> would pay their tithing if it didn’t result in a substantial tax break
Do you understand how tax breaks work? If you make 100k, and tithe 10% of that you don't get a 10k tax break, you just don't pay taxes on that 10k. You're still out the money, and best case you could rationalize it as only costing you 8-8.5k (depending on your marginal tax rate), but it's not some magic sauce that gets 'the wealthier' free money.
The concept is this: When you're donating reasonably large amounts of money to charity (a church in this case) you can deduct that amount from your taxable income while simultaneously supporting an organization that you like (your church) If that feature goes away, and now you have to pay tithing on top of paying taxes at your full income tax bracket rather than a reduced bracket, are you still willing to pay your tithing?
Do you understand how tax breaks work? If you make 100k, and tithe 10% of that you don't get a 10k tax break, you just don't pay taxes on that 10k. You're still out the money, and best case you could rationalize it as only costing you 8-8.5k (depending on your marginal tax rate), but it's not some magic sauce that gets 'the wealthier' free money.