- Jul 5, 2017
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AND, IRS rulings aside, should churches be keeping record of or recognizing individual giving? (No room for this in space allowed for title.)
Allow me to offer three other's comments first:
Considering the admonition from Jesus toward secrecy of giving and the other material above, why pass a plate or post a box in public view or have the treasurer/accountant for the church allocate names to any financial accounting documents regarding any donations viewed by any other except the giver (and IRS, if mandated) or otherwise disclose names of contributors to anyone? In doing so are they not perpetrating a crime/offense against the giver, especially if the giver wants the honorable status of anonymity?
Allow me to offer three other's comments first:
- "Still, it is also possible to have outward works but no inner reality. In this instance, religion is a pretense. Six times in the Sermon on the Mount, alluding to three distinct exercises, Jesus employs the term secret:
- Give “in secret…and your Father who sees in secret will reward you” (Matt. 6:4).
- Pray “in secret…and your Father who sees in secret will reward you” (v. 6).
- Fast “in secret…and your Father who sees in secret will reward you” (v. 18).
- " The Talmud praises a man who gives charity in secret, saying, “A man who gives charity in secret is greater than Moses our Teacher.” The sages taught that giving charity in secret turned away God’s displeasure with a man, as it says in Proverbs 21:14, “A gift in secret subdues anger.” and " Yeshua told His disciples to do their giving in secret so that they will receive a reward from their Father in heaven:..." from: Giving in Secret and,
- " But as followers of Jesus, we must do our best to remember the real reason we should be generous. Our giving should come not from a desire for human affirmation, but rather it should come from us wanting to honor our Heavenly Father. And one way we can honor Him is to emulate His character." " As His followers, we should be striving to give as He did — out of love, not out of our want for recognition." Giving In Secret - Higher Aim
Considering the admonition from Jesus toward secrecy of giving and the other material above, why pass a plate or post a box in public view or have the treasurer/accountant for the church allocate names to any financial accounting documents regarding any donations viewed by any other except the giver (and IRS, if mandated) or otherwise disclose names of contributors to anyone? In doing so are they not perpetrating a crime/offense against the giver, especially if the giver wants the honorable status of anonymity?