Chronicle of Tithing

The beginning of tithing can be seen in the Bible, yet many Christians as well as non-Christians have the habit of doing some type of tithing today.

Tithe is conventionally a Christian term that signifies the contribution of one tenth of one's earnings as donation to one's Church as a type of Church giving. However, every other religious system has similar practices within itself. In Islam the word used is 'Zakat'. In the Sikh religion of India the name for it is 'Dasvandh' which again signifies setting apart a tenth of one's earnings for pious acts. It was Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth Sikh guru who started the practice. The sacred texts of Hinduism like the Bhagavadgita and the Upanisads state that 'true alms' is that which is given as a part of one's duty in the right place and at the right time to a worthy individual, from whom nothing is expected in return.

The word tithe is derived from the Hebrew word 'asair', which means to give the tenth part of something, often of a person's income. Today, tithes (or tithing) are normally voluntary and paid in cash. However, there are still European countries that allow the church to mandate tithing and enforce it by law.

Denmark is a case where the Church of Denmark members have to pay a church tax, which is different in different municipalities. It is commonly about 1% of a person's taxable income. The situation is similar in Finland where members of state churches have to pay a tax which can be anything between 1% and 2.25% of income and these taxes form a part of the common national taxation system.

But still tithing as a confirmed tradition was established only after Exodus. Tithes were routine in the olden days through much of the Near East and also later in Carthage, Lydia, and Arabia.

The Hebrew practice of giving tithes was mentioned in the Bible, beginning with the gift from Abraham to the Canaanite king and priest Melchizedek (Genesis--:20). Tithes were also given in ancient Lydia, Arabia and Carthage. Tithes were adopted by the early Christian church, being mentioned in councils at Tours in 567 and at Macon in 585. They were formally recognised under Pope Adrian I in 787.

Tithing in some Christian churches is controversial because it applies an Old Testament process to a New Testament organisation (the Church). No evidence exists in the New Testament for the tithe to be applied to Christians. Indeed, only Jews living in the promised land were required to pay the tithe in the Old Testament, as it was actually a form of income tax used to support not only the government of Old Testament Israel, but also the temple and the priesthood.

Current day Tithing

Despite the fact that it has originated in the Bible and earliest Christianity, now it is a unique way to gift something whenever you are given something. Giving EVERY time you are in receipt is a compelling form of giving as it allows the benefactor to experience something exceptionally eloquent - more on that later.

But back to a bit of history. Malachi 3:10 is the part of the Bible that Christians relate to when they talk about tithing. Many Christians tithe to their church because they feel it is their given duty by the Bible to do so. Many Churches now and in the past insist that their members tithe to the church to sustain its activities. In essence though, unless giving is done from free will and a with joyful focus, it does not achieve its greatest result - if in fact you ever want to create a direct result by giving.

Disagreements about Tithing

Tithing has often been a contentious topic. The issue whether a Christian should pay tithe is often argued in many Christian congregations.

In an article in Wall Street Journal regarding tithing named 'The Backlash Against Tithing', Suzanne Sataline says, 'As Churches push donations, congregants balk; 'that's not the way God works'.'

Unfortunately, the mix of ideology, desire to control, and a limited perspective, can often create a Jekyll and Hyde result - the simple purity of giving being lost in the mist and confusion of theology. Despite the controversy, tithing is still a totally and amazingly powerful action that anyone can do to turn their lives around to face a more abundant direction.

For those who wish to understand a Christian perspective in tithing there is no limit of materials to read. For those who want to understand the reason WHY tithing is so powerful read on.

Why is Tithing so powerful?

This is indeed a powerful question because if you just mindlessly follow something without knowing some key background pointers you may be heading in the wrong direction.

If more of the people who do regularly practice tithing knew exactly why tithing is effective when done in the full spirit of a perfect gift, then it could possibly release a better yearning to give even more. And for those who give not on a regular basis, it could motivate them to give every time they get something.

