As one of the likely-not-so-common-among-mojo-readers politically moderate devout christians, I would like to amend the "many churches recommend tithing 10 percent" to "JESUS recommends tithing 10 percent ... and more."

Tithing is actually considered more of an old-testament practice, as Christ called us to give what we could, referring them to "tithes and offerings," the implications being that tithes were not a recommendation, but a requirement and that offerings should be made above and beyond them.

Conservative Bible believing churches (The kinds that teach evolution, oppose abortion and stem-cell research, and generally espouse a 'culture of life') teach that faithful Christians tithe, that is give 10% TO THE CHURCH, and then on top of that, to give to charities. Too bad Sarah Palin only follows some of the teachings of her church.

these records contradict earlier released March 14, 2008 AK Financial Disclosures in which Sarah Palin disclosed that she received $125,000 salary as gov. and hubby Todd received $46,790.96 from BP for part time employment (1109.12 hours) and an additional $46,269.00 Todd received for his Seasonal fishing business (6/07 to 7/07)
this does not even mention the snow mobiling, the thousands of dollars in gifts the gov received, or the $1,654 each man, woman & child in AK received
where I come from that equals an income much larger than that which the "reformer govenor" has declared on her income tax. btw, the financial disclosure was certified under "penalty of perjury"!!! now we know why she refused to turn over her records don't we?????

now we shall await the medical records and those lies

In the time y'all spent to come on here and make pithy comments about someone else's charitable giving, you could have been working at McDonald's for extra money to send to the poor.

Which leads me to believe that you care not one whit about the needs of any poor people - you care more that you can feed your own overstuffed sense of moral uprightness.

Which, funnily enough, is a characteristic you usually attribute - as a negative thing - to Palin's circle of friends.

(Who WAS that masked middle-eastern guy who kept talking about throwing stones, and being without sin, and all?)

I hope Bobby B doesn't think my comments are pithy but thoughtful, which is their intent.
With four kids at home, the Palins may not have had a lot of discretionary income to spare.
The Palins may be more inclined to donate their time which is not shown on a return. Though, if not, much could be done by Todd were he not sitting in on meetings in the governor's office as has been reported.
The rebate may not be taxable by fed. A call to AK dept of tax and finance might help to answer that question. But it should be reported and adjusted if that is the case and if you want to be transparent and show the $8400 received ($1200 per family member.) It's a bad thing when an elected official is thought to be cheating on their taxes. Mr. Rangel of NY can attest to that.
And finally, they may have previously reported gross income on Mr. Palin's fishing business. After expenses, the net may have been $0 though I would wonder if there is no Sch C attached to their return which is where a small business's income or loss would be reported. That might be the real question to ask.

The old testament had priests who's jobs was to do the blood sacrifices for sins deal. Jesus was the last sacrifice, with the new testament, so priests were basically out of a job. And with the end of their job, came the end of tithes. (Amen to that!)

Except those tithes were too attractive so they just conveniently kept them.

See book of Hebrews, especially 7-9. It's in plain english for anyone to read.

The old testament had priests who's jobs was to do the blood sacrifices for sins deal. Jesus was the last sacrifice, with the new testament, so priests were basically out of a job. And with the end of their job, came the end of tithes. (Amen to that!)

Except those tithes were too attractive so they just conveniently kept them.

See book of Hebrews, especially 7-9. It's in plain english for anyone to read.

Really Jane? So Jesus forgot about this when he said "Render unto Ceasar what is Ceasar's and unto the Lord what belongs to the Lord"

The function of the tithe in the modern church is to provide the pastor with living expenses and to allow for ministry to church members in need. Yes there are disgusting churches who misuse their tithe money, but that is not the usual situation. If Palin were looking for a leadership role in the church, her tithing record would be called into question, I don't see why you could think that leading the country should demand less stringent attention.

By your argument that Jesus freed us of these requirements, you may as well excuse us from any of the rest of the Lord's commands because Jesus is going to forgive us anyway.

Also, while I'm imperfectly quoting the Bible at you (give me a break, it's been 6 years since I gave up on Biblical Study) how about "The King will answer and say to them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.'" Matt 25:40

Oh, ps - since I found a Bible search site, Luke 20:25 was what I was trying to quote originally:

And He said to them, "Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's."

Mr. Hush, I really don't think that Jesus was talking specifically about money and tithing to the church. What does God need with money and material possessions? He was refering to the fact that the Pharisees were trying to trick him into going against Caesar, into saying that the people should not pay their taxes so they could have cause for putting him to death.

I do not recall anything where Jesus says specifically to tithe to the church. He does say in Luke; "Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me."

He instructs us to give to the poor, not to the church.

Either way the point of this article is that Palin promotes herself as a "Christian" and yet doesn't seem to follow a lot of the tennets, which a lot of people do as well. She has lied repeatedly and tried to manipulate the public with her winking and good ole boy routine when a lot of us can see through the "aw shucks" and "darn its" as a political ploy. I know that I don't know her personally, but that is the feeling I get when I watch her on the air.