Ultimate yardstick

There has never been argument about aid in emergencies. The differences simmer elsewhere. Should sharing continue in calmer times? How? And how much?  

Try me in this: “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food. And try me on this, says the Lord of Hosts,” the prophet Micah (3:10)   wrote. “Shall I not open for you the floodgates of heaven, to pour out blessings upon you without measure?”  

Abraham donated a tenth of war spoils to Melchizedek, king of   Salem, the Old Testament recalls. Jews of that era brought ten percent of the harvest to a storehouse. It served as a social safety net or a buffer against famine. 

In our time, we read in the monthly newspaper “Prisicilla and Aquila” in Jakarta by former science and technology Filemon Urirate and wife Jean: “This is a dare to experiment with generosity.” 

In the Philippines, the Catholic Church leaves the choice to individuals. Some respond generously. Mormons must give ten percent to the church. The tithe has been the Episcopal Church yardstick since 1982. Muslims give yearly zakat to charity. That is usual 2.5 percent of the market value of a believer’s assets. The practice has spread in many US Christian parishes.

“Can you put a price on faith?” asks   Suzanne Sataline in Wall Street Journal.  Opponents of tithing insist they be free to donate whatever amount they choose.” Some pastors have changed their teaching and rejected what has been a favored form of fund raising for decades.”

But   in a shift, more Catholic parishes in the US ask churchgoers to tithe, says Paul Forbes, administrator of McKenna Stewardship Ministry. 

A number of American Protestant churches have “gone plastic.” At "giving kiosks", congregants whip out their credit cards when they attend services. Others conduct seminars that teach people in debt how they can continue tithing even while paying off their loans. Appeals go online.

Resistance to tithing deepens with the “mega church effect.” Churchgoers question how their churches spend money.

“Like other philanthropists today, religious givers want to see exactly how their donations are being used,” Suzanne Sataline adds. “Growth of mega-churches—some with expensive worship centers equipped with coffee bars and widescreen TVs—have turned people off of tithing.

Tithing isn't just a theological issue, but a financial one. Giving to religion is growing more slowly in the US than other types of giving, says Patrick Rooney, director of research at the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University. That's partly because people are attending church less frequently. These offer a wider array of causes, including secular ones. Similar data for the Philippines is not available'

More Filipinos are challenged to engage in experimental generosity because of massive poverty. The Uriartes and other pro-tithers pitch their case in terms of personal experience.

“This challenge to try Him by sharing with the needy comes from a God who given us everything that we possess,” they write in their monthly newsletter Priscilla and Aquila published in Jakarta. He invites us to try out this key for opening the treasures of heaven. He dares us to try him in this to see for ourselves if indeed it does or does not work.

“God’s promises are always fulfilled. God remains faithful forever, they add.  God’s words spoken through Malachi are echoed by Christ.

“Amen, I say to you, there is no one who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the sake of the gospel who will not receive a hundred times more now in this present age: houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and eternal life in the age to come (Mk 10:29-30).

There is no “maybe” about God’s promises. His promises always prove true. The “hurdle” we dreading on sharing, we will discover, is something joyous, something that changes and blesses us, say Aquila and Priscilla.  “Try Me on this."

So, what really is the ultimate yardstick here?  

The copper coins that a widow dropped into the collection box were dwarfed by donations of the well-heeled. The rich gave of their surplus, the Master noted. “But this widow gave more than the rest because she gave all that she had.”