In which Kay rants about a stingy pastor and the face of Christianity

You may have heard the story about the pastor who refused to tip his waitress because he "gives God 10%." If you haven't, here's a link to one of the many articles.
Okay, so I have mixed feelings about the whole concept of mandatory tipping, being a college student who sometimes cries because life is expensive. But as a fairly progressive Christian, I'm pretty decided on the idea of people using Christianity to be (to avoid harsher words) jerks.
It is not acceptable. It is not acceptable when a pastor refuses to help a low-paid worker get by and it is not acceptable when a group of people yell at grieving families and it is not acceptable when one faith declares war on another. Why? because the basis of their actions is (vaguely?) derived from the teachings of the same man who placed only two commandments on his followers: to love their God and to love their neighbors (including the icky and different ones you might not like very much). It seems to me that the loudest voices of Christianity have forgotten about that.
Actually reading the New Testament makes it hard not to notice the theme of Love. There's the aforementioned "Love Commandments." There's the calling to love each other to "prove to the world that you are my disciples" (John 13.35 NLT). In every one of Paul's letters he stresses the importance of loving one another. So it seems to me that the most mainstream portrayal of modern american Christianity has misplaced it's emphasis.
As to the more specific issue of this particular pastor, I'm guessing he missed the bit about giving your money away. I don't even understand. Okay, let's go through the good ol' NT: well there's the entire Gospel of Luke, with it's emphasis on hope for the poor, never mind various stories in the three other gospels (including the "rich young ruler" who shows up in Mathew, Mark, and Luke). In Acts, one of the main concerns of the early church was to provide for the poorer members (darn socialism-esque organisation .. also there was a bit of what could be called affirmative action but I digress). Then there's Paul. Paul took three missionary trips around the eastern Mediterranean while collecting funds for the Jerusalem church's services for the poor (if you aren't familiar with the Bible, Paul's letters to various churches make up a good portion of the New Testament). Giving away money is kind of a big deal and pretty hard to miss. If this pastor has a problem with parting with his money, he really ought to reread the book he's supposed to be teaching people about.
Nowhere does Jesus or his first followers teach to hate, but hatred seems to be the new face of Christianity  and that makes me sad.