When
I was growing up, Church leaders were not shy about offering
definitions of tithing over the pulpit. The scriptures might seem
clear at first glance — tithing is “a tenth.” But
... a tenth of what?
In
Deuteronomy (14:22, 28; 26:12) tithing is a tenth of one’s
“increase” — but is assessed only one year in
three. Certainly not the way we handle it now.
And
the tithing in 2 Chronicles 31:5 is of “increase of the field,”
specifically listed as “corn, wine, and oil, and honey.”
But surely that is not meant to be a complete list of the only things
that need to be tithed.
Indeed,
most of our scriptures on tithing come from an agrarian society, and
so “increase” would imply that if you start with 100
cattle, and over a calving season end up with 110 cattle, your
increase would be ten, and your tithe would therefore be a single
cow.
This
would take into account the fact that some cattle would be lost to
predators and thieves, and that you would slaughter some to eat them.
Yet it is the increase, not the total, on which you offer
tithing.
Adapting
these scriptures to our modern money-based economy requires
intelligent and prayerful thought and discussion. When I was young,
Church leaders stressed that when it comes to salaries and wages
paid in money, our employers pay the overhead costs and take the
risks that ancient farmers would have borne themselves. Therefore,
the entire amount of our salary is increase.
It
was explicitly stated again and again that tithing should be based,
not on our net income after taxes were withheld, but on our gross
income. This view of the tithing doctrine, which seemed
authoritative in the 1950s and 1960s, is no longer explicitly stated
— but it survives as folk doctrine, along with many
misapplications of the principle.
Nowadays,
the Church firmly resists any and all efforts to state a specific law
of tithing that applies in all cases throughout the Church. Instead,
we are told we must counsel with our bishop to determine our fair
obligation to the Lord and the Church, and when we live up to the law
worked out in that discussion, we are full tithepayers.
The
trouble is that many of us lay heavier burdens on ourselves than the
Lord requires, while others find ways to make the burden conveniently
light, perhaps too light. Yet none of us but the bishop is
given the right to judge, and wise bishops do not impose a
judgment on each member, but rather help the members reach their own
prayerful, spiritually guided decisions about how the law of tithing
applies in their particular case.
There
are countries in Europe, for instance, where taxation is so intense
that hardworking members take home only a fifth or so of their
earnings. If they tithed ten percent of gross income, they would
have to live entirely on half of their take-home pay. In such
places, bishops are counseled about how to help member interpret the
tithing law — and the counsel they pass along to the members
may be different from the counsel offered to Saints in the United
States.
The
Blessings of Tithing
The
goal of tithing is for grateful members to share their prosperity
with the Lord, and even if their increase is small, to not covet
their own money, but give the Lord his due. The promise we receive
is that we will be blessed for the sacrifice.
Such
blessing does not follow Reverend Jim Bakker’s famous
declaration, “I realized that if I can believe in God for a
Chevrolet, why can’t I believe in God for a Cadillac?”
We don’t pay tithing in order to profit from it, but rather so
that we can participate in helping provide the financial support on
which the organization of the Church depends.
In
my experience, what the Lord promises us is “plenty,” and
by “plenty” I think it’s fair to say the Lord means
“enough and to spare.” Whether we receive “plenty”
because our income increases or because we reevaluate our expenses so
that a smaller number becomes “enough” for our needs is a
question to be individually answered.
But
I don’t think the Lord responds to the tithing of millionaires
with more blessings than he gives to struggling tradesmen with
variable incomes. In fact, I’ve known millionaires who
bankrupted themselves by unwise overspending, and frugal laborers who
always had “plenty” because they kept their families’
expenses well within their post-tithing income.
I
don’t think the Lord’s blessings for tithepaying will
trump our own foolishness in money management. Nor does the
tithepayer receive celestial insurance against the kind of medical or
employment catastrophe that can utterly disrupt a family’s
careful management of their finances.
The
blessing of tithing is not that you will never suffer financial
reverses — especially if you are incautious or profligate.
Rather, the blessing is that when reverses come, and you adjust your
spending and lifestyle accordingly, you will be blessed to find a
level of spending that you can manage while still paying tithing.
A
Matter of Debt
Yet
there are others who think their “increase” should mean
“money left over after all expenses are met.” The
trouble here is that in most of our families, it is very easy to
reduce “leftover” money to zero — because desired
items become more and more “necessary.”
In
fact, far too many of us, heedless of the counsel of prophets, feel
no qualms about entailing our future earnings by credit card or
debt-financed purchases today. This puts some members into an awful
bind:
What
if I can only pay my tithing by skipping payments on credit cards or
other debts? Or what if, having paid those debt obligations, I
really can’t pay tithing without endangering my ability to feed
and clothe my family?
