Letters
Debiting and Tithing
Re: How to Rise Above the Economic
Crisis (Mar/Apr 2009)
I do not agree with tithing by using automatic debits. I am a grandparent who delights with my wife in giving gifts to our
children and grandchildren
on special occasions. Since the
family does not live nearby, we
often send a carefully chosen
card together with a monetary
gif and, in return, we receive
a written thank-you. This exchange represents a loving and
a very tangible interaction.
What a blessing we would
miss if we were simply to give
each one a debit card and tell
them to deduct a specific amount from our
bank account on those gift-exchanging
occasions. What a poor and meaningless
substitute that would be! Both we and
they would miss out on the real meaning
of giving and receiving.
It does not seem right to relegate my
love offering to the Lord to the same level
as the payment of a routine bill.
ALAN LAMBERT
Brossard, Que.
I’m concerned that your article, which
included some helpful suggestions, may
also cause unnecessary feelings of guilt
for some readers.
There are some Christians who are in
no position to give 10 per cent of their income away without seriously damaging
their family. Others can give much more.
When the Old Covenant was ended, that
included the tithing system. The New
Covenant teachings on generosity are
even more demanding for most of us and
more compassionate for all of us.
GRANT CORRIVEAU
Nanaimo, B.C.
Evangelism Is Prevention
Re: Churches Rethink Their Global Mission (Mar/Apr 2009)
Millions of people around the world are
in desperate need. I have seen it myself
as I have worked several decades in an
orphanage in Cuba and in literature production and church planting in Venezuela. Our children and grandchildren
have also gone on many short-term missionary work projects.
Often those whom
Christians seek to help
are so needy because they
have engaged in harmful,
non-Christian activities
such as fighting, drug
abuse or illicit sex.
My prayer is that
we, as a Bible-believing
community, will remember how to prevent
as well as trying to cure
their ills. Maybe we should let secular
agencies dig most of the wells to provide
clean water while we share the good news
of salvation as our main thrust.
The Bible still tells us that all men and
women are sinners and that we all reap
what we sow. I wonder if we are forgetting
that, in part, as we spend so much time
helping only the physical needs. I don’t
criticize short-term missions but maybe
we should put more spiritual emphasis
into them – especially when going to lands
that permit evangelism.
GLENN FINCH
Lacombe, Alta.
B.C. Mission Boats
Re: Kingdom Matters (Mar/Apr 2009)
Your article rang a ship’s bell for this
Navy veteran.
Nearly a century ago, my father, William Arthur Fuller, pioneered all along the
Inward Passage off the British Columbia
coast, visiting the shantymen (as lumberjacks in makeshift shanties called themselves) with friendship and the gospel.
My father and mother, with my eldest
sister, lived on the Messenger II (
Messenger I was shipwrecked). They tied up
at Vananda on Texada Island (north of
Vancouver Island) while my mother gave
birth to their second child.
William Henderson, founder of the
Shantyman’s Christian Association, appointed my father as his successor and our
family took up residence in Victoria. A more
recent retired SCA leader, Arthur Dixon,
currently lives in the Toronto area.
So we were blessed to read of ongoing
ministries to isolated and spiritually needy
settlements along Canada’s West Coast.
It’s a Canadian mission field! Thanks for
encouraging prayer on its behalf.
W. HAROLD FULLER
Stouffville, Ont.
Ethics Not Complicated
Re: Ask a Theologian (Mar/Apr 2009)
I was saddened to read another subjectivist
and postmodern interpretation of biblical
ethics. Yes, I agree that sometimes a “gap
seems to exist between the commandments
we find in the Bible and the complicated
world in which we live.” But how big is
this gap? How often are we faced with a
conflict of moral principles where we have
“to choose the lesser of two evils?” In fact
this occurs rather seldom. Most of the time,
maybe even 95 per cent of the time, the
Bible gives clear guidance in distinguishing
wrong from right, even for today’s complex world. Again and again the prophets,
Jesus, John, Peter and Paul tell us that fornication, greed, envy, drunkenness and a
quarrelling spirit are just plain wrong. And
they also declare that actions and character
traits such as being humble, kind, generous
and self-controlled are just plain right.
To begin an essay on biblical ethics
by calling into question our longing for
“a black and white set of guidelines” is
seriously misleading. To repeatedly remind readers that the Bible is not primarily about giving us “static (or unchanging)
formulas” or “mere principles for living”
is to distort biblical ethics. It is to give way
to the pervasive relativism that exists in our
world today, to exaggerate the complexity
of the contemporary world. To cite Bonhoeffer as exemplary in struggling to discern
God’s will in a complex situation is to beg
the question. Maybe Bonhoeffer should
have listened more carefully to Jesus’ plain
teaching in the Sermon on the Mount that