To analyse the real 'why' of how routine giving leads to more we have to understand something about Quantum Mechanics and Quantum Physics. The laws of these realms vary a lot from that of our own material or Newtonian world.

The picture 'What the Bleep' paints the quantum world through easily graspable examples. The link to the movie here gives some details about how matter gets converted into waves and behaves like liquids when seen from a quantum physics angle: http://video.yahoo.com/watch/1349535/4653525.

The movie describes an amazing world viewed from a quantum space. When a beam of electrons is fired through a plate with a slit in it onto a wall - as you would expect, it would it within a single line on the wall straight opposite the slit.

If the experiment is conducted by using an energy wave that reacts the way a water wave does, one gets a foreseeable result. As the wave strikes the plate it rebounds off the plate but where there is the opening, a part of the wave goes across through the opening. Coming out of the other side of the opening, the surging water moves out in the pattern of an arc, resulting in a new wave just as in the old laboratory tests done in schools in analysing wave patterns. As the surge of water strikes the wall across, it will have maximum force in the middle straight opposite the opening and will have lesser force all across the wall. This is exactly like the line the electrons make.

If we added a second slit in the plate, again we would get a predictable result with the wave experiment - two small waves would appear through the slits and when those new waves touch each other they would cancel each other out creating an interference pattern. Several waves would now hit the wall making a stripped affect on the wall. All this is as expected for wave energy behavior, so nothing new here.

Here is where the whole experiment takes on an entirely different direction. When electrons are sent through the two cuts in the plate, what should ordinarily result are two lines in the wall opposite. On the contrary what one sees is a stripped appearance with an intersecting pattern. This is unbelievable. The matter seems to have been turned into a wave. We can perhaps imagine that electrons were hitting against each other and ricocheting and causing a wave pattern; so if electrons are sent across separately the result should be different. But it is not, it is the same. The explanation has to be that the electron leaves as a single particle, and splits into a wave on collision with the plate, then goes across through the cuts and intervenes with itself after that on the other side. This idea of solid having fluid properties -or mattering acting like a wave - is totally surprising. The world is much more than we understand it to be.

Though the world that we live in appears to be hard and solid, it is perhaps possible that in reality we are living in a place that has more properties of a fluid - liquid energy or persistent movement of a fluid, which reacts more like the fluids in our material world. According to the rules of physics, similar fluids have a tendency to congregate, while those with dissimilar properties tend to diverge and remain separate. A typical example of this is oil and water. Chromatography explains how a single substance can break up into its individual components in clear bands the way groups of people break up into smaller ones with common interests, potencies or aims.

The secret of it all is that when we give we feel delighted and know utmost joy. As a donor we get the best of gifts, which is the gift of contentment. Often we think that it is the one who gets a gift that gets the thing and thus overlook the fact that the giver is the real getter. If anybody is in doubt about this equation, then look at yourself with kids around and observe how intently you feel when you give to them and how much you enjoy irrespective of how they respond.

When we understand that we are first giving to ourselves when we give and that we do this because we want to feel joy then we have a key. This key unlocks the door of understanding to giving. And when we give repeatedly the momentum builds up just like a wave getting bigger and bigger the more we add to it with our giving.

The truth that we feel happy when we gift things alters our power equation fully - we feel good and in that moment we are lovelier to others. Have you ever known a vendor on the street peddling things that we do not want like tissues, which you usually do not buy, but one day you buy and the motive for doing it is just to see that vendor happy and relieved? A similar situation could be seen in relations to buskers playing music at a street corner.

Someone who is joyful exudes a natural attraction that draws others in and in doing so draws in better life experiences. It is simple. They attract to them those who are either wanting to experience that feeling or those who already experience it.

Exactly like water and oil, those who give and those who do not give are compartmentalised in different groups. And the ideal place where one can receive something is there where givers congregate! But you can remain in that group only as long as you gift things! Givers enjoy giving to others who give.

