The Barna Group, believes churches and nonprofits will be hit especially hard next year.
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Americans are adjusting their expenditures and cutting back wherever possible to adapt to the economic downturn, which includes for many people reducing donations to churches, according to a new survey. –
The Christian Post reports Over the past three months, one out of every five households (20
percent) has decreased their giving to churches or other religious
centers, according to The Barna Group.
Downscale households (30 percent), families struggling with
“serious financial debt” (43 percent), those who lost 20 percent or
more of their retirement fund value (31 percent), and people who have
lost 20 percent or more of the value in their stock portfolio (29
percent) are among the people most likely to cut back on church giving.
Among those who reduced their donations to churches, 19 percent
dropped their giving by as much as 20 percent; five percent decreased
their funding by 21 to 49 percent; 17 percent reduced their gift by
half, and 11 percent cut their support by more than half.
A surprisingly large proportion, 22 percent, stopped their offering to churches altogether.
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A church in Central Illinois has found an innovative way to raise money for the poor. It’s the power of multiplication. –
AP reports The Rev. Ric Schneider of St. Mary’s Church in Bloomington
passed out $100 bills during a Sunday service in August. The 180
parishioners who accepted the cash promised to multiply it and
return with more.
So far, more than $60,000 has been raised. The money will be
given early next month to an Appalachian mission.
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Crown Financial Ministries CEO Chuck Bentley says Christians need to use the current financial crisis in the U.S. as an opportunity to “get their personal house in order” by reducing debt and increasing savings and generosity. –
One News Now reports Bentley, who hosts the radio program Money Life, says Christians need
to remember that their citizenship is in heaven. “We should not be in
despair because we’re going through a time when the government is
taking a direction that’s contrary to God’s Word,” he adds. “I think
you’re going to see a continued separation from the direction the
government goes to what Scripture teaches is wise.”
He argues Christians should not despair because, throughout history,
the church has been able to thrive underneath cultures that were not
thinking with a biblical worldview.
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Among the congregations faring best are those with a strong tradition of tithing — the biblical mandate to give at least 10 percent of one’s income to the church.
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AP reports A recent report by the Christian research group Empty Tomb Inc. studied six recessions since 1968 and found that donations by church members declined in three and increased in three.
Another study, by Giving USA Foundation, found that religion-related charitable giving fell slightly in six of 11 recession years since 1968.
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The level of activity in U.S. churches when it comes to monetary giving and displaying care for others in need is “lukewarm,” authors of a new report state. –
The Christian Post reports “The State of Church Giving through 2006: Global Triage, MDG 4, and
Unreached People Groups,” released Wednesday, evaluated members’
contributions to churches from 1968 through 2006 and the allocation of
church funds to overseas mission work and urgent global needs.
A survey of a group of 34 Protestant denominations found that,
on average, two cents of each dollar donated to their affiliated
congregations in 2006 funded international missions through the
denominations – a level of support for overseas missions that was lower
than that in the 1920s.
The report also showed that the portion of income members
contributed to their church decreased from 3.11 percent in 1968 to 2.55
percent in 2006, a decline of 18 percent from the 1968 base.
Furthermore, the total portion of per capita income given to
churches in 2006 was lower than in the worst year of the Great
Depression.
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The communitarian view of morality as a work in progress draws heavily from Hegel’s concept of the dialectic, in which a “thesis” generates an “antithesis,” and these two are resolved in a “synthesis.” Communitarian “consensus-building” exercises dilute the “white” of Bible-based morality until it is a shade of gray suitable for the needs of collectivist social policy.
–
William Norman Grigg at Christian Newswire comments In the meantime, however, communitarians are working to capture the future in
the public schools, and thanks to Haynes and his comrades, they’re making
unwitting allies out of at least some conservative Christian activists and
leaders (including notables like Chuck Colson of the Prison Fellowship) who
support the Bible Literacy Project - as if it were the only suitable vehicle for
classroom moral instruction.
There is an alternative. The National
Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools (NCBCPS) offers a course used by
more than 1,900 schools in 38 states. Unlike the BLP, the Bible Curriculum
program is not intended to evangelize on behalf of a political dogma. It teaches
the Bible on its own terms and documents its central role in Western history.
This includes an unflinching treatment of the Bible’s influence on America’s
unique civic institutions and culture of liberty under law.
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“I’ve had home owners who face foreclosure sitting in front of me saying, ‘I’ll do anything, anything to keep my home,” said Ozell Brooklin, director of Acorn Housing in Atlanta, a nonprofit which offers foreclosure counseling. “But after we’ve gone through their monthly expenses and the only thing left to cut is their tithe, they say ‘I guess this home is not for me’ and they walk away,” he said. –
Reuters reports The Barna Group, a California-based research firm, estimated in an
April 2008 study that 5% of all American adults tithed in 2007.
Evangelicals had the highest percentage (24%), and the study estimated
that 12% of conservatives and 10% of registered Republicans tithed.
Dr. Roger Oldham, a member of the executive
committee of the 16-million strong Southern Baptist Convention, the
second- largest Christian grouping in the United States after the Roman
Catholic Church, said tithing was a compelling personal commitment.
“It’s a simple fact that here, as in any
Christian culture, you will find some people for whom obedience to God
comes second to none,” he said. “For those people, a contract with God
is worth more than their home.”
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“The economy is doing a job on us at church, and I don’t know that people are aware of what’s happening or understand it,” said the Rev. Jimmie Hardaway Jr., pastor of Macedonia Baptist Church in Mount Vernon. –
The Journal News reports Hardaway said his 500-family church has been struggling to make its
$10,000-a-month mortgage payment. The church even had a hard time
finding a bank that would refinance and lower the payment.
“Commercial banks don’t like to deal with churches, and they have us by the neck,” he said.
Macedonia
has had to lay off some employees and cut others’ pay. The church could
barely fund its annual vacation Bible school or its summer picnic.
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After Robert Powell hit the Florida Lottery jackpot last month and took home more than $6 million, he thought of his church. –
First Coast News [FL, USA] reports And he offered to drop his tithe, around $600,000, in the collection plate of First Baptist Orange Park. But the church and Pastor David Tarkington politely declined and told Powell they will not accept the lottery winnings.