Is the tithe too much in tight times?

Can you put a price on faith?

That is the question many churchgoers are asking as the tradition of tithing -- giving 10 percent of your pay to the church -- is increasingly challenged.

Opponents of tithing say it is a misreading of the Bible and is a practice created by man, not God. They say they should be free to donate whatever they choose. Some are debating the issue with church leaders and quitting congregations in protest.

In response, some pastors are rejecting what has been a favored form of fundraising for decades.

Yet some churches are stepping up efforts to encourage tithing. Some are setting up "giving kiosks" that allow congregants to donate using debit cards at church. Others offer financial seminars on how people in debt can continue tithing while paying off their loans. Media-savvy pastors such as Ed Young in Grapevine, Texas, sell tithing sermons online.

And in a shift, more Catholic parishes are asking churchgoers to tithe, says Paul Forbes, administrator of McKenna Stewardship Ministry, a nonprofit that says it has encouraged more than 500 parishes to tithe in the last decade. Popes haven't requested tithes in recent decades.

Church leaders say tithing isn't just a theological issue, but a financial one. Americans gave an estimated $97 billion to congregations in 2006, almost a third of the country's $295 billion in charitable donations, according to Giving USA Foundation, a nonprofit educational group in Glenview.

But giving to religion is growing more slowly than other types of giving, says Patrick Rooney, research director at Indiana University's. Center on Philanthropy. That's partly because people are attending church less frequently, he said, and are giving to a wider array of causes, including secular ones.

That worries some church leaders. "If everyone gives 2 percent of their income because that's what they feel like giving, you aren't going to have money to pay the light bill and keep the doors open," says Duane Rice, an official with Evangelical Friends International, which believes tithing is required by the Bible.

Tithing has its roots in the Biblical tale of Abraham presenting a tenth of the war spoils to Melchizedek, the king of Salem. In the Old Testament, Jews gave up 10 percent of their harvest for the needy or to store in case of famine.

Tithing is "the best financial discipline I know," says Terry Parsons, stewardship officer for the Episcopal Church.

Other faiths also urge followers to donate. Muslims are obligated to give a zakat to charity, usually 2.5 percent of the market value of a believer's assets each year. Most Jewish synagogues request an annual membership fee, often based on income.

Tithing ranges from a requirement to a suggestion.

Mormons must give 10 percent or risk being kept out of temples where ceremonies take place.

Some evangelical Protestant churches require new members to sign covenants, promising to tithe or give generously.

The tithe has been the Episcopal Church's "minimum standard" since 1982, although the average annual gift from its 2.3 million members in 2006 reached only $1,718, less than the 10 percent requirement, according to its own figures.

For Judy Willingham, of San Antonio, 12 years of tithing ended earlier this year. She says she gave a tenth of her pay to Cornerstone Church because the pastor, the Rev. John C. Hagee, teaches, "If you obey God and you tithe, God will return it to you 30-, 60-, 100-fold."

Willingham, who makes $26,000 a year as an administrative assistant, says she started to research the practice, reading criticism online and studying the Bible, and concluded she'd been "guilted into tithing." She quit the church and hasn't found another one.

Steve Sorensen, pastoral ministries director at Cornerstone, says the church requires its paid and volunteer leaders to tithe, and teaches new members to do so, although it doesn't make them show proof of income. "When you tithe, God makes promises to us, that he … is not going to let anything bad or destructive come about," he said. The Lord "is not obligated to do those things" for those who don't, he said.

Resistance to tithing has been increasing steadily in recent years, as more churchgoers question the way churches spend money. In some cases, the growth of megachurches, some with expensive worship centers equipped with coffee bars and widescreen TVs, have turned people off to tithing. And those who object are finding like-minded souls in theological forums on the Web.

Some churchgoers also balk at the idea that a certain amount of money will ensure salvation.

They see tithing and say, "No, that's not the way God works," says James Hudnut-Beumler, dean of Vanderbilt University's divinity school and author of "In Pursuit of the Almighty's Dollar," a history of Protestant fundraising.

John Magrino, a New Jersey lawyer, says he donated weekly at his Catholic church, but tithing was a different story. "It's my money to do with what I want," says Magrino, a 39-year-old father of two. He says he felt guilty when his pastor started giving sermons about tithing and putting reminders in the church bulletin.

"That was the message I got from tithing," Magrino said. "Make it hurt ... if it hurts, then you get the spiritual renewal."

The Rev. Joseph Giandurco, now the pastor at Magrino's church, says he doesn't ask for tithes, partly because he sensed his congregants disliked it.

Some Baptist churches are trying to encourage tithing by accepting credit-card payments and automatic deductions from checking accounts. Two years ago, the Rev. Marty Baker, pastor of Stevens Creek Church in Augusta, Ga., created a "giving kiosk" machine that allows donations at church using bank cards. He and his wife launched SecureGive, a for-profit company that has placed 50 kiosks in churches.

In Gainesville, Ga., Crown Financial Ministries offers training to people who then teach churchgoers around the country about how they can save, budget and get out of debt -- while still giving 10 percent to the church. "When they obey his word, that is to give, God creates opportunities supernaturally for them to save more and spend less," says the Rev. Rob Peters.

When he objected to his church's instructions to tithe, Kirk Cesaretti took it up with church leaders. In response, he received a letter from the pastor and elders of Hydesville Community Church in Hydesville, Calif. "At this time, we believe your concerns do not warrant any change in our church policy or positions," the letter read.

The letter closed with a verse from Hebrews 13:17: "Obey your leaders, and submit to them; for they keep watch over your souls; as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you."

Cesaretti, an engineer in Fortuna, Calif., says he took the letter to mean he was no longer welcome at the church.

The anti-tithing movement has found support in some unlikely places: theologically conservative divinity schools and church pulpits.

At Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C., professor Andreas Kostenberger challenges tithing in classes on the New Testament. He teaches that if you add up all taxes paid by the ancient Israelites, they exceed 10 percent, and that in the New Testament there's no percentage rule.

Kostenberger says pastors perpetuate the 10 percent figure out of "pragmatism, tradition and ignorance."

After 25 years leading Union Missionary Baptist Church in Chesapeake, Ohio, the Rev. Bob Barbour stopped preaching about tithing a few years ago. He now promotes "grace giving" -- a voluntary, unspecified amount -- because, he says, it squares better with Scripture. The church still receives enough to cover expenses, he says.