So even if we may turn to quantum physics for our solutions, they are very much there right in front of us. Similar attracts similar - simple. Wherever you look you see this going on. Lions group together with lions, students interact with students, women form groups with women, men makes friends with men, 'poor' likes to be with 'poor' people and 'rich' with 'rich' people. And in the same way - givers prefer the company of givers.

So if you give from a sense of self-reproach then it will only boomerang on you - you will just attract to you like-minded others who have a guilt complex and cannot be contented and delighted. The borderline between remorse and anger is narrow; so people gifting things out of a sense of guilt tend to turn in that direction. Joy is one of the highest of human emotions - and from there one can only turn to love - and that is what all of us are forever searching for.

So when you initiate the act of giving, you are very close to knowing perfect love - really wonderful to know that it is. More so as we know that most people are continuously trying to find love. We now know that the answer is so easy - begin giving! And gifting money is only an aspect of giving - giving on the whole will create a special place of joy for us, no matter how 'little' the amount.

There is also an emotional aspect to giving consistently. This aspect might not in the beginning appear to have connections to the sensation of joy - in the end it completely bonds us to the absolute bliss of joy.

When we share an item with someone - particularly something that we ourselves do not possess in abundance - we are sending a persuasive communication to our own brain that life is trustworthy. When we give something and later analyse the act we are connecting with the trust. The converse of trust is terror. So again, a group of terrified people are not likely to be happy and fine and so no one would find them appealing. On the other hand, a gathering of trustful people would themselves be happy and would attract many others to share their perfection. So finally when we believe the belief gets transformed into happiness and again we are very near to love - the most important thing that all of us are searching for.

So the gist of what has been overlooked for years is right in front of us for any one to build a relationship with it with ease. My son got a lot of cash for Christmas and I enquired how he was going to spend it. He said he was going to put aside much of it. I asked him how much he would like to share. He had not even thought of it as a possibility until I gave the idea to him. What is likely to happen if our first response to getting something was to give something away - is it likely that we will know more of happiness?

Transaction based donating - or transaction based benevolence

This leads us to the power of transactional giving. Many businesses give when they have lots of money. When they have little they tend not to give. Because of this their potential levels of joy are always go up and down based on the market trends - they have no control. But those who give EVERY time they receive are in control and connected with their experience of joy regularly.

Transactional giving rather than single payments is connected with the ups and downs of profit so it is an easy way of giving. The rule is that whenever you get something you give proportionately - easy. If you have a bad season you might give, but less depending on sales. And when business is better one can give more.

One of the major secrets of transaction based enterprise is that you can partake in the joy of giving so perfectly with all concerned - clients/society - staff - and enterprise. In this scenario customers understand that when they buy something they are also giving though it does not cost them anything other than choosing and shopping with you they feel power of the giving - that is why the traditional CSR - Corporate Social Responsibility, gets transformed into Customer Social Responsibility, with the customer responding perfectly to giving just by appreciating you and have that extra cause, though an elusive one, for preferring to do the shopping with you.

Your staff also get to share in the joy of giving because every time they are personally involved in creating a sale, they know directly they have helped give something to someone in need. This experience is powerful within a team because it can be used in so many ways such as team motivation and staff incentives.

Any business, including startups with no profit, can do Buy1GIVE1 transaction-based giving - there literally are no barriers to entry and the business controls everything. The contribution amount per transaction starts from just one cent and goes up to thousands of dollars with each business choosing their own level of giving and charity cause project to support depending on their business type and profitability. There is simply no reason not to give this way when the benefits of giving are so numerous. Businesses who are currently giving to a cause can usually convert very quickly and easily to Buy1GIVE1 transaction-based giving while still supporting the same cause providing extra tangible benefits to the business.

At the end of the day transaction-based giving is a modern form of tithing that is easy and effective for anyone, anywhere. Now that we know it is not about the amount that we give such as one-tenth, but simply about the fact we are giving that makes the difference. When we enter the club of givers we move into a special and privileged world that only those who give are privy to. And unless you get giving today, you just simply don't 'get' giving and never will till you start. So start now.

'We're not here to gift in order 'to take.' We want more to be able to give more.