Updated 12/28/12
When it comes to selling, Christianity has been a religion that has been pushed on people much like door-to-door sales of vacuums in the past. My family gave me the subtle push to be a Lutheran at an early age. Eventually, I finished confirmation classes necessary to "confirm me". At about the time I was 18 years old, our family then started attending other churches more evangelical in nature.
Let's examine the concept of tithing. By the time I was 22 years old, I would be conducting one of my first religious test. I would be testing the tithing concept. My mom and dad always differed on their views as to whether one should tithe to a church. Mom read her Bible everyday and believed one should always give 10% to the church. Dad would say, "Your mother wants to give everything to the church." He questioned if giving to the church ever amounted to anything. Which one of my parents was right? Were they both partially right? I would soon test tithing to see if it really worked. This was strictly a tithing test and I wouldn't be doing all those other things like praying, going to church and trying to covert others over to the faith.
I decided to tithe 11% to see if that really changed my life. I had heard one is supposed to tithe 10%, but giving more should bring more blessings. Right? I was pretty broke working part-time at a fast food restaurant and I needed some good results. Within a short time, 50% of the employees quit. I was moved to team leader. I wouldn't try another tithe test until I was out of college and married the 2nd time around. I was working as a temporary worker for a major corporation. In 3 months, I got hired in with a $3 hour pay increase. In 7 years, I moved to computer operator at $9 an hour and ended up eventually at $13.53 an hour. Unfortunately, I got greedy and used the tithe money for a trip to Las Vegas. Everything fell apart when I returned. I lost my good job. I eventually went to work again for another company as a contractor. Resuming the tithing test, I soon moved up to co-team leader. I was then leader in 1 year. I was a little more stingy with the tithing and the company was bought out! They started letting us go. Another job down the drain. More recently I have switched to giving to the Salvation Army to feed the poor instead of the former Christian evangelical TV evangelist organization. I have noticed light bulbs failing right away, cars rusting and falling apart more, more repairs for the house, 2 basement floods in 1 year, leaks in the house, and health troubles have increased since I gave up giving to the church!
So, where am I going with this? I am not endorsing Christianity, but wanted to show you the results of my test. I want you to make up your mind about all those tithing ideas. If God is working he is pretty subtle in his miracles. I used to have a theory about an Auto-god. Is God automatic? If I immediately tithe 11%, 15% or even 30% will God come back with financial blessings? Or if you aren't a Christian or lead a sinful life are you less likely to see anything good coming from God? After all, Moses pissed God off in the end and he had to separate himself from the rest of the Israelites to go live by himself. Maybe God is an old "stick in the mud", furious, stubborn being. My conclusion is that when you tithe someone around you will loose in the workplace and you will reap that person's wages, position or some other work benefit. We will examine the idea of cursings in an upcoming blog posting.
When it comes to selling, Christianity has been a religion that has been pushed on people much like door-to-door sales of vacuums in the past. My family gave me the subtle push to be a Lutheran at an early age. Eventually, I finished confirmation classes necessary to "confirm me". At about the time I was 18 years old, our family then started attending other churches more evangelical in nature.
Let's examine the concept of tithing. By the time I was 22 years old, I would be conducting one of my first religious test. I would be testing the tithing concept. My mom and dad always differed on their views as to whether one should tithe to a church. Mom read her Bible everyday and believed one should always give 10% to the church. Dad would say, "Your mother wants to give everything to the church." He questioned if giving to the church ever amounted to anything. Which one of my parents was right? Were they both partially right? I would soon test tithing to see if it really worked. This was strictly a tithing test and I wouldn't be doing all those other things like praying, going to church and trying to covert others over to the faith.
I decided to tithe 11% to see if that really changed my life. I had heard one is supposed to tithe 10%, but giving more should bring more blessings. Right? I was pretty broke working part-time at a fast food restaurant and I needed some good results. Within a short time, 50% of the employees quit. I was moved to team leader. I wouldn't try another tithe test until I was out of college and married the 2nd time around. I was working as a temporary worker for a major corporation. In 3 months, I got hired in with a $3 hour pay increase. In 7 years, I moved to computer operator at $9 an hour and ended up eventually at $13.53 an hour. Unfortunately, I got greedy and used the tithe money for a trip to Las Vegas. Everything fell apart when I returned. I lost my good job. I eventually went to work again for another company as a contractor. Resuming the tithing test, I soon moved up to co-team leader. I was then leader in 1 year. I was a little more stingy with the tithing and the company was bought out! They started letting us go. Another job down the drain. More recently I have switched to giving to the Salvation Army to feed the poor instead of the former Christian evangelical TV evangelist organization. I have noticed light bulbs failing right away, cars rusting and falling apart more, more repairs for the house, 2 basement floods in 1 year, leaks in the house, and health troubles have increased since I gave up giving to the church!
So, where am I going with this? I am not endorsing Christianity, but wanted to show you the results of my test. I want you to make up your mind about all those tithing ideas. If God is working he is pretty subtle in his miracles. I used to have a theory about an Auto-god. Is God automatic? If I immediately tithe 11%, 15% or even 30% will God come back with financial blessings? Or if you aren't a Christian or lead a sinful life are you less likely to see anything good coming from God? After all, Moses pissed God off in the end and he had to separate himself from the rest of the Israelites to go live by himself. Maybe God is an old "stick in the mud", furious, stubborn being. My conclusion is that when you tithe someone around you will loose in the workplace and you will reap that person's wages, position or some other work benefit. We will examine the idea of cursings in an upcoming blog posting.
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