Friend in Need Tells of Tithe That Binds--to the Church

Janie Lear was 14 when she first attended the Yorba Linda Friends Church. Over the years, she considered herself a good Quaker. She enjoyed reading the Bible, trying to figure things out. If the pastor preached something she didn’t understand or agree with, she wasn’t above, as she says, “approaching the pulpit and asking about it.”

One of the things Lear did willingly was tithe. While many among us might spend 10% of our incomes on stereo equipment or the new fall line, giving it to the church is a whole other matter. Lear, on the other hand, thinks the Bible is fairly clear on the subject.

“They don’t make you do it,” she says of the church’s tithing philosophy. “There’s no pledging or anything. It’s just a matter of, a couple times a year they preach that you should tithe if you want God to bless you. They say we should give 10%, and the pastor gives 20% to set an example.”

Two-and-a-half years ago, Lear and her husband of 10 years separated. They had been living in Ventura, but Lear returned to Corona with her four children. She resumed her attendance at the Yorba Linda church and in October of 1995, she says, she resumed tithing.

“I thought I really needed to be blessed, and I tithed faithfully,” she says. “I made sure I gave 10% all the way through until I went on welfare in June of ’96. Once I was on welfare, I just said to myself I can’t do it anymore.”

And that’s where our story line begins heating up.

Still on welfare and facing eviction this week, Lear, now 39, asked the church a few weeks ago to return her tithe from early 1996. Her records indicate the amount comes to $1,800. Lear says she was hoping to use it for first-and-last-month’s rent somewhere. She studied the Bible, she says, and concluded that tithes are supposed to help the needy.

With the wolf at the door, she reasons, who is more needy at this moment than she?

Let’s just say that Janie Lear now feels like a Quaker scorned.

“I went in last week and had a meeting with six people at the church,” Lear says. “They said they were going to run their offer by me and if I wasn’t happy, I could take it to the elders. I told them I wasn’t going to beg. The church is supposed to help people. The guy in charge of the meeting said it doesn’t say in the Bible that they have to give me my tithe back.”

Lear says church officials gave her a coupon worth $350 at a Lucky market. Then, earlier this week, the church sent two men with a Ryder truck to help move her possessions into a storage unit. Church officials also gave her a lengthy list of agencies that help the homeless, Lear says.

When I talked to her Monday evening, she was still mad. “Go out and look at that church parking lot,” she said. “They’ve got Mercedeses, Lexuses, BMWs. They’ve got lots of money. It’s like, wait a minute, help me. Forget I asked for the tithe back. I don’t want a handout. I’m not a beggar here. I have a good idea--I gave you guys $1,800. Why don’t you give it back to me? That would be a really nice thing to do.”

I phoned the Friends church on Tuesday, trying to reach Pastor John Werhas. I couldn’t get through to him, but a secretary returned my call and said church officials thought it would be inappropriate to discuss the situation because it involved a personal issue that they were still working through.

Later in the afternoon, Lear telephoned and said the church had left a message for her with the number of a homeless shelter in Costa Mesa that would house her family for up to five nights. Lear said that isn’t practical, given that her children attend school in Corona.

I don’t know if there’s a right or wrong here. I have a devilish interest in watching what happens when a church is confronted with the challenge of being as generous and selfless as the Bible suggests. In this case, the question, as always, seems to be: Would Jesus give Lear her money back?

To Lear, the answer is obvious. It’s not like she’s a stranger off the street, she says. She’s practically a lifer at the church who, because of unusual circumstances, is seeking an unusual dispensation.

The church’s position--well, who can say for sure since no one would elaborate--presumably is that it extended a helping hand to her but can’t return tithes.

None of this has shaken her personal faith, she says.

“It’s not like I’m saying I don’t believe in God anymore and I want a refund,” she says. “I just told them that I really feel like God wants me to ask you to give me the money back.

“It’s so sad for God,” Lear says. “He laid it out in the Bible, he told us what to do: Be nice, be kind, love. The point isn’t to have a million-dollar budget and build a mega-church with a big sound system. We’re supposed to be going out and showing God’s love. That’s what Jesus said. Love people, then when you go out and show people my love, my generosity, my caring, they’ll know it is me who sent you and they’ll believe.”

Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Readers may reach Parsons by writing to him at the Times Orange County Edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626, or calling (714) 966-7821.