# Tithe to stay alive - God saves driver **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 16, 2008, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tithe-to-stay-alive-god-saves-driver/456660 "2008-07-16T07:44:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DangleYourModifier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@DangleYourModifier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DangleYourModifier)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2008, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tithe-to-stay-alive-god-saves-driver/456660/1 "2008-07-16T07:44:19Z")
[Story here](http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=nw20080716081936366C843009) This has been on the radio the whole morning. Yesterday there was a massive accident on one of our roads. A runaway truck hit 25 cars and one specific car got stuck under the truck and got smashed but the driver escaped unscathed. The big story is he cancelled his life insurance policy a few days earlier because he was feeling bad that he wasn’t tithing. He cancelled his policy to pay the money to the church. According to him God saved his life and he is eternally grateful for having done his Christian duty to tithe. The Hand of God or Blind Luck - you decide. BTW his name is Absolom. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Scrappy\_Hero\_Pup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ea5d25/32.png) [@Happy\_Scrappy\_Hero\_Pup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Scrappy_Hero_Pup)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2008, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tithe-to-stay-alive-god-saves-driver/456660/2 "2008-07-16T12:40:32Z")
Say hallelujah! Say AMEN! Say… that’s pretty damn dumb, faith in the Lord notwithstanding. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2008, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tithe-to-stay-alive-god-saves-driver/456660/3 "2008-07-16T12:52:39Z")
My mom forwarded an email to me the other day about people that died after saying something disrespectful about religion (one was John Lennon). At the end, it had the usual “forward to however many people and your wish will come true”. I think that guy would have really dug it. I found it deeply confusing and disturbing, myself. No matter how I interpret it, it seems quite mean-spirited (and okay, crazy). Mom will not discuss it with me. ---
**Author:** ![phouka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c5a1d2/32.png) [@phouka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phouka)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2008, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tithe-to-stay-alive-god-saves-driver/456660/4 "2008-07-16T13:34:31Z")
So . . . God’s an extortionist? “Givest thou ten percent of thy paycheck to the church thou attendest, or I shall squash thy ass in a motor vehicle accident.” ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2008, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tithe-to-stay-alive-god-saves-driver/456660/5 "2008-07-16T13:40:21Z")
Here’s what I don’t get: AIUI, a proper tithe is 10% of your salary… just how much life insurance was this guy carrying?? ---
**Author:** ![Amp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Amp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amp)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2008, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tithe-to-stay-alive-god-saves-driver/456660/6 "2008-07-16T13:46:30Z")
Yeah but if it really was the divine hand of God wouldn’t he have caused the accident not to happen in the first place? ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2008, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tithe-to-stay-alive-god-saves-driver/456660/7 "2008-07-16T13:59:29Z")
[QUOTE=Amp] Yeah but if it really was the divine hand of God wouldn’t he have caused the accident not to happen in the first place? [/QUOTE] Hope the guy didn’t cancel his auto insurance too… ---
**Author:** ![Nanoda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Nanoda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nanoda)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2008, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tithe-to-stay-alive-god-saves-driver/456660/8 "2008-07-16T14:08:21Z")
> [@Mr Absolom](#): > > “When the truck started pushing my car towards this lane (the fast lane) and it started crumpling, I just had this urge to say ‘Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!’.” Not so outrageous. Bet I’d have been saying that too. ---
**Author:** ![KGS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/90ced4/32.png) [@KGS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KGS)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2008, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tithe-to-stay-alive-god-saves-driver/456660/9 "2008-07-16T14:10:27Z")
Sounds to me more like God is saying, **"Reinstate your life insurance, you stupid fuck!"** It’s bewildering to me how people can believe in a God who does malicious and capricious things like that, just because he’s God and can fuck with people at will. If that type of God really existed, I would reject Him on plain principle. ---
**Author:** ![WolfpackJeep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpackjeep/32/2921_2.png) [@WolfpackJeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WolfpackJeep)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2008, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tithe-to-stay-alive-god-saves-driver/456660/10 "2008-07-16T16:30:19Z")
I once encountered a LiveJournal discussion group where the topic turned to various people’s illnesses. One was a lady who had started experiencing migraine headaches; her response to this was “Why me??? I’m a good Christian, this shouldn’t be happening!!” :rolleyes: I give money to various wildlife/animal groups rather than to a church. Is this why birds always #2 on my vehicle’s windows rather than the paint? ---
**Author:** ![DangleYourModifier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@DangleYourModifier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DangleYourModifier)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2008, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tithe-to-stay-alive-god-saves-driver/456660/11 "2008-07-16T16:35:01Z")
[QUOTE=Really Not All That Bright] Here’s what I don’t get: AIUI, a proper tithe is 10% of your salary… just how much life insurance was this guy carrying?? [/QUOTE] Hey, life insurance here is expensive. Its either because lives are expensive or lives are cheap. I’m not sure which. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2008, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tithe-to-stay-alive-god-saves-driver/456660/12 "2008-07-16T17:58:37Z")
[QUOTE=Jeep’s Phoenix] I once encountered a LiveJournal discussion group where the topic turned to various people’s illnesses. One was a lady who had started experiencing migraine headaches; her response to this was “Why me??? I’m a good Christian, this shouldn’t be happening!!” :rolleyes: [/QUOTE] I’ve mentioned this before. I participate in some adoption related groups. Adoption is an expensive thing. We had one woman who told this story (or something like it). “I didn’t know how I’d pay for our adoption. So I prayed to Jesus. And I remembered that my husband had a motorcycle in the garage. So I made him sell it. And I prayed some more. And I had mentioned to a neighbor we were adopting and how expensive it was, and she offered me $200 a week to watch her kids. And I prayed some more. And I put some old stuff up on eBay and it sold. Every time I prayed, I figured out a new way to pay for our adoption.” I responded something to the effect of “I’m a deist married to an atheist. We weren’t sure how we were going to pay for our adoption. Then a relative my husband had met twice died and left us a lot of money in her will - more than enough to pay for the adoption.” (True, by the way). Seems like if her God was answering her prayers, he took a detour to drop money from the sky into my lap and was making her work darn hard for hers.