The Jamaica Star :: News :: EXTORTION IN THE CHURCH?

A ST Thomas pastor has published a newspaper advertisement claiming that pastors who collect tithes from their members are extorting them.

Pastor I.C.G. Campbell published an ad in June 8 Sunday Gleaner, claiming he was inspired by the Lord to tell the people to stop tithing. When THE STAR contacted him yesterday regarding the advertisement he said, "Many pastors will be packing up in hell because of money."

He said pastors who collected tithes were demanding something that was not theirs and this he said amounted to extortion. Campbell also claimed that tithing was a feature of the Old Testament and that God no longer saw the need for the practice to continue. "God has redundant all the high priests and he has become the high priest," he said.

Campbell said that pastors who get paid from tithes should find alternative methods of payment. He suggested that they have faith in God to provide alternative financing to meet their needs.

Alternative means

The pastor of the Church of God in Christ in St Thomas said churches should find alternative means to pay their pastors. He pointed to his situation as proof that they can survive without it. Campbell said he has been in full-time ministry for several years and has survived and taken care of his family without collecting tithes.

However, not all pastors agree. The Reverend Nailia Ricketts, president of Prayer 2000, who has researched tithing, said it is not wrong. "Tithing is not fleecing," he insisted.

Paying pastors

Ricketts said it is not paid to the pastor but to the church. He adds that the church usually has an organised body to manage the money and that nothing was wrong with paying pastors from the money. He noted, however, that if a pastor had alternative sources of income he could choose not to accept tithes and allow that money to be used elsewhere.

Pastor David Chang of the Majesty Covenant Community Church said his church believes in tithing, although it is not something he forces upon his members. "In our church, we use it to invest in people's lives," he said.

He added that he does not get paid from tithes but he does not see anything wrong with it.

Reverend Dr Paul Gardener of the Moravian Church in Jamaica said Campbell's theories were flawed and that tithing was one way for church members to contribute to the church ministries. He, too, agreed that tithing was not something given to the pastors and was controlled by an organised body.