I see so many people who are totally different outside of the sanctuary, who are totally focused on money.

“On the other hand, if spirituality is at the center of your life, you should be spending your time doing what will produce the greatest spiritual good within yourself and within the world.”

This sums up the reason why I am fixing my finances, investing in my Masters, and will eventually pursue a teaching career. Spiritual giving is not just spouting empty verses or forcing people to join your denomination. It is responding to all their needs, be it spiritual, physiacl, emotional, and so on.

I also agree that it does not matter how you give, be it to a church, a street beggar, a relative who needs help with their education, etc, as long as you do give. But the motive is also important, if you are dealing with spiritual giving. Selfishness or having an ulterior motive (ie, getting a tax cut) spoils the gift somewhat.

After all, where your heart is, there will your treasure be also.

Joel Osteen is… yawn… is yaaawwwnn… sorry, I can hardly.. yawnnn.. zzzz.

Maybe if he actually said something I could listen to him.

Here’s a guy (Gates) who made his money via the capitalist, free-market system, who wants to give grants to poor foreign governments to help their people. Most of these governments have already proven their are more interested in padding their Swiss bank accounts than in helping their people, and most have restrictive market policies in place.

If I were giving significant sums of money to help poor people, it would be to programs which help small businessmen and women to become self-sufficient. (Ted Turner is making the same mistake by his gifts of millions and billions of dollars to the U.N. How much of that is going to trickle down to the little guy?)

For those who call Jesus their Lord, it is a privilege to obediently give–to Christ’s work, to charity, to the poor, etc.–in response to God’s lovingkindness.

For those who are not followers of Jesus, Biblical principles STILL work, even when you don’t believe in the Bible.

Since neither hubby nor I are particularly religious (although we are deeply spiritual), this seemed to be the best option to giving the money to a church just so they could build yet another bigger, better mousetrap (complete with stained glass offeratory atrium and all-new designer pew cushions, no doubt).

I’d rather give my money to foundations that support cancer research, world hunger and poverty, etc. than give my money to a church so that they can build new buildings or buy property to expand their ministry. I have been most disappointed in the way that the Baptist, Mormon, and Catholic churches hoard their funds for causes that are only self serving to the church.

I think that we should approach service from a golden rule perspective – do unto others as you would have them do to you – unless you’re a masochist, then don’t.

Sometimes service is a parent just spending extra time with his kids, sometimes it’s volunteering at the homeless shelter or building houses for the poor in impoverished areas.

You can be a poor jerk or a rich jerk or a poor man who gives constantly of himself to enrich those around him or the same as a wealthy man reaching out with his talents and means.

God calls some to be in more obvious service than others but he calls each of us to love. If you have a talent for making money I think we’re called to make it ethically, honestly and honorably.

But I don’t think we should necessarily equate giving with money. I think the gift of our love, ourselves, our prayers can be more powerful than simple dollars and cents. Great, give your $10 mill but give of yourself too.

I think what Bill Gates (and Warren Buffet) is doing is wonderful but I know guys who don’t have ten cents to give away and yet are a blessing to their community through the love, encouragement and time they devote to others – a generosity of spirit that is more than a match for a generosity of wealth.

I’m skeptical of this, because I think people who profess to follow this path usually end up indulging themselves materially and making choices to maximize their own gain. Bill and Melinda Gates live in luxury, after all (not that they in particular claim not to). It’s one thing to explicitly profess one’s material goals, but it’s quite another to kid yourself as to what your goals really are. And that’s not even taking into account the distorting effects the pursuit of wealth inevitably has on one’s behavior–you don’t accumulate $10 million with clean hands, or even hands that aren’t more dirty than any of us enjoying the material prosperity of the First World have.