What is the definition of
tithing?
Why doesn’t the Church allow
members to know how it spends our donations?
Has the Church always been secretive
about its financial records?
How much money does the Church
have?
How does the Church spend the
money?
How do other religions
and charities spend their money?
How should the Church spend
the money?
How much do the General
Authorities get paid?
Tithing, the poor and blessings
A bad consequence of paying
tithing
Advice for those that wish to
be a member but not pay a full tithing.
Introduction
Certainly donating money to
charitable causes is one of the most admirable things that people can do with
their money. The following information
relates some historical information involving tithing.
What is the
definition of tithing?
The following essay from an LDS member
shows that the definition of tithing within the
Additional comments: The members of the
A Catholic Priest’s
interpretation of tithing
(4) The Mormon church is too
legalistic on tithing. The word tithe is only mentioned six times in the New
Testament, at Mat. 23:23, Luke 11:42 and Heb. 7:5,6,8,9.
"Tithing was an Old Testament obligation that was incumbent on the Jews
under the Law of Moses. Christians are dispensed from the obligation of tithing
ten percent of their incomes, but not from the obligation to help the Church.
The key to understanding how God wants us to give to the Church is found in 1
Corinthians 16:2, "On the first day of the week [Sunday] each of you
should set aside whatever he can afford," and in 2 Corinthians 9:5-8,
"So I thought it necessary to encourage the brothers to go on ahead to you
and arrange in advance for your promised gift [donation], so that in this way
it might be ready as a bountiful gift and not as an exaction. Consider this: Whoever
sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also
reap bountifully. Each must do as already determined without sadness or
compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. Moreover, God is able to make every
grace abundant for you, so that in all things, always having all you need, you
may have an abundance for every good work."
To paraphrase: God doesn't demand a fixed amount of money from us; he wants us
to give from the heart. If people are forced by their church to give a certain
percent of their income, that's extortion. If they give freely and cheerfully
the amount they are able, that's a gift."
The above quote is from a Catholic priest who responded to an ex-Mormon asking
about tithing. The priest is correct. We are not called to tithe. We are asked
to make offerings. When the elderly widow gave her last two mites, it was an
offering, not a tithe. That would have been 10% of her last two mites. We are
not called to tithe, but to make an offering to sustain the church. Plus, if I
were to announce that I had given 10% of my income to a homeless shelter, that
would not be acceptable to the church, but it is just what the Bible tells us
we should do with our tithes. Please check out Deut. 14 for the Old Testament
law on tithing. Christians are no longer under that obligation.
Our
Comment:
It appears that the
Additional references
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/rossuk/tithing.htm
Why doesn’t
the Church allow members to know how it spends our donations?
President Hinckley was interviewed just
before the 2002 Olympics. The following
is a transcript of the interview which can be viewed on the youtube link
below.
REPORTER:
IN MY COUNTRY, THE…WE SAY THE PEOPLE'S CHURCHES, THE PROTESTANTS, THE
CATHOLICS, THEY PUBLISH ALL THEIR BUDGETS, TO ALL THE PUBLIC.
YEAH. YEAH.
REPORTER:
WHY IS IT IMPOSSIBLE FOR YOUR CHURCH?
WELL, WE SIMPLY THINK THAT THE…THAT INFORMATION BELONGS TO THOSE WHO MADE THE
CONTRIBUTION, AND NOT TO THE WORLD. THAT'S THE ONLY THING. YES.
Our
comment:
We are tithe payers (the ones that
The
Has the Church
always been secretive about its financial records?
No, past presidents of the
Church published the financial records of the Church. This was stopped in 1959. WHY? We presume it was because the Church was
relatively poor in the first hundred years of its existence and then started
becoming very wealthy in the last half of the 20th century. The leaders do not want the members (or
nonmembers) to know just how phenomenally wealthy that the Church has
become. The leaders also probably do not
want to be held accountable to the members for how they choose to spend the
tithes donated to the Church. The Church
only publishes its financial information relating to specific countries if
those countries’ laws require it such as the
Granted, as members of the
From a member of a
Annually our diocese publishes the financial run down in the diocese monthly newspaper. It's quite detailed, yet it is nice to see where everything goes. Every registered family gets this newspaper, whether they contribute or not. Most parishes also give a prior week’s financial statement in the Sunday bulletin. It usually shows what the total donations were, mass attendance and how much was contributed to special collections. It's just nice to know.