The
answer is not a pleasant one: Just because your present paycheck can
have a tenth carved out for tithing does not mean you are morally
right to do so. If you have already promised that money to
legitimate debtors, then it is not yours to dispose of.
What
good does it do us to be able to say to the bishop, “I am a
full tithepayer,” if we cannot also say, “I am honest in
my dealings with my fellowmen”?
When
we make a covenant to repay a debt — that is, when we swipe a
credit card through the card reader at Target or Home Depot —
it is essential that we already know the answer to this question:
Can
I repay this debt on the promised schedule and meet my
family’s other needs and pay a full tithing to the
Church?
If
the answer to that question would be no, then you are either
defrauding the credit card company — for they will lend
you the money to make that purchase, and will only discover later
that you did not plan to repay it — or you are
committing yourself to not pay a full tithe, because you
have already spent (or promised) the money out of which that tithing
would be paid.
Money
you owe to creditors is not your money in the sense that you
cannot honorably use it for any purpose but repaying them on the
promised schedule.
Yet
the fact that you already spent it does not remove that amount
from the total you should count as increase, and on which tithing
should be paid. We can’t stand before the Lord on judgment day
and explain the paucity of our tithing by saying, “But, by the
time I got the money, it was already gone.”
So
might the foolish virgins have explained their running out of oil.
But it was their duty to make sure they had plenty of oil for the
evening’s lamplight.
Increases
and Losses
It
is a blessing to us that the Church leaves it up to individuals and
their bishops to work out the specifics of tithing in their lives.
The trouble is that many people rely on folk doctrines based on the
old teachings: Pay tithing first on ten percent of your gross!
This
might well have been good advice, but this was not the
commandment. Even in cases where it would be a full tithing, it only
applies to people whose employers cover the cost of their office or
shop, their equipment, their raw materials, so that their salary
represents pure increase.
What
if you are required to buy your uniform for work out of your own
money? That is then an expense deducted from your increase. What if
you work from home, and your office, office furniture, supplies,
lights, and so forth must be paid for by you, rather than your
employer? Is some portion of your house payment and power bill to be
deducted from your tithable income?
Some
people shudder at the thought — so ingrained is “ten
percent of gross” that to them this sounds like trying to cheat
the Lord.
But
we need to remember that the Lord could have said, “Tithe your
harvest.” The words were available, had that been what he
meant. Instead, the prophets said, “Tithe your increase,”
and that means that obedient Saints will comply with the intent and
meaning of the law, as best we understand it.
I
remember when I went to talk to my bishop preparatory to asking him
for a temple recommend so I could marry. “I’m behind on
my tithing,” I said. “I only make $12,000 a year, and
I’m trying to repay as much as I can of the $30,000 I lost with
my theater company. It may take me a while to catch up.”
What
he said to me is not to be taken as counsel to the entire
Church — he was speaking with authority only to me, in my
situation at the time. But he clearly understood the purpose and the
commandment of tithing, and here is what he said:
“First,
when you repent of nonpayment of tithing, you are not required to go
back and repay everything you missed in past months and years,”
he said. “As long as your repentance is sincere, you only need
to pay a full tithing from that point on to be a full tithepayer.”
Then
he smiled and said, “However, that rule doesn’t apply to
you. I don’t think you have anything to repent of. Tithing is
paid on your increase. This year you lost $30,000 in your theater
company, and had an income of only $12,000 from your employer. I’m
no expert on math, but I can’t find a way to make any portion
of that seem like ‘increase.’”
He
went on to explain that you can’t forward your losses into
future years. I may not owe tithing this year, but next year
I can’t keep deducting the previous year’s losses.
I
explained to him that the losses were probably because I wasn’t
a very good manager. And that the decision to try to start a theater
company was probably a stupid one in the first place. “The law
of tithing doesn’t include a stupidity exemption, does it?”
I asked.
“If
your theater company had made money hand over fist, you would have
tithed the profits, wouldn’t you?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“The
Lord doesn’t penalize us for being unable to predict accurately
how our investments are going to turn out. You didn’t set out
to fail, did you?”
And
so, for that time, that year, that situation, we worked out my status
and my temple-worthiness. I left his office greatly relieved —
but with a renewed resolve never to be in a situation where I could
not pay tithing because I was so saddled with obligations that honor
required me to repay.
In
our conversation, my bishop gave me this example. “Suppose
Brother Smith owns a grocery store. The store brings in a million
dollars a year. Does he pay $100,000 in tithing?”
