And this question has a very different answer.
First of all, in the old days, very ancient time, all the old religions, they used to have this commitment.
But not to the church. One of the oldest religions in India, is Jain. J-A-I-N.
And they used to have different commitment that all these, their community, society, they stayed rich all the time.
So they have very different commitment to eachother. And the commitment was: if somebody lost his business or went bankrupt, so the whole community wanted to help that family.
So they used to give $1 and 1 brick to the person. If there were 10,000 houses, 10,000 families, so person will get right away $10,000 plus 10,000 bricks.
So he can have a little house and he can have $10,000 to start business.
That was commitment and that's why no wonder still Jains are considered very rich in India.
The richest community. Now they don't have that commitment.
I have no idea how the churches got this idea, 10%.
But this 10% has nothing to do with community.
It has something to do with 'by the name of God'.
To ask 10% by the name of God is the wrong thing to do.
Because God doesn't require money.
First of all, God is not a person, and God is not punishing you if you don't give 10% to the church.
God never punishes anyone.
In God's eyes, if there is a God, such a God what they believe, the churches believe, in that God's eyes we are all children.
If we are all children, why the God will punish his own children?
That doesn't make sense. If somebody doesn't go to the church, it doesn't have to go to Hell, that person.
No. That is wrong preaching. Commitment 10% to the church is wrong preaching.
It means church wants to be richest.
And no wonder the churches are very rich.
Whoever, whatever kind of church requires 10% income - they went too far.
Nobody, the member of the church cannot hide their own income.
They require their IRS papers. They went 2 steps ahead. Why they need their IRS papers?
If a member is not providing 10%, they want to see IRS papers.
Income tax. So it means churches are very greedy. Those churches especially.
I think the commitment to the church, if somebody goes, if somebody learns from the church, no matter if it is religious teachings...
It may be good things. It is, they can give whatever they want. They can 1% or they can give $1. They can give 1 penny.
It counts the same thing. As long as somebody doesn't give by force. If somebody has pressure, "Oh, I have to give 10%"...
That money doesn't bring you good karma, good fruit.
So if you give by heart even 1 penny, that has meaning. And that brings you a lot of good karma.
I think it is when church gets too greedy, it brings a lot of defaults.
Many things happen. And they have lawsuits. When they have lawsuits, church has to pay money back to the lawsuits.
Now it is a settlement, one scandal is going on. They have to pay 100s of millions of dollars to the lawsuit.
To settle down that lawsuit. So I think the money which is drawn by force from the people to the church is the wrong money.
It doesn't flourish. That church is never going to flourish.
Let the people go by heart whatever they want. If they want to give 20%, that is fine because that is their heart.
Heart-given things flourish. And it makes more sense.
The more the people get greedy, or the church gets greedy, that money is not worthy. It doesn't serve the community.