Tips/Tithing/Offering. What Are You Getting For It, And Who Is Better Off Because Of It?

Years ago, I read a book, "Hey, Waitress! The USA from the Other Side of the Tray" by, Alison Owings. She didn't interview waiters, just waitresses, because they were more plentiful, across the country.

I'm lucky enough to have a first edition, dated 2002.

And she was making the point that even though you might have money, you might have fame, you still need to eat a meal once in a while in a place where the person who is serving you that meal has not only, neither, but no hope of ever having it. And it wouldn't kill you to make the minimal effort to tip at least 15%.

If I screwed that up, and totally missed the point of Ms. Owings book, I apologize to her. But as a guy with a Sociology Degree, a Psychology Minor and 20 years in Law Enforcement, that's what I took from it. And I never stiffed a waitress again. No matter how bad the service or the food was.

First of all, the waitress didn't prepare the food (maybe with the exception of your lettuce dinner salad) and she didn't take too long to cook it, or undercooked, or overcook it. She just brought it. She's at the mercy of the guys cooking it, who get paid if you like it or not.

Beating up on the waitress because you got served a bad meal is a lot like shooting the mailman for telling you you have bills to pay. Makes no damn sense.

They just deliver what you came in for. Sometimes it's good. Sometimes it sucks, and sometimes it's just sick and wrong. But they didn't make it, or make you come in for it. They are just the, "Genie" who deliver what you wished for. Sometimes it isn't what you WANTED, but it IS what you ordered.

The American Heritage Dictionary Of The English Language defines, Genie as, "A supernatural creature who does ones bidding".

And this brings me to my next point, this week after we didn't see the world end because some religious nut said it would.

What are you getting for you devotion to your religion? Your tithing, your weekly offering? What is it giving back to you?

I'm hearing a lot of, "talking heads" on the news tell stories of people who quit their jobs, and lost their insurance and all kinds of things, because they believed this bullshit. But no evidence. They don't site EXACT stories, or times, or people, or news stories from OTHER stations. They just SAY it but they can't back it up. Even Channel 2 was doing it! Come on, Shaunna, give me a source! Please! I WANT to believe you, but you're letting me down!

It's like, "Faux News" when they don't agree with something that is happening, and they HAVE to report on it, they will just say, "Some people say..." and quote the exact opposite view of the reality, and NOT bother to say who those, "some people" are. It's not true, but it has what, Stephen Colbert calls, "Truthyness"! It installs that doubt in the mind of the unthinking, the uneducated, the unread, who think, "Faux News" is actually reporting, NEWS!

Are you resting assured that you will get a free pass into heaven? Are you sure that if you swear when you burn you fingers on a Dutch Oven, God won't let you spend a few thousand years in Purgatory for that? I hope so. I hope you're getting your money's worth.

Is your offering plate donation every Sunday buying you your way into heaven? Even if you have an affair? Or are dishonest in business? Or run a pyramid scheme like any number of them in Utah? Brand new Skin, same old scheme? I'm just asking...

And how much do you give? 10%? My Mormon friends tell me that's their freight into the afterlife. 10% of your income is your tariff to heaven.

When I was a Presbyterian, they, SUGGESTED 10% based on the Bible. Hell, when I was first married, if I spent 10% of my income to STAY a Presbyterian? My wife SHOULD have left me. That would have been silly.

We were broke, and living in an apartment.

I guess I have to ask, if you just show up and worship, Jesus, wouldn't he be satisfied? If he was a real GOD, and all? He wouldn't NEED your money as a gift. And it shouldn't hold ANY weight on whether or not you got into heaven. Yeah, yeah, I know, they need to pay for power, water and the mortgage. But still, if GOD wanted you there...

So, again, I'm just asking, if you give money to a church, what do you get for it?

If you get piece/peace of mind. If it makes you feel good. If you really, truly feel that you are worshiping your Lord and Savior? Good for YOU! If it makes you feel well, then GREAT! You ARE getting our money's worth, and I applaud you for the good things your church does.

But, and I have to ask, how much of your charitable money is skimmed off to run the CHURCH, that could have gone directly to help the poor?

And why doesn't our GOVERNMENT help the poor? Because we wouldn't NEED churches?

After all, we have a Government to do the things as a group, that we can't do individually! I'm just sayin...

Look, I'm not religious. I think it's bullshit.

But if you ARE? Why are you against GOVERNMENT doing the things you HOPE religion will do? For, "The least of Us". I don't get it. YOU should be charitable, but GOVERNMENT should save your tax money? WTF?

Hypocrisy: The feigning of beliefs, feelings, or virtues that one does not hole or possess.