Survey- Fewer Americans contribute the biblical tithe

"The Sermon on the Amount."

An old church joke says that should be the title of the annual sermon that many a Protestant parson delivers when members are considering what they'll pledge to contribute to church.

Many consider the "tithe" (10 percent of income) the proper amount and quote the Bible: "The tithe ... is the Lord's" (Leviticus 27:30). However the deleted words in that verse specify giving a tenth of farmers' crops -- a reminder that the Bible's tithing commands originated in a very different economic culture.

A worrisome Barna Research Group survey showed that only 3 percent of U.S. households contribute the traditional 10 percent to church, compared with 8 percent of households in a 2001 survey. Worse, there are indications that younger Christians are less faithful contributors than older ones.

Responding to those concerns, the press service of the Southern Baptist Convention, America's biggest Protestant denomination, recently distributed four articles to promote tithing.

The series said one problem is that churchgoers are trapped in debt. In response, some congregations provide classes in family money management, which appear to be paying off (so to speak).

The Baptist series did not explore the complexities of what tithing meant in the Old Testament and how the ancient practice applies today.

In Israel, farmers set aside a tenth of their crops for the Levites who conducted religious rituals and education. They needed support because they did not inherit farmland of their own (Numbers 18:21,24). The farmer would decide which individual Levite received the gifts.

The Levites in turn gave a tenth of the tithe (thus 1 percent of the original crop) to support lower priests (Numbers 18:26). Farmers were also expected to give offerings directly to priests (Numbers 18:8).

Biblical Israel followed a seven-year agricultural cycle. In the first, second, fourth and fifth years the farmer saved a "second tithe" of food or equivalent money to pay for attendance at festivals in Jerusalem (Deuteronomy 14:22-26). In the third and sixth years the second tithe was set aside for the poor (Deuteronomy 14:28-29; 26:12).

The biblical practice was thus bound up with the system of Levites and priests, which disappeared when the Jerusalem Temple was destroyed. However, the rabbis continued to advocate 10 percent of earnings as the appropriate amount for tzedaka ("charity").

Though tithing was an Old Testament law, Christianity generally carried on the concept. The New Testament didn't specify 10 percent, the Baptists note, but taught that giving should be "regular, personal, proportional and voluntary," in line with Paul's teaching in 1 Corinthians 16:2: "On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper."

Protestants in denominations studied by Empty Tomb Inc. (a group based in Champaign, Ill., that issues guilt-inducing reports on Christian philanthropy) gave 2.64 percent of disposable personal income to church in 2000. Higher percentages of income were given in the 1960s, when average income (adjusted for inflation) was about half current numbers.

The Southern Baptists reported total offerings of nearly $9 billion annually in the latest Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches, a handsome total but only $557 per active member. That's less than what members gave in other major Protestant denominations. The highest per capita figures tended to occur in small conservative groups like the Christian and Missionary Alliance ($1,698) and International Church of the Foursquare Gospel ($2,173).

In olden times the Roman Catholic Church emphasized or demanded tithes. U.S. Catholicism provides no reliable national financial data but some Catholic commentators say offering-plate income is lower than Protestant levels.

In Islam, one of the five mandatory "pillars" is the zakah or charity tax, usually calculated as 2.5 percent of net worth, given to support religious purposes and the needy.

The Mormons are unique in requiring members to contribute 10 percent to qualify for admission to the faith's most sacred rites in temples.