Mr. Moderate

The most powerful instrument in Judeo-Christian theology is the obligation to tithe (the very word “tithe” is derived from the old-English word for “tenth,” so “tithing” is to give one-tenth of your income or estate either as a tax or for religious works, depending on usage). The concept is extremely ancient, tracing back to at least Babylonian times, roughly 4,000 years ago, and probably arises further back in time than that. Religious groups which adhere to a strict concept of tithing tend to survive and grow strong while those which do not will tend to perish over time for lack of funds to keep things going.

History demonstrates that the practice of tithing has been implemented as anything from a compulsory payment to the king (or other ruler) all the way to a voluntary occasional gift to a church. The usage depends upon the location and the customs in force at that location. (See this article for various descriptions of the usage.) In the United States, any payments to religious bodies (such as “tithes”) can become an itemized deduction on your income tax return, and that can reduce the effective economic burden on individual tithers. This contrasts with Germany, where the tithe is collected by the government as a small percentage of the income tax paid. And of course, other governments have made different provisions with respect to tithing.

According to government statistics, personal income in the United States was recently running at a rate of about $11,390 billion per year, so a full tithe based upon that amount would equal $1,139 billion per year (or, more than one trillion dollars per year). Unfortunately, the government takes more than the full tithe in personal taxes, as that report states that $1,458 billion worth of taxes are collected out of that amount of personal income. If the government takes nearly 13% in taxes, it is easy to understand why many people feel squeezed to make any tithe contributions to their church. Nonetheless, many religious denominations emphasize the obligation to tithe, and expect their members to voluntarily make payments to meet their tithing obligations in spite of any taxes collected by the government.

Those government statistics do not track how well people tithe, apparently electing to include charitable contributions within the “services” that people purchase with their income. And, given the huge bite taken by government, and the fact that government does not collect tithes for religious organizations (due to the separation of church and state in the United States), it is not surprising that the total of voluntary charitable giving by individuals is only about $219 billion per year (the total gift amount of about $260.3 billion times the rate of roughly 84% of all gifts are by individuals). In other words, individuals are actually giving less than 20% of a full tithe to charitable organizations in the United States. But, viewed another way, the total contribution for both taxes and charitable contributions is nearly 15% of total personal income. That is 50% more than a full tithe would be, but it obviously includes mostly-compulsory tax payments for everything which is a tax-supported service of government (roads, schools, health care, etc.). Still, I think it is a bit sick that government taxes take 13% of personal income while charitable giving gets less than 2% of personal income. This probably traces back to how charitable gifts are treated by the income tax code in the United States. It also probably reflects the severe economic distress that most families live in during these times.

And, just imagine, if you will, the good which might be done if there were an extra $920 billion per year devoted to charitable works in the United States. That is five times what individuals contribute now. Could we eliminate hunger and homelessness? Could we eliminate poverty and illiteracy? I would really like to believe that such goals are achievable if people were motivated to return to tithing for charitable purposes rather than being taxed to death as they are now.