“Robbing From God”: A Portmore Bishop Says Tithes Come From Gross Pay, and Missed Ones Should Be Doubled

• Bishop Karen Reid Hyman leads Devine Signs and Wonder Ministries in Portmore
• She said Christians must give 10 per cent of gross, not net, earnings
• She said missed tithes should be doubled in the next payment
• She said tithes pay for church operations and pastors

A Portmore church leader has set out a strict view of tithing. The Gleaner reported that Apostle Bishop Karen Reid Hyman of Devine Signs and Wonder Ministries Church in Portmore, St Catherine, said every Christian is required to give a tenth of their income to the church.

“It does line up with the word of God that every Christian should give 10 per cent of their earnings,” she said. She cited Leviticus 27:30-33 and passages in Malachi, and traced the practice to the Mosaic law.

Bishop Reid Hyman said the tithe should be calculated on gross earnings rather than take-home pay. She also said that when a tithe is missed it should be doubled in the next payment, so that the giver avoids “robbing from God”. Tithes, she said, are necessary for the running of the church and to pay pastors, and she described opposition to tithing as being “of the flesh” rather than grounded in scripture.

Her position sits at one end of a long-running debate in Jamaican churches. Other church leaders and columnists have argued that giving should be cheerful and voluntary, and that the New Testament does not fix a percentage.

The practical stakes are real. Ten per cent of gross pay is a larger share of what arrives in the bank after tax, NHT and pension deductions, and a doubled payment after a hard month can push a family behind on rent or a mortgage. Jamaican Christians trying to buy a home, and returning residents on fixed pensions, may want to talk honestly with their church about giving that is generous but sustainable, so faithfulness in the pew does not mean arrears at home.