Is there a backlash against tithing? The Wall Street Journal recently reported on that, chronicling members rebelling against the idea and leaders teaching that instead of a set 10 percent, the Bible emphasizes generous giving.

After researching the topic, one woman who earns $26,000 as an administrative assistant concluded she had been "guilted" into giving and stopped going to church altogether.

One critic of the practice, a seminary professor, told the Journal pastors perpetuated the 10 percent figure out of "pragmatism, tradition and ignorance."

While there may be criticism of tithing, I have a feeling that it stems from a desire to throw the legalistic baby out with the generous bathwater.

In other words, those who teach tithing as an ironclad law reap the fruits of rebellion against something that wasn’t meant to be a barometer of our spirituality or salvation. Generous giving is a spiritual principle, not a Pharasitical law intent on binding people’s hearts.

After all, points out financial author and pastor Brian Kluth—whose materials are distributed in more than 100 nations—the idea of tithing to God’s work is accepted historically, across denominations, and around the world.

Perhaps a simple practice he has observed in India explains the idea best. There, church members are taught if they cook rice for dinner, to set aside a handful as God’s. Then they take that rice to church and give it to help feed the pastor’s family.

"I don’t use the word ‘tithe’ very often because it really does trip people up," Kluth says. "You can get into these legalistic or theological debates."

During a recent sermon series on giving, Kluth enlisted congregational members to talk about how the practice of tithing worked in their lives.

One 35-year-old woman told of her family’s inability to pay its bills and always running out of money before the end of the month. Since they started tithing, they’ve never come up short.

Asking people to share their experiences can provide a life-to-life perspective that becomes a positive reinforcement, Kluth says.

"It moves away from a legalistic approach, or the budget approach (i.e., ‘the budget needs it’)," Kluth says. "I try to make it an issue of spiritual formation, or spiritual transformation."

The president of the Christian Stewardship Association agrees that tithing can become a legalistic, "one size fits all" approach when God is more concerned with the condition of our hearts.

In reality, 10 percent to a low, hourly-wage worker is a huge amount of money while for someone earning $500,000 the same proportion would hardly be missed, says Scott Rodin, president of Rodin Consulting.

"To whom more is given more is expected," Rodin says. "We would expect you to live on an amount you need to live a simple, godly lifestyle. Whatever else God blesses you with, you’re able to free up resources to give away."

That said, Rodin calls the idea of setting aside a portion of one’s earnings for God’s work biblically-based. However, he sees its primary value as providing a barometer of what constitutes generous giving.

If someone theorizes they are being a generous giver but that amounts to two percent of that person's income, the tithe is there to challenge that idea, he says.

"If our first response is God owns everything…it’s a question of how much of God’s am I going to choose to keep for myself?" says Rodin, adding that teaching that perspective can stimulate a generous response.

For those looking for a biblically-based way to teach generous giving, Kluth offers a devotional booklet that promotes a 40-day journey to a more generous lifestyle. Translated into 23 languages, more than 200,000 copies have been distributed.

"All over the world people are saying, ‘We need to teach our people to give generously,’" Kluth says. "In this materialistic world in which we live there’s been a (spiritual) vacuum and materialism has filled the void."

That trend stands against the Savior’s words: "For what will a man be profited, if he gains the whole world, and forfeits his soul?"