I just got home and on the TV is a short press conference by President Obama on his newly released birth certificate. He is sharing his frustration that this has been such an issue for such a long time distracting the country from real issues.
At first glance, I agree with him. He had released a Certificate of Live Birth and taken other steps to address the issue. Other issues including the budget, economy, two wars, and others seem to be more pressing and more deserving of media attention. This is not to mention the need of food, health care, and clothing for those in need or high gas prices causing hardship for so many.
However, with a little more reflection, it’s really a bit of a grand standing move isn’t it? If he didn’t want this silly distraction, couldn’t he have released this year’s ago? Who’s more at fault, the people fanning the fire or the one who provided the fuel?
Now, to be honest, this post is not about Obama at all as much as the observation it led to. I’m not a big political guy and I’m not a huge fan or hater of President Obama. However, this is the thought it led to….
I had a friend a few years back who was sharing with me their view of tithing (giving of 10% of our income back to God … there’s a lot more to it than that but that’s the short form that fits this post). He was saying he believed in tithing but did not give it to his church. He felt more comfortable putting it a separate bank account and using it as he thought it should be used. In other words, he has a trust issue with Biblical church leadership and instead of communicating through it, it’s better to keep his control over it.
With this, he shared a story where the church he was attending at the time, had a roof problem. The pastor spent a couple weeks putting the word out to his small church that they didn’t have the resources to replace the roof and they needed to come together to find God’s solution for this family need. After a couple weeks, my friend walked up to the pastor, wrote a check, handed it to the pastor and said something to the effect of “Now, can we get back to real ministry please?”
The more, I thought about this story, the more bothered I was by it and felt heavy hearted for the pastor. Let me explain, if my friend had been faithful in the first place, the resouces would have been in the storehouse to take care of the need. Instead, the pastor had to carry this burden just to be chastised by the person who was not being faithful in the first place?
These stories make me wonder, what if we all just did what we should do or say what we should say up front? What if we didn’t set up situations with our lack of action so we can pretend we are saving the day, taking the high road, or being the hero on the back end…… Again, random thoughts……
(Not that I’m done, I see my friend Pat posted some thoughts on my Facebook status on the same topic…. maybe he’ll chime in here too =)
Emerging Conservative 
Even if he had contributed to the storehouse, you and I both know that there is a very good chance that the money would not have been there. In all the churches I have worked at, we become like typical American consumers. The more we make in tithes, the more we spend and there is very little storing going on in our storehouse for unexpected events like a bad roof or an antique boiler coming loose.
As far as the birth certificate…he provided legal documentation of his birth suitable for all manners and though it was good enough for the government, legal authorities, most media outlets and the general public..it was not good enough for conspiracy theorists.
Should we be beholden to agenda minded people in our churches, schools, and government who do not have the best interests for all in heart and mind, but their own divisive agendas?
My calling is not to them. THe government has all they need regarding our church and 501c3 and we financial accountability and I have moral accountability. What I have is satisfactory for most. Interesting that Jesus could have performed a simple miracle in his mock trial…but did not. Why? He knew the request was not genuine.
Thanks for chiming in Pat….
You know my interest is not so much on the political end so I’ll stay with the church =)
Actually, the church in question, I do believe would have been good stewards of the finances (and just for the record, no, it is not the church I pastor). To me though, that is not the main question nor is it within his control. The tithe should be brought into the storehouse. If he did not trust those over the storehouse, he should communicate. If he could not find resolution, he move on to a place where he can trust the leadership. Problem in this situation, he tended to switch churches every few years because they didn’t do things his way.