I
thought for a moment. “No, because he has to pay for the goods
he sells.”
“And
he has to pay the salaries of his employees. And grocery stores sell
at a very slight markup, compared to furniture stores or clothing
stores. It might easily be that a million bucks in sales represents
a loss. Or the profits might be only $50,000.”
“So
... $5,000 tithing?” I said.
“I
don’t know,” said my bishop. “Of the salaries he
pays, is one of them to himself? Suppose he pays himself a regular
salary of $30,000 a year, so that the $50,000 in profit is after that
salary is deducted as an expense of the store. If he didn’t
own the store, but merely managed it, then that salary might be the
only amount on which he owed tithing.”
“Three
thousand, then,” I said. Thus proving I could divide by ten,
at least when the original number ended with zeroes.
“But
Brother Smith does own the store. So the profits all go to
him.”
“Salary
plus profits — tithing of $8,000,” I said.
“But
of that profit, he invests $40,000 in renovations and improvements to
the store.”
“Keep
this up and the math is going to get too hard for me, bishop.”
“That’s
why Brother Smith and I — if he existed — would discuss
his tithing situation privately, and work out a figure for his
increase each year that both he and I could accept as honorably
fulfilling the law of tithing.”
Mixed
Incomes
Many
people have multiple sources of income. For instance, a married
couple has one spouse who works in a salaried position, while the
other sells some product out of the home. In addition, they own two
rental properties, from which they earn income.
If
they simply paid tithing on every dime that entered their house, they
would not be obeying the law of tithing. It’s true
that the salary is probably all increase, since the employer pays the
overhead. But if the spouse that sells a product has to buy
the inventory first, then increase can only be calculated by
subtracting the cost of the inventory from the earnings from sales.
And
what if the rental properties barely bring in more money than the
mortgage payments on those properties? And what if the expenses of
repairs on those rental houses are greater than the difference
between rents and mortgage payments?
Instead
of paying a tenth of every dime that comes into the home, they would
calculate tithing on each source of income separately and then
applying that appropriately. The rental houses may be running at a
loss, reducing the amount of tithing owed on the salary.
But
with the sales and inventory costs, do you deduct the inventory cost
for each item as it is sold? Or take the cost of the whole order and
deduct it when it’s paid, and then treat every dime that comes
in from sales as increase? Either approach would be morally
defensible; it’s really a matter of bookkeeping.
And
the principle of paying the moment money comes into the home only
works with salaries and wages. My income, for instance, is
completely unpredictable. I don’t know what my annual earnings
will be until they arrive, and we can’t work out the amount of
increase until well after tithing settlement time.
But
each year at tithing settlement, we can affirm that the previous
year we were full tithepayers, and we intend to be on this year’s
increase when we finally know what it turns out to be. The law of
tithing does not come with a payment schedule; you don’t tithe
your increase until you have it, and know what it is.
So
folk doctrines about tithing based on those old admonitions to pay
tithing first, out of each paycheck as it arrives, based on gross
receipts — we need to remember that this was a wise rule that
only applied in certain cases, and not in others.
Because
if you happen to overpay tithing, you can’t go to the Church
and ask for a refund.
Surplus
On
the other hand, if you feel that your tithing payments were not
really enough — that after scrupulously calculating your
increase, you feel as if you could have given more to build up the
Kingdom of God — then look at the other lines on the tithing
slip.
The
Law of Consecration suggests that when we have a surplus —
money left over after our family’s wants and needs have been
met — then we can donate our surplus — all of it, if we
wish — to the Fast Offering fund or the Missionary fund.
We
are also free to help people privately in ways that can’t
readily come out of Fast Offering funds. Is there a family that
desperately needs a larger or more reliable car? Maybe you can help
them get into a car that meets their needs (and whose payment they
can afford). Or maybe there’s a child who needs braces, but
the family can’t afford them; or a broken pair of glasses that
needs replacing, but the family budget doesn’t have room.
So
you tell your bishop that when such cases come up, he should let you
know what’s needed. He can either keep your participation
anonymous — you give him the money and he passes it along as
coming from “somebody who cares about you” — or he
can put you in direct contact with the people in need.
He’ll
know whether it’s all right to pass the money through the Fast
Offering fund so it’s a tax deductible donation. Most of the
people I know who do this sort of thing do not care if it’s tax
deductible.
The
attitude that they have is: I already tithed my increase, for
which I took a legitimate tax deduction. But now I’m sharing
my surplus, and there’s no reason my lawful taxes should
be lowered because this is how I choose to spend my discretionary
income.
