Tithing is an ancient tradition (it even predates the Israelite practice). Yet in the earliest biblical sources, it appears to have been a voluntary practice rather than a religious mandate or expectation.

The Hebrew Bible is a collection of texts that stem from over a thousand year period. As expected, therefore, we don't find any consistency between the diverse sources that address the practice. My personal favorite tithing mandate stems from Deuteronomy, which does, in fact...

present tithing as a religious obligation for the people. Deuteronomy 14:22-23 instructs the people to tithe seed, grain, wine, oil, and firstlings of herds and flocks. Then the farmer himself consumes the tithe in the temple as a sacrificial meal with his extended family.

He is also expected to invite a Levite from his family’s hometown since the Levities did not possess land and could not therefore produce their own tithe (Deut. 14:27). Each family was expected to eat their own tithes as a sacrificial meal for two consecutive years.

On the third year, the tithe was to be kept within the farmer’s own town and given directly to the Levite, the sojourner, the orphan, and the widow since they did not possess land. This is obviously very different than a church collecting funds in order to produce investments...

build shopping malls, and increase their wealth. In fact, turning to the New Testament, we find the story of the widow’s mite juxtaposed between Jesus’ condemnation of the religious authorities for taking money from the poor as tithes and offerings.

Contextually, Jesus wasn’t praising her faith. He was condemning the religious authorities for taking her very last cent. The message seems to be that religious Religious institutions shouldn't be taking money from the poor. They should be using their resources to help them.

Hence, stories of poor families choosing to use their last financial resources to pay the Church tithe rather than feed their children are the very antithesis of Jesus' New Testament teachings.

In fact, it’s really hard to justify most contemporary tithing practices with Jesus’ views regarding the use of wealth, especially in texts such as Luke 12:16-21:
"And [Jesus] told them this parable: The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest.

"He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, 'You have plenty of grain laid up for many years.

Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”

Jesus’ message was that if we invest our money to make more wealth, to build malls, and cattle ranches, and finance oil companies rather than use those resources for the poor and needy we cannot be part of his vision of God's Kingdom. Churches should not tithe the poor.