Why Are Christians Such Bad Tippers?
If you are a Christian and want to serve Christendom well, you can start by not going out to eat—unless you're willing to love your neighbor the restaurant server as yourself.
Last week's story of pastor who instead of a tip left a snarky note for her waitress—"I give God 10 percent why do you get 18?"—made news because of what followed the otherwise commonplace event: a photo of the receipt was posted online and went viral, the server was then fired, and finally, after her stinginess found her out, the pastor issued a public apology.
But the initial incident? Ah, that's just the daily special, as anyone working as a restaurant server knows full well.
I experienced this dark underside of Christian culture while working my way through college as a waitress. My earliest waitressing years were at the kind of pancake joints where Christians love to congregate after Sunday morning, Sunday evening, and Wednesday evening services. The other servers and I always dreaded these shifts: the after-church crowd came in to "fellowship" more than, you know, eat, and that meant pushing together a lot of tables so they could camp out for a long time without buying much more than the endless cup of coffee. Not that any restaurant manager worth her salt would begrudge them that. My fellow servers called them the "Holy Rollers." Knowing there would be little, if any, tip left at the end of their meal, the servers saw the Christians' robust attempts at "friendliness" instead as pushy and arrogant. The memories still pain me now.
Decades later, my students who work as servers assure me that little has changed.
One says that in the steak house where she waitressed during college, Sunday lunch was the shift to avoid. Servers with seniority made the new people work it because "church people don't tip, don't control their children, and are really mean when you mess up their food," she says. On half a dozen occasions, a Sunday after-church group left her a tract instead of a tip. (Once, it was that tract that looks like money.) A few times, Christian customers told her that she should not be working on Sunday because it was the Lord's Day—while she was waiting on them.
Tipping isn't the only thing that makes some Christian bad witnesses in eating establishments. Alcohol is another. Many American Christians consider abstention from alcohol as a mark of strong faith—but some of these seem also to think that dramatic displays of that abstention in restaurants are a further sign of faithfulness.
The Seminary Gender Gap
RSS
Twitter
Facebook
Pinterest
Comments
Displaying 1–10 of 62 comments
See all comments
Chris BurkeChrisB
My mother is a server.. And I tip the way she has taught me..based on the service.. If the service is great, I tip 15-20% but if its terrible, I don't tip them.. As they don't deserve it. For example just this weekend we ate out, and 3 of the order were messed up and 10 minutes later than everyone else's.. Then at the end she messed up our bills 5 times.. Even though we clearly told her who had what.. She just had no interest in listening to us..so I didn't tip her.. As she did a terrible job. Every now and then if the server is doing a great job, and I feel God prompt it, I'll give a 100% tip.. But that's not every week!!
Cheryl Okimoto
I know it's a little late to weigh in, but I would like to point out that most sit-down restaurants now fall under the IRS mandate to report a minimum of 10% of their gross reciepts as tips, that's whether a tip was given or not. That 10% (but it may have increased in recent years) is proportionately divided between the appropriate staff based on hours worked, reported on W2s as income, and then the wait staff has to pay taxes on it. I did taxes a few years ago and had the unpleasant task of telling a young woman that she wasn't getting a refund, she OWED taxes because she had to pay ALL TAX CATEGORIES on her tips, and that exceeded what she'd already paid in each paycheck. For some, that may put a little different spin on how you decide to tip or not.
Ken Fairbrother
I regularly tip between 15 and 20% - my wife, however, who has been a server does not like to tip for poor service so we regularly have a discussion of how much to leave. I think part of the issue is the question of who has arbitrarily set the rates. Yes, taxes have increased - cost of living has increased... so have the tabs on which we figure the expected tips, first 10, now 15, soon to be 18, and shortly after 20%.
Mark Adams
I don't like the idea of a tip being expected. I think a tip should be given for service rendered. If the service is poor or mediocre then I believe it should be acceptable to leave no tip.
Dan Allison
Everyone get off your righteousnesss horse. Christians don't tip because they think food service workers are sinners, hey, if they really followed Christ, they'd be rich, right? The contempt that Christians have for HARD WORKING AMERICANS is disgusting. If you can't tip decently, just stay home. Capeesh?
jenn jenn
Tipping is now a theological debate?? Not in any terms: it is a cultural one. There are lots of cultures where tipping is not done, and even rude! I love to eat out with my friends, or even alone, and I rarely tip. That doesn't mean I love God or others less. There are lots of reasons to not tip, and I'd like to tip because I want to, not because it's expected of me.
Pop Seal
OK, my motor is running. Had coffee with a minister one day and he left a Gosple tract in place of a tip, so I stuck a couple of dollars in it and told him they might read it now. As far as the "after church" crowd is concerned, don't hide behind your sanctimony because your witness is more important than you treasure. if you guys read your Bibles, you'd see that our attitude about money is God's spiritual thermometer. More verses address money than refer to Heaven, count'em!
Pop Seal
For years I hadn't the cash to be a good tipper. Now I leave at least a 20% tip inside a Gospel tract if I happen to have one handy. When I see somebody working their tail off to make a living, I'm inspired to give something extra, in light of so may free loaders whining about their sorry lives while they wait for the government cheese truck to stop by and drop off a freebie !! Stop cutting bait and start fishing..............or put your money where your mouth is ! I feel a preach coming on, so I best stop while we're all ahead.
Tim Fall
Brandy Barrientos, if we Christians start talking about insisting on our rights, I think EVERYTHING has gone out the window. Blessings, Tim (timfall.wordpress.com)
Mike Goetz
@Brandy, @William One of the responses to the original Alois Bell story that I read was from a couple who described a recent experience when they were at a restaurant and their server was terrible -- clearly she was distracted about something, and she made errors with their order, etc. Instead of leaving a very small tip or nothing at all, this couple left a $20 tip on their $15 bill with a note that said something like "It seems you're having a bad day, hopefully this will help a little." The server caught up to them as they were in the parking lot and told them how she had recently experienced a tragedy in her family but couldn't afford not to work. Their action had made a world of difference to her. How should we, as Christians respond? I think what this couple did sounds a lot like what Jesus would do.
*