But
whether you give these gifts in a tax-deductible way or without
regard to taxes is entirely up to you. In fact, all of this is
between you and your bishop, as you find your path to complying with
every requirement for temple worthiness — tithing and
honest dealings.
If
this is all so private and personal, why have I spent so many words
“meddling” in your ideas about tithing?
Because
I’ve seen too many Saints who feel guilty or are even denying
themselves the blessings of the temple, because they think
they are not keeping the law of tithing when in fact they are.
Others
are making sacrifices far beyond what the law requires, because they
are paying on gross receipts and not on increase.
And
other Saints may appreciate rethinking their tithing and talking to
their bishop about it, because they may want to raise the number that
they consider “increase.”
Still
others, wanting to contribute more, need to be reminded that in
Malachi 3:8 and 3 Nephi 24:8 we are told that we should bring the
Lord tithes and offerings. Once we have complied with the
letter of the law of tithing, we can then contribute freewill
offerings out of our surplus.
Judge
Not
One
of the problems with the folk-doctrine version of tithing law is that
it comes along with a sense of judgment — or even condemnation.
When we tell each other definitively what tithing must be,
we’re also saying, If this is not what you’re
doing, then you are unworthy.
If
you think that you have a perfect understanding of the law, you are
wrong, unless you include with that the fact that each household’s
tithing is a private matter between bishop and householders, and no
one else is fit to judge.
If
someone asks you about what tithing should be, your answer, to be
correct, must always begin and end with that principle of privacy
between bishop and Church member.
And
even with your own tithing, remember that your bishop, not you, is
called as the judge of the stewards of the Lord’s property. If
the bishop tells you that you are a full tithepayer by such-and-such
a standard, do not let the ideas of others supersede the bishop’s
declaration.
Also
keep in mind that tithing is a free offering. The Church does not do
payroll deductions; nor does the bishop audit your books on tithing
matters. If you decide not to pay a full tithe, then as long as you
aren’t trying to get a temple recommend, it’s between you
and the Lord.
The
Spirit of Consecration
There
is yet another kind of offering to the Lord. When we reach out and
help a neighbor — in or outside the Church — we also
serve God, for he told us, “When I was hungry, you fed me.”
And when we say, “When did we ever feed you?” he will
answer, “If you did it to one of the least of these my
brethren, you did it to me” (Matthew 25:40).
These
contributions often do not take the form of cash, but are given as
time, as extra effort, as the offer of a “roof’s safe
shelter overhead.” They consist of the friend who tends the
children so you can go to the doctor — or do your Christmas
shopping, or take a class.
They
are the lawn that somehow got mowed during the crazy crunch time.
The borrowed car or lawn mower returned with more fuel than it
started with. The vacation home that is lent to a family whose
mother is coping with cancer, so that they can have a vacation they
could not otherwise afford. The flowers planted in the shut-in’s
yard, and then watered and cared for by the givers of that gift.
Obedience
to the law of tithes and offerings takes so many different forms —
tailored to the situation of every Saint and every family. Some whom
the bishop tells they owe no tithing feel the need to contribute
anyway: Thus the widow’s mite comes into the Church out of
faith and charity.
The
specifics of the Law of Consecration outlined in the Doctrine and
Covenants applied to the agrarian or mercantile economies of Joseph
Smith’s day. In our money-only economy, the law of tithing,
with supplemental offerings and acts of charity, allows the Saints to
live the Law of Consecration completely and perfectly. It is a
covenant we can and do already keep.
The
Church’s ability to serve members in every nation is greatly
aided by the fact that so many of the Saints obey the law of tithing,
their hearts and hands opened to help the work of the Lord.
And
because of this, the Saints are also blessed with the only kind of
prosperity that the Lord has ever promised: “Enough and to
spare.”
Orson Scott Card is the author of the novels Ender's Game, Ender's
Shadow, and Speaker for the Dead, which are widely read by adults and
younger readers, and are increasingly used in schools.
Besides these and other science fiction novels, Card writes contemporary
fantasy (Magic Street,Enchantment,Lost Boys), biblical novels (Stone Tables,Rachel and Leah), the American frontier fantasy series The Tales of Alvin Maker
(beginning with Seventh Son), poetry (An Open Book), and many plays and
scripts.
Card was born in Washington and grew up in California, Arizona, and
Utah. He served a mission for the LDS Church in Brazil in the early 1970s.
Besides his writing, he teaches occasional classes and workshops and directs
plays. He also teaches writing and literature at Southern Virginia University.
Card currently lives in Greensboro, North Carolina, with his wife,
Kristine Allen Card, and their youngest child, Zina Margaret.