It’s Financial Planning Month and Tithing Won’t Save You

Last updated on: October 11, 2024 at 7:46 pm by Olapeju Simoyan, MD, MPH

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It’s Financial Planning Month and Tithing Won’t Save You 2024-10-11T19:46:54-04:00 Olapeju Simoyan, MD, MPH

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“Anyone who isn’t paying tithes isn’t going to heaven,” said the preacher.

Those were the words of a prominent Nigerian pastor with a worldwide following.

The video in which those comments were made was circulating on the internet a few years ago.

The good news is that he recently recanted … (sort of). He came out with an apology, stating that he was wrong to have said that tithing was a requirement for getting into heaven. While he deserves credit for at least acknowledging that he was wrong, the problem is what he went on to say, which was that he had actually been limiting people by insisting that they give ten percent of their income to the church. According to him, there are people who should be giving much more, 20, 30, 40 percent of their income, and by insisting on ten percent, he was holding them back. So much for the apology……

My miracle money testimony

I repeatedly get messages from Medium (another online writing platform) informing me that an essay I wrote about “miracle money” is my most read article of the week, despite the fact that I don’t do anything to promote it and I don’t write regularly on that site. The only explanation I could come up with was that the essay contained the words “miracle” and “money.” Any reader looking for ways of making “miracle money” would have been utterly disappointed, because the essay was not what they would have expected.

In the essay, I shared how videos of Nigerian pastors preaching about “miracle money” had been circulating on social media. Preachers were encouraging their followers to expect money to suddenly appear in their bank accounts, if they would just “sow a seed.” One preacher told his listeners to shout “I can’t be poor” seven times.

Other preachers made proclamations such as “Angels will deposit money in your account!” and “Become a millionaire by February.”

One video showed a man testifying about how he had “sown” (given an offering of) just 15 naira, and then suddenly, 50,000 naira appeared in his bank account.

In my “miracle money” essay, I shared my experience of receiving a duplicate check for $5000, and how I returned it to the issuing company after confirming that it was an error on their end. I noted that if this had happened to someone who had bought into the messages described above, they very likely would have assumed the duplicate check was a “gift” from God.

I believe that the fact that the “miracle money” essay keeps getting more views than my other essays speaks to the fact that people are indeed looking for ways to make quick money and unfortunately, many preachers continue to encourage these unhealthy attitudes towards money.

Tithing is not a replacement for financial literacy

There are many problems with the prosperity gospel, but one of them is the idea that tithing guarantees divine protection and financial prosperity. Yet, there are many wealthy people who do not tithe, aren’t Christians, and in many cases, don’t even believe in God. Spiritual leaders should encourage their followers to become financially literate and make wise investments, as opposed to assuming that God owes them a financial reward because they give the church ten per cent of their income.

Tithing will not save you spiritually …. Nor will it save your finances

It is rather disappointing that a world- renowned Christian leader would tell people that they won’t go to heaven if they don’t tithe. The apology notwithstanding, the fact that he doubled down on the need to give even more than ten percent after the apology effectively nullifies the apology. He even stated that ten percent was for beginners, and that people need to be giving more as they grow spiritually, just was they are expected to win more souls, etc. The problem with this analogy is that it conflates money with spirituality. Spiritual growth doesn’t equate financial growth, so it can’t be assumed that people will give more money just because they have matured spiritually. What if they haven’t made any financial progress in that time?

Unfortunately, Christian preachers tend to be put on pedestals, particularly in the circles where the prosperity gospel is preached. People need to learn to think critically for themselves. Pastors, preachers and general overseers are human beings like the rest of us. They make mistakes and sometimes change their opinions on issues, even when they may have claimed that they “heard from God.”

At the end of the day, we have the power to make our own decisions, including financial ones.

Your financial future is in your hands!

October is financial planning month. Why not make a plan to improve your financial literacy? Regardless of what prosperity preachers have told you, your financial future is in your hands. You won’t get rich by giving money to the church, as laudable as that may be. I would dare add that giving with the expectation of financial rewards is also misguided, but that’s a discussion for another day. If you want to accumulate wealth, you need to learn what people like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg did to become wealthy. (Hint*: it wasn’t tithing*). You don’t have to copy them, but at least learning about the principles that lead to wealth generation is a first step towards building wealth of your own.

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About Olapeju Simoyan, MD, MPH

Dr. Olapeju Simoyan is a physician, board certified in family medicine and addiction medicine, with a special interest in the connections between faith and health. She strongly believes that faith and critical thinking are not mutually exclusive. As a female physician, Dr. Simoyan is also interested in women's issues and writes about religious abuse and trauma, with a focus on how misinterpretations of biblical texts have led to the perpetration of abuse within church settings. She has combined her writing and photography in several books, including Living Foolproof, a devotional based on reflections from the book of Proverbs. You can check out her author page on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Olapeju-Simoyan/author/B0BP7RSYBL You can read more about the author here.

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