News, woman fired from church for "inconsistent tithing". (grace, churches)

[revelated]

Church employee says she lost job once tithing dipped

Originally Posted by Tampa Bay Online

TAMPA - Carolyn Jackson and her husband gave a lot of money to Revealing Truth Ministries.

So three years ago, church staff encouraged her to apply for a job there.
During the work week, she served as a receptionist and later as its magazine editor. On Sundays, the Jacksons filled church baskets with thousands of dollars in tithe, offering and other giving.

In May, Jackson lost her job, not for poor performance, but because her tithing had dropped off. In a time of financial difficulty for her family, Jackson stopped giving 10 percent of her income to the ministry, which many Christians believe is biblically mandated.

"I stood there and I started to cry," Jackson said. "We never stopped giving. I still gave as much as I could give."

Coming from a Christian upbringing (though I'm not religious now), I find this behavior by the church to be disgusting. That they could not find an amicable alternative to cutting her is rather appalling. But I have a question for those who are part of a church's leadership.

Does your church also employ the following policy, and if so, how firmly is it enforced:

Originally Posted by TBO.com

Revealing Truth requires employees to tithe. It's noted below an item in the handbook outlining mandatory staff prayer every morning before work.


"Failure to do so may result to sic the following actions: Verbal and written warnings and/or immediate termination."

I mean couldn't they just have the employee sign a withholding order that allows the church to withhold the 10% for the tithe, instead of taking this approach?

[katjonjj]

Originally Posted by revelated

Church employee says she lost job once tithing dipped



Coming from a Christian upbringing (though I'm not religious now), I find this behavior by the church to be disgusting. That they could not find an amicable alternative to cutting her is rather appalling. But I have a question for those who are part of a church's leadership.

Does your church also employ the following policy, and if so, how firmly is it enforced:



I mean couldn't they just have the employee sign a withholding order that allows the church to withhold the 10% for the tithe, instead of taking this approach?

YIKES! Talk about greedy!

Their own bible says in James 2:
1My brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don't show favoritism. 2Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in. 3If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, "Here's a good seat for you," but say to the poor man, "You stand there" or "Sit on the floor by my feet," 4have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

SAD VERY SAD! You can be sure that they will "reap what they sow!"

[Laith_Amekir]

Originally Posted by katjonjj

YIKES! Talk about greedy!

Their own bible says in James 2:
1My brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don't show favoritism. 2Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in. 3If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, "Here's a good seat for you," but say to the poor man, "You stand there" or "Sit on the floor by my feet," 4have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

SAD VERY SAD! You can be sure that they will "reap what they sow!"

Again Katjonjj I find myself agreeing with you yet again on another matter. The churches of this era are corrupt and we cannot continue to breed sin into the teachings of biblical word... Sure give 10% to the church... BUT MAKE SURE IT IS GOING TO A GOOD CAUSE! I think that we should start taxing churches... they have become to commercial not to...

[mightynerd]

It's darn right cruel and appalling, unbelievable what churches do for money... just pure greed...imo

These churches have a system set in place...where, your full name must be on the tithe envelopes so they can track who is tithing and who isn't..I believe this is the only reason they record the names of members...but will have you believe other wise that God will bless you!

And now they have a system set up where you pay by eftpos/credit cards and AP so it's even less work for leadership team to track how much money comes in each week through there bank statements each month ..

I had a similar experience. Thing is is that I was tithing 10% faithfully every sunday, only I never put my name on there tithing envelopes, instead I wrote on it "Here Is My 10% Lord!!...

funnily enough. Close friends with the pastor and his wife...and well known by leaders who I thought were my friends witnessed me put'n my tithes in their buckets every week under there nose and freakin thanking me for it with a smile

Every sunday from that time on they'd look at me with disgrace and treated me like unworthy...even after I explained to them that I did tithe every sunday and asked if they kept a record of an envelope with the words written on it "Here Is My 10% Lord" they said they can recall recieving a tithe like it but couldn't record it as tithe but only offering.

I was made to feel unworthy....to top it off and make matters worse...One Sunday... they had a little boy bout 9-10yr old go up on the pulpit to read mal 3:9,10...the message given him to preach was to condeem those who robbed God by not tithing or bring'n in the whole tithes into the store house...That was the last straw drawn.....some people left after that and so did I, churches now days are considered money hungry leeches

to each his own!

[11thHour]

I didn't realize that there were churches that actually kept track of who gave what. That doesn't seem right at all.

[jbird82]

Is it even legal for her to lose her job over not tithing?

[MontanaGuy]

I was just wondering the same thing that jbird82 mentioned. It doesn't seem like a valid reason to fire someone and I personally don't think they should even be allowed to know how much everybody pays. I remember when I was a kid that in our church they just passed around a collection plate. I guess they've gotten alot more pushy about it since then.

[Kele]

One of the few pastors that I genuinely respect tells his congregation that their 10% tithe doesn't have to come into the church to count. He encourages community service and giving to charity as a means of tithing--believing that money and effort should go to where it's needed the most--not to line the church coffers. He doesn't think that God is too impressed with multimillion dollar churches and pastors who drive luxury cars.....

[revelated]

Originally Posted by MontanaGuy

I was just wondering the same thing that jbird82 mentioned. It doesn't seem like a valid reason to fire someone and I personally don't think they should even be allowed to know how much everybody pays. I remember when I was a kid that in our church they just passed around a collection plate. I guess they've gotten alot more pushy about it since then.

Remember, some states have at-will employment laws...unfortunately. The only way there could possibly be an issue would be discrimination or financial malfeasance. For discrimination she'd have to prove that another employee was not terminated over lower tithes.

For financial malfeasance she'd have to prove that the salary paid was below a reasonable limit when considered against the desired tithe amount. So in other words if she's a receptionist and they make on average $30k, and the church wants $3k of that, that means the church would need to pay her at minimum $33k to offset the tithe. Otherwise it could be looked down upon as a form of extortion or labor law violation.

The problem, and the reason why things like this are still happening, has to do with the complacency of people these days. Some are so dead set in their faith that they will believe anything that is told to them, even if morally and ethically it's wrong. To some their faith means more than worldly possessions anyway.

[I_Feel_Fat_2]

Another church that chooses which Old Testament laws to follow. It should be all or nothing. Why would anyone go to a church like that anyhow? I hope she ditches them.