Charity?

I have been taught all my life to give 10 percent to the Church and strive to do so though I am not always successful. This practice (some would call a Christian requirement) grew out of the Jewish practice of giving a tithe to the tribe of Levi, the priests. Members of the tribe of Levi did not work in order to devote all their time to religious duties. Whatever the reason God set this system up, does not matter. This duty has been adopted by the Christian Church.

In a recent Episcopal confirmation class, we discussed stewardship, the practice of giving to the church time, talents, and finance. I performed a quick self-evaluation to see if I did do these things and if so, to what extent. Evaluating my time and talents is fairly easy to determine and is the most memorable and rewarding. The finance is a bit more elusive I have found. It is easy to go back through my checkbook to calculate all the times I have given, not to boast or take pride but to determine if I am doing what I should.

I don't know if I should be confused, angry, or happy. I realized in my search that I also give a whole bunch of money via taxes to national charitable causes like welfare and unemployment. Are these taxes "rendering unto Caesar what is Caesar's?" or are they charitable donations? Since we are a democratic republic, Caesar is not making the demands but rather we have requested the government to take our money to help those in need. Isn't this charity? Have we ceded to the government what should be the Church's? Have we not violated the separation of church and state by doing so?