What is your opinion on churches asking for an offering from their members?

I feel the offering should be voluntary and optional. If a person chooses to give then they can.

It's not something that should be forced off someone. I give money to orphanages on my own will. I wouldn't give someone claimed to be from an orphanage asking for money because I'd belive it to be a scam of some sort.

I can understand churches needing to pay rent, utilities, etc... But there are a few problems.

One: A religion does not need a building or even a leader to function.

Second: Churches should already be able to stay afloat just on tax exemption alone. Yet they not only have more than enough to pay their bills, they ask for more on top of that. And they have done that throughout history. Making churches the most profitable business in history other than drug cartels.

Third: When they collect for "charity" that money almost always goes directly into their own pockets. With some churches themselves reporting that over three quarters of charity money goes into administration and overhead.

So for most churches, it's really just a way to scam people and pay church leaders who have no real skills other than thievery.

They don't always limit themselve to scrounging off their members. In many cases they try to scrounge off the general public and try to get the taxpayers to fund their projects. I've [b]never[/b] had requests for donations from the local Mosque or Gurdwara but we seem to get them every few weeks from local christian churches. Of course, they don't have many members, just a few old women who probably aren't all that affluent.

It is strange, though, that their "omnipotent, omniscient god", capable of constructing an entire universe in less than a week, is unable to maintain its own house. 🤔

Grift!

I have no problem with giving, but I don't like them recording who gives what and reporting it to the government.
It's supposed to be between you (me) and God.

It's the tithe I thought all Christians paid it is until I got married and my wife told me many didn't

That's common. You don't have to. They all collect/ask for donations to stay afloat.

That's like charging membership. I know of a local church that actually does that

The only church I'm aware of that consistently puts pressure on its membership for offerings is the Mormon church