In the OT the tithe was the ONLY tax!

If we had the option of giving time instead of $ would the church accept it?

Despite being in a salaried post I am just keeping my bank balance in the black. Utility bills, insurance and government taxes are going up all the time. In the UK we work for the Government from 1 January until 1st June. Only after that do we start to earn for ourselves (http://www.adamsmith.org/tax/Tax%20Freedom%20Day/History.html)

Does this seem right to you?

Paul was a tent-maker/preacher who I don't believe ever charged expenses.

What running costs did the primitive church have? Looking after the orphans and widows - have we not handed that over to the state?

In my experience most churches are seeking government handouts to take back some of this work! To "qualify" for charitable status we need a social outreach programme.

Tithing is Old Covenant. As a NT believer I am responsible for how I spend all 100% of my salary NOT 10%.

"There is also a secret lurking in this quadrant of the family tree. John Henderson Souter's father-in-law - another great-grandfather of Brown's - appears to be the illegitimate, son of Alexander James Mason, an English surgeon practising in Scotland in the 1840s and 1850s.

Despite all the column inches devoted in the press to Gordon Brown's Scottish ancestry, there is at least a small percentage of English blood flowing through his veins."