On Wednesday Night, November 14^th,  we will have a discussion about whether or not our church should accept tithes from Lottery winnings. I’ve had several requests for this topic – I assume it is because there have recently been a few Lottery jackpots that amounted to more than $1 Billion.

According to news reports, someone in South Carolina won the $1.5 billion Mega Millions jackpot on October 23, 2018. As I understand the Lottery, a winner could take a lump sum payment of their winnings – but instead of $1.5 billion, they would only receive $877 million. After Federal, State, and Local taxes, their prize would be reduced to only $491 million.

Now, let’s suppose someone in our church family won a similar jackpot. Next, let’s suppose this generous soul chose to pay the tithe on their income. His or her next decision would be to decide whether to tithe on the gross income or the net income. The tithe on the gross would be $87.7 million. The tithe on the net would be $49.1 million. Even a tithe on the net would be more than enough to pay the operating budget of our church for the next 50 years!

So far, we’ve only looked at the financial aspect of this situation. But as a Christian church, we also have to look at ethics. Should a Christian church accept tithes and offerings from gambling? What do you think?

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