Territorial Bloggings

Both the Cranach & main WorldMagBlog have recently had entries (and lengthy comment threads) on the topic of churches accepting offerings via credit cards, debit cards, and/or automatic/direct-draft bank withdrawals.

I prefer the better, albeit shorter, Cranach discussion — “Tithing by Credit Card” — to the longer thread over at the main blog — “Technological Tithing”. Why? Well, I guess it boils down to the fact that I find the main blog to be far more inundated with rank Pietism. I have very little patience for “stewardship” that is merely a thinly veiled attempt to bludgeon people with the Law, either by guilting them into giving, or by enticing them with the idea that giving will earn them “good works” chits.

I’m not a huge fan of using the word “tithing” either. Probably due to the fact/observation that it has been co-opted by the Pietists. It’s also somewhat synonymous with the idea of giving 10% — and the 10% OT requirement (i.e., Civil Law) is not binding on us any more. That, however, is not always acknowledged by the Pietists. Thus, I would prefer to use the word “offerings”.

In any event, there’s lots of good discussion on the topic of electronic submission of offerings. I’m not quite sure just what the definitive and/or correct position is regarding electronic submissions; however, I’m inclined to think that it’s an innovation that we might not need. That being said, if someone tried to bind my conscience by stating that I couldn’t, well then I guess I’d have to set it up…

What is pretty clear to me, though, is that the use of credit cards is most definitely not a good thing. Why? Because credit cards make it so much easier to get into debt than do debit cards or automatic drafts. In essence, debit cards & auto-drafts are the same as paper checks — they are tied to checking accounts. If there’s no money in them, writing a check for your offering will not get you into debt (beyond any bounced check fees, of course…). Credit cards, however don’t offer any such protection. They’ll gladly let you run up your debt.

Churches should not aid, condone, solicit such temptation, much less turn a blind eye to it and/or use it to ensure congregational cash flows.

-ghp