Many Lutherans have told us that you can go to the Synod's
website and drill down to any congregation in the world and see how they spent
their money. Sounds like a model of
trust and honesty that the one, true church should emulate.
Tithing as the Catholic priest
said above should be a gift, but the
The guilt placed upon Latter-day Saints can be considerable. We are not considered members in ‘good
standing’ if we’re not paying tithing.
We cannot attend the temple if we don’t pay our tithing. We cannot have temple-related callings or any
high-profile positions if we’re not full tithe-payers. And if we are full tithe-payers, we’re often
counseled to then start paying generous fast offerings, contributing to the
missionary fund, etc.
Why is tithing so emphasized in the
How much money
does the Church have?
The financials of the Church are a
closely guarded secret. No one can say
with any certainty just how much the Church is worth. Whenever there have been lawsuits against the
Church, the courts normally require that the defendant supply financials to the
courts to help assess how much a potential settlement should be. The Church lawyers use every means to prevent
having their financials disclosed to anyone.
The PBS special ‘The Mormons’ estimated
the
How does the
Church spend the money?
President Hinckley, in a public
interview, admitted that the Church is very wealthy. However, he then went on to say that the
assets owned by the Church are not income producing but are instead income
draining. This is very deceptive. The Church owns many businesses that generate
profits. The $6 Billion or so is profit that
the Church takes in from contributions by its members and its businesses. The Church has very little expense in
relation to its income. The money it
receives is tax-free. The property is
exempt from taxes. The Church owns
virtually all its properties so it doesn’t have to pay rent. The utilities on those buildings and the
meager funds allotted to the wards for their discretionary budget funds are
just a drop in the bucket compared to its income.
Just think about the ward you’re
in. Just the tithing on one middle-class
full-tithe payer is enough to pay the utilities for the building. There’s not many expenses left so the rest
goes to
Imagine if you had a corporation where
the business model was to have your customers give you 10% of their income
every year, and all you provided in return was buildings to meet in and some
speeches made periodically by the owners.
Just how profitable would that corporation be?
The Church hardly spends any of its
money on humanitarian aid. Less than 1%
of its revenues goes to really help the poor and
needy. And those funds are usually
donated as a high profile contribution.
The Tsunami
Timeline:
2004 - Annual financial statement sent to the Charities Commission shows that
members of the Church in the
Donations to the Fast Offering Fund totaled £1,319,000. This was added to the
existing balance of £1,186,000 already in the fund. £500,000 of this was
transferred to the Church's 'sister' charity, LDS (Welfare) "which will
apply these funds to the relief of the poor and needy not only in the
26th December 2004 - at 07.58 local time an earthquake
occurred off the west coast of
29th December 2004 - First Presidency of the church issues a statement which
was read from the pulpit at Sacrament Meeting the following Sunday.
"In association with other relief agencies, the Church is extending
substantial humanitarian aid to the stricken people of southern
This coming Sunday, 2 January 2005, will be our regular fast day. In the
present circumstances, we urge our people to remember in their prayers those in
the devastated areas and to contribute most generously in fast offerings, which
will make it possible for the Church to increase its aid to those whose
suffering is so great."
1st January 2005 - Humanitarian Aid Fund begins the year with a balance of
£200,000. Fast Offering Fund begins the year with a balance of £2,005,000.
2005 - Annual Financial Statement submitted to the Charities Commission show
that members of the Church in the
Donations to the Fast Offering Fund totaled £1,597,000. This was added to the
existing balance of £2,005,000 already in the fund. £500,000 of this was
transferred to the Church's 'sister' charity, LDS (Welfare). This money was
spent on 'Direct Charitable Expenditure' which is defined as "expenditure
directly relating to the objects of the charity". In theory this could
mean the building of chapels, or paying staff (which accounted for £1,094,000
over 2005).
In Summary - Humanitarian Aid Fund (2004 & 2005)
Income - £761,000
Expenditure - £86,000 (11%)
On Tsunami - zero
Balance sitting in the bank - £675,000
Fast Offering Fund (2004 & 2005)
Income (plus previous balance) - £4,102,000
Expenditure - £1,000,000 (24%)
On Tsunami - Impossible to quantify*
Balance sitting in the bank - £3,102,000
(* Given the money was spent in the UK and Ireland, other parts of Europe and
Africa are probably nil. We know some
parts of
Why worry? We will say that we know the
church provided very real assistance to some affected areas; we won't deny that
the church does some good with the money.
