Jean and
Jim
Darrell
are a
Los
Angeles
couple
of
modest
means,
living
frugally
by
necessity.
He works
part
time for
an
internist,
doing
office
work,
and she
augments
the
family
income
by
house-sitting
and
taking
care of
a
friend's
pets.
They
drive a
1989
Mazda
and
seldom
go out
to eat.
Yet
they've
been
giving
one-tenth
of their
gross
income
to their
church
for the
past 20
years -
even
when Jim
Darrell
was laid
off.
"God
always
provides,"
says Jim
Darrell,
who,
with his
wife, is
a
longtime
member
of the
First
Presbyterian
Church
of
Hollywood.
"Nothing
extra -
just the
essentials,
which is
all we
need."
But
people
such as
the
Darrells
- those
who hew
to the
biblical
mandate
of
tithing
- are
increasingly
rare,
according
to
surveys
and
church
records
of
contributions.
Churches
and
nonprofit
Christian
ministries
across
the
United
States
have
been
reporting
a
significant
decline
in
financial
support
in the
past
year and
a half.
Some
attribute
the
change
to
competition
for
charitable
dollars
since
the
Sept.
11,
2001,
terrorist
attacks;
others
blame
the poor
economy.
Consistent
tithers
are a
small
group -
about 3
percent
of
American
adults
last
year,
according
to a
recent
study.
And the
proportion
of
tithers
appears
to be
dropping,
the
survey
indicates.
In 2001,
8
percent
of
adults
surveyed
reported
that
they
tithed,
according
to the
poll of
1,010
adults
by Barna
Research
Group,
based in
Oxnard,
Calif.
The
independent
marketing
research
firm has
tracked
cultural
trends
related
to
beliefs,
values,
attitudes
and
behaviors
since
1984.
Even
among
born-again
Christians,
6
percent
tithed
last
year,
compared
with 14
percent
in 2001,
the
survey
shows.
Among
evangelicals
-
defined
for the
survey
as
people
who
believe
they
have a
personal
responsibility
to share
their
religious
beliefs
about
Jesus
with
non-Christians
- 9
percent
tithed,
according
to the
survey.
Pollster
George
Barna
attributes
the
decline
to the
soft
economy,
the
threat
of
terrorism,
the
scandals
involving
Catholic
priests
and
long-term
demographic
shifts.
"We are
losing
many of
the
people
who have
a habit
of
tithing,"
he says,
"while
the
proportion
of homes
headed
by
younger
adults,
who have
never
tithed
and
don't
plan to,
is
growing."
According
to
Barna's
survey,
people
older
than 55
are far
more
likely
to tithe
than
younger
people.
Tithing
has more
typically
been a
significant
tenet of
Protestant
than of
Catholic
traditions.
Maria
Leon, a
Mexican
immigrant
who
cleans
homes
and
offices
to
support
her
family,
earns
$10 an
hour and
gives
one
day's
wage to
her
church
every
Sunday.
Five
years
ago,
when she
wasn't
working
Wednesdays,
she
prayed
that God
would
fill
that day
with
gainful
employment,
she
says.
When she
found
work,
she
promised
to turn
over the
day's
earnings
to God.
She has
kept the
vow.
"I am so
happy"
to be
able to
tithe,
says
Leon, a
member
of the
Iglesia
de Dios,
a
Pentecostal
church
in Los
Angeles.
"I don't
have
much
money,
but I am
rich
because
God is
my
father."
For Jeff
Traintime,
a
Universal
Music
Sales
Division
executive,
working
up to
tithing
was a
10-year
process.
"I was
the kind
of a
person
who
thought
that it
was a
big deal
if I
dropped
$5 on
the
plate at
church
on
Sunday,"
Traintime
says.
But in
the
1980s,
when he
returned
to the
church
after a
20-year
hiatus,
he began
to think
differently.
After he
and his
wife,
Jana
Loner,
talked
it over,
they
pledged
2
percent.
When
that
worked
out,
they
upped it
to 3
percent
the
following
year,
until
they
finally
reached
10
percent
a decade
later.
"It was
a
step-by-step
process
of
learning
that we
could do
it, and
we would
be taken
care of
even
though
we
didn't
have
that
money in
our
pockets
anymore,"
Traintime
says.
He still
has no
earthly
explanation
for what
happened
to him
within
three
months
after
making
the
pledge.
"This
may seem
a little
too
spooky
for a
newspaper,
but ...
I
suddenly
got the
biggest
raise
I'd ever
had," he
recalls.
The
bonus
exceeded
the sum
he had
committed.
"I've
never
quite
gotten
over the
astonishment
of
that."
The Rev.
Ken
Fong,
senior
pastor
of the
predominantly
Asian-American
Evergreen
Baptist
Church
of Los
Angeles,
says the
traditional
way of
urging
congregants
to tithe
-
"because
it's the
right
thing to
do" -
won't
persuade
the
younger
generation.
"When
you look
at the
generational
shift,
they
don't
give to
support
a budget
or an
institution,"
he says.
"But, at
the same
time,
they
say, 'I
want my
life to
count
for
something.'
"
So,
churches
need to
take a
different
tack by
making
congregants
"investors"
in their
ministries,
he says.
Even
though
his
church
has no
wealthy
members,
he says,
there
has been
more
than a
10
percent
increase
every
year in
congregational
giving.
Tithing
appears
more
common
in some
Korean
churches,
many of
which
routinely
print
the
names of
tithers
in their
bulletins
and
report a
tally of
weekly
congregational
giving.
At the
7,000-member
Young
Nak
Presbyterian
Church,
a
predominantly
Korean
congregation
near
downtown
Los
Angeles'
Chinatown,
nearly
70
percent
of the
members
tithe,
said
Young-Nam
Chun, an
elder
who
oversees
tithes.
Elderly
women on
welfare,
who get
about
$700 a
month in
government
checks,
are
among
the most
faithful,
he says.
"You see
a whole
bunch of
$70
contributions
about
the time
they get
their
checks,"
he says.
"That
stirs
your
heart."
By K.
Connie
Kang
Los
Angeles
Times,
Saturday
June 21,
2003
