[MalcolmS]

But what some people don't know is that the tithe wasn't collected every year. It was collected for the temple every third year, other two years you were to save it up so you could afford to go to jerusalem and attend the 3 annual feasts which required temple attendance and have enough money to help the local levites and the poor in your area to go with you.

I pointed this passage out to a pastor once. He wasn't impressed. If one wanted to be literal, one could argue that since the original poster (presumably) celebrates Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter, that covers the feasts. Your taxes fund welfare which takes care of the poor. If you give 3-4% of gross to your church, that should cover the rest.

On the other hand

Luke 6 38
Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."

So the question you might want to ask is, how much do you want to get back?

[Tamar1973]

I pointed this passage out to a pastor once. He wasn't impressed.

Of course he wasn't. Even pastors succumb to greed sometimes. On top of that, they have replace the biblical feasts (passover, etc.) w/ paganized x-ian feasts like Easter/Ishtar and Christmas/Mirthra day so it's not surprising they would make up their own interpretation of HaShem's word about the tithe as well.