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Tithing is good for the Orthodox Christian and therefore good for the Orthodox parish. So why don’t more Orthodox Christians tithe?
We know the usual reasons: We’re not used to it. Back in the old country the government paid for the church. The parish was founded on the “dues” model. Tithing is “Protestant.” Orthodox people are stingy. We just don’t have it in our culture.
Those things are all true in one way or another, but I don’t think those are the real reasons that we do not tithe very much as Orthodox Christians. There are some who do, of course, but it’s not very many of us. So what is the reason why we’re so terrible at tithing?
I believe that it is because we don’t know why we tithe.
And because we don’t know why, we don’t do it. And when we don’t do it, then we come up with the various reasons given above as the cause of our non-tithing. But those aren’t the real reasons. It’s because we don’t know why we should tithe.
Now, the reasons I am going to list below are not all equally important. Indeed, if I had to answer the question, “Why should I tithe?” I would answer only with #1. That’s the real reason. #2-#6 are essentially useful effects of tithing that should help us to focus on #1.
So here are six of my reasons. #1 is the most important and really the point of all of it.
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