Dave Ramsey says that pastors should be preaching more about the realities of debt and budgeting than tithing for those who are in debt.
In an interview with Baptist Press (BP), the Financial Freedom University creator stressed that he loves pastors, but there was one thing he wishes they would quit doing. That's preaching on tithing to "broke people."
"Unless," he said in his interview with BP, "you've done two sermons on ... debt -- one on getting out of debt and one on getting on a budget."
"That's the ratio for me instead of just tithe, tithe, tithe," he said.
Ramsey says that people need to hear those sermons first, otherwise their reaction to a sermon about tithing is often "yeah right, I've got a light bill. That's a great spiritual concept. Maybe someday I'll get around to that.'"
The reasoning being that the sooner people are out of debt the more generous they'll be, according to Ramsey. "Because if you're out of debt and on a budget and you love Jesus, I think tithing is a natural thing that occurs."
