Us v. Them
Tuesday, August 29th, 2006Tithe. A simple, innocuous word.
A tithe is a tenth of something. It’s commonly used to refer to giving a tenth of one’s income to the church, as in, “I pledge to make good on my tithe this year.”
Evidently, there are those among my fellow Catholics who object to tithing. Oh, not to the concept. To the word. Yes, you read correctly. To the use of the word.
It’s too, well, you know. Too Protestant.
It’s so Protestant that the parish to which I belong has purged the word “tithe” from a parish publication and substituted “stewardship of treasure” in its place.
Upon reading of this crisis, I rejoiced. Surely the “tithe” crisis could only mean that the “tithe” police had run out of good works to perform. Faced with a dearth of hungry, naked and lonely brothers and sisters, the “tithe” police searched elsewhere and discovered a worthy cause.
A minor issue? Perhaps. Perhaps not.
Differences among religions are neither new nor insignificant. But instead of invoking our differences, something tells me that God would rather we spend our precious time on this earth taking care of business. You know. Loving our neighbors as ourselves, for example.
We shake our heads at the atrocities coming out of Iraq and Lebanon. We recall with a touch of American arrogance the violence in Northern Ireland. How can they, in the name of religion, spew such hate over minor issues? Don’t their religions teach them differently? How did they grow so intolerant?
Maybe from the seeds of tithing.