ATM for Jesus?

So how wrong is the statement “ATM for Jesus?” I came across an article in the Chicago Tribune at lunch the other day and I’ve been meaning to post about it here. The article talks about a Pastor in Georgia who has created an ATM for giving tithes at Churches. I can’t even begin to tell you how wrong I think this is and for so many reasons.

First of all, tithing is supposed to be about worship. It should not be something that should be entered into lightly. I’m not a big fan of putting your donation on a credit card and just having it auto deduct. It is still a donation and you are still supporting the Kingdom of God, but you forget that you even did it after awhile. It gets sucked into the same realm as a bill you have to pay every month. I just don’t think God meant for tithing to be such a throw away concept. It’s supposed to be meaningful. To me using an ATM to tithe just cheapens the entire concept. If you’re going to tithe make it an act of worship because thats what it is.

Secondly, if you read the whole article it talks about the pastor starting a company which is actually making money off of support of these ATMs as well as the fact that the company doing the electronic transfer of funds is getting a percentage of what you tithe. This seems to remind me a of a piece of scripture…

>Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. “It is written,” he said to them, ” ‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it a ‘den of robbers.’ ”

>Matthew 21:12,13

I guess I just have a hard time with the whole concept. It doesn’t seem to fit with what Scripture says, and in my mind it cheapens the act of tithing. It may give the Church more income, because it makes it easy for people, but I don’t remember anywhere in the Bible where it says tithing should be easy.

Here’s the link to the same article in the LA Times.

Tags: christianity