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Tithing Publicity · Let's Ask the Mamas!

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We've got a question for American Mamas. Dear Mamas, how
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  Speaker 1: would you feel if your church publicized what you tithed
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  Speaker 1: each week?
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  Speaker 2: Well, let's ask our American Mamas.
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  Speaker 3: Mama, Mama, Mama.
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  Speaker 1: Mama told me not to come.
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  Speaker 2: She said, that ain't the way to have fun, no.
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  Speaker 1: And joining us now are American Mamas Terry Nedeville and
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  Speaker 1: Kimberly Burleson. There are some churches, I don't know if
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  Speaker 1: all Mormon churches do this, there used to be more
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  Speaker 1: I think that did it, but they would sit down
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  Speaker 1: and you would have to show your family's finances and
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  Speaker 1: prove that you were tithing the appropriate amount to the church.
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  Speaker 1: They would go through your finances physically. This wasn't just
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  Speaker 1: between you and God, this was now, you know, the
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  Speaker 1: church is now your auditor.
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  Speaker 2: But publishing, publishing tithes? Is that, are there churches doing this?
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  Speaker 3: Well, what, what I saw was they put it on
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  Speaker 3: their projector. So you're in church and they project the family,
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  Speaker 3: the face of the family and what they tithed on
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  Speaker 3: the screen. So to me, it's like a pressure incentivizer,
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  Speaker 3: you know, like to put pressure on other people. But
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  Speaker 3: I'm like, This creates a class system as well because
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  Speaker 3: you know the ones that are like, oh, that's me
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  Speaker 3: up there. And then the other ones that are just
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  Speaker 3: like melting into their seat. But I have friends during
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  Speaker 3: magazine years that are Scientologists. And when I was in Clearwater, Florida,
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  Speaker 3: where the headquarters are, I toured the Scientology headquarters with her.
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  Speaker 3: And one thing they do is the same kind of thing.
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  Speaker 3: They show what everybody's giving, and it's in tiers. They
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  Speaker 3: have different tiers of givers, and it's publicized in their newsletter,
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  Speaker 3: but it's the same thing. It's so that you can...
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  Speaker 3: It's not even really a religion. It's a whole different thing, yeah.
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  Speaker 4: It's kind of like whenever they have a sponsored school
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  Speaker 4: event or a sponsored event where they say, if you're
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  Speaker 4: the gold, you know, here are the gold star, here
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  Speaker 4: are the silver star, here are the bronze star. And
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  Speaker 4: you do, you look to see who did, and the
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  Speaker 4: bronze gave so much, but they're still below the gold
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  Speaker 4: and the silver. Yeah. So I would have to leave
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  Speaker 4: that church. Yeah, that bothered me.
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  Speaker 2: I would have to leave that church. That's embarrassing.
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  Speaker 3: Well, there's people that they give in the ways that
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  Speaker 3: they can give. And it may not be financial. It
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  Speaker 3: may be with volunteering in the nursery. It may be,
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  Speaker 3: you know, there's other ways that people can give to
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  Speaker 3: the church. But there are some people that believe it
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  Speaker 3: doesn't matter. You give 10%. If you're making a dollar
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  Speaker 3: a week, you're going to give that 10 cents.
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  Speaker 2: So just since we're talking about the Bible, let's go
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  Speaker 2: to it. Matthew 6, 5.
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  Speaker 1: And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites,
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  Speaker 1: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and
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  Speaker 1: on the street corners to be seen by men. In truth,
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  Speaker 1: I tell you the truth, they have received their full reward.
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  Speaker 1: If people are tithing so that their names and the
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  Speaker 1: amount they're given is being publicly displayed, then that is
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  Speaker 1: their reward. That display is their reward, not salvation, not.
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  Speaker 2: Doing something for the heart of the Father. your your
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  Speaker 2: reward is the oh look.
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  Speaker 4: How much money and look at the church's role in
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  Speaker 4: that so what does that say about the church.
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  Speaker 1: Right that the church is making it basically what you're
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  Speaker 1: doing is you're taking tithing and instead of making that
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  Speaker 1: something that's given to god that is now something that
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  Speaker 1: done for my own puffery.
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  Speaker 4: Right so what would you do oh.
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  Speaker 1: I absolutely would leave the church yeah i would absolutely
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  Speaker 1: leave the church and again there was the woman who
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  Speaker 1: just dropped.
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  Speaker 2: In one penny That's right.
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  Speaker 1: And Jesus said she gave more than the guy who
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  Speaker 1: gave all this other money because it's what she can give.
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  Speaker 2: It is what she can give.
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  Speaker 1: You know, I would absolutely leave the church because the
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  Speaker 1: church has the wrong idea about what tithing is. Tithing
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  Speaker 1: isn't about the finances of the church. Tithing is about
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  Speaker 1: the spirit of the individual giving. It's the heart of
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  Speaker 1: the giver, not the dollar amount of the gift. Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: That's what's the important thing about tithing.
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  Speaker 4: You know, there's a lot of people nowadays that don't
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  Speaker 4: go to church. They're turned off by church. Right. They're
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  Speaker 4: turned off by the Joel Osteens or, you know, these megachurches.
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  Speaker 1: Or churches that are broadcasting how much money you gave
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  Speaker 1: to the church every week. Right.
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  Speaker 4: And it's a turnoff. And this is exactly why people
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  Speaker 4: shy away from it. Because it's like, it doesn't feel
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  Speaker 4: like it's of God. It doesn't feel like it's. Of
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  Speaker 4: that Christian faith. And you start going, well, this is not.
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  Speaker 3: Well, aren't you bothered when you see how some of
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  Speaker 3: them live?
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  Speaker 4: Yeah. Yes.
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  Speaker 1: You know, it's... People are very quick to be able
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  Speaker 1: to identify hypocrisy. It is something that most people can identify. Now,
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  Speaker 1: they may not be able to identify it themselves, but
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  Speaker 1: we are all really good about seeing hypocrisy in others.
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  Speaker 1: And when you see hypocrisy in the church, you don't
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  Speaker 1: blame it on the church. You blame it on God.
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  Speaker 3: So true.
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  Speaker 4: Wow. Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: So true.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: And yeah, that turns that turns people away.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: So, no, this is I would I cannot condemn this
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  Speaker 1: behavior enough by a church. And if your church is
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  Speaker 1: doing that. Go tithe someplace where the money is not
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  Speaker 1: just going to buy you puffery in the moment, but
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  Speaker 1: is actually going to do good for the kingdom.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, it really is one of those things. Like our
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  Speaker 4: grandfather was a Methodist preacher, and people still talk about
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  Speaker 4: him to this day that are still alive. You can
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  Speaker 4: tell those who are called to the pulpit and those
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  Speaker 4: who are there for financial gain. And the ones that
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  Speaker 4: are there for financial gain, they have really done a
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  Speaker 4: disservice for Christ because you have people that go and
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  Speaker 4: they sense it. Yeah. And they're out forever. They're like,
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  Speaker 4: that church is not for me.
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  Speaker 1: You only need one excuse to run away from God.
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  Speaker 1: Only one.
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  Speaker 2: Don't give it to people.
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  Speaker 1: If you'd like to ask our American Mamas a question,
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: go to our website, AmericanGroundRadio.com and click on the Ask
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  Speaker 1: the Mamas button.
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  Speaker 2: Terry Netville, Kimberly Burleson, thank you so much.
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  Speaker 3: Thank you.