What gets us is that we sat there in sacrament meeting when the letter
was read out and having seen the news over the last week felt moved to take the
Church at its word and really donate an amount that would make a difference. However the money just sat in the Church's
bank account earning them interest.
It also seems to indicate that 'global' directives from the First Presidency
don't necessarily apply to the whole church.
Somebody at
Note: financial information from charities in the
Details from LDS critic Elder George Carlin: 1/30/2008
I got them from the financial statements
themselves (see links). Please keep in mind the tsunami in question hit in
December 2004. So, the donations would have most likely occured in both
December 2004 and throughout 2005.
* 2004: http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/registeredcharities/ScannedAccounts%5CEnds51%5C0000242451_AC_20041231_E_C.pdf
On page 15 of 26, Humanitarian Aid is discussed:
- 2004 Restricted Income on the Humanitarian Aid = 252,000 U.K. pounds
- 2004 Direct Charitable Expenditure for Humanitarian Aid = 51,000 U.K. pounds
* 2005: http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/registeredcharities/ScannedAccounts%5CEnds51%5C0000242451_ac_20051231_e_c.pdf
On page 14 of 26, Humanitarian Aid is discussed:
- 2005 Restricted Income on the Humanitarian Aid = 509,000 U.K. pounds
- 2005 Direct Charitable Expenditure for Humanitarian Aid = 34,000 U.K. pounds
Based on these figures:
In 2004, the Mormon church would have donated 20.23% towards Humanitarian Aid
from the total income they received for Humanitarian Aid in the U.K.
In 2005, the Mormon church would have donated 6.67%
towards Humanitarian Aid from the total income they received for Humanitarian
Aid in the
Assuming this is true, NO monies went to the tsunami victims., the Mormon
church only donated a fraction of the income they generated from Humanitarian
Aid (in the U.K.) to Humanitarian Aid...and ALL of the Humanitarian Aid went to
people in the U.K. and Ireland. Where is the accounting for
ANY funds donated to the tsunami victims?
How do other
religions and charities spend their money?
“In 1997,
In Jan. 2006, from the Church PR
department, (Deseret News Publishing Company): Edgley said, “that since 1984,
the
The best estimates are that the church's assets are around $100 billion and
that tithing runs $4.5-6.5 billion per year.
But no matter how you slice it, humanitarian work is a small, itty,
bitty part of church expenditures.
Even many individuals and corporations
spend more than 1% on charitable work:
Wal-Mart - 1.5%
Ford - 2.2%
JP Morgan 2.1%
MBNA - 1.4%
UPS - 1.1%
GM - 1.23%
MetLife - 1%
Prudential - 1.22%
Eli Lilly - 1.4%
According to the IRS, the average charitable contribution is 2.2%.
Why is it that several large corporations and the average gentile are more
charitable than the one and only true church upon the face of the whole
earth? Again we come back to the fact
that the church spends very little of its wealth and income on helping the poor
and unfortunate. It spends about 1% of
tithing on helping the poor. If you
include investment income, it’s much less than 1%.
Why does there need to be a corporate
side? Why does the church need to buy
malls, hotels, restaurants, condos, ranches, farmland,
The real point is that the church gets
more money through tithing and investment income than it knows what to do with.
How should the
Church spend the money?
Christ taught that one should sell all
that one has and give it to the poor. While
that's not practical, why couldn't the church sell its non-ecclesiastical
assets and help the poor? Does the
church really have need of anything other than chapels, temples, MTCs, family
history centers, and visitor centers?
“Thoughtful saints might wonder
whether the church should spend more of its assets on programs that benefit the
membership rather than further enriching an already huge financial base.” P
119, Mormon
“The wealth moves generally in the
form of building projects and not, as one might expect, in welfare from
congregations in the
The Church sometimes acts like it’s poor and needs money.
Around the year 2000, the Church laid off the meetinghouse custodians
and other church workers, some of whom had worked in the
The Church also scaled back local
spending. The Church has started
cramming as many people as they can into one building. Instead of just one or two wards sharing a
building, they now cram in three or four wards.
This makes one or two wards meet at awkward times. Who wants to go to church from 2:00 PM till
5:00 PM? That’s fine if there’s a real
reason for it, but to just save a $100 billion entity the expense of building
another building or a larger building is very selfish of the church
leaders. They also cut the budgets in
many local church programs and they are generally less funded than they were 20
years ago, despite the fact that the Church is considerably wealthier now than
it was then. However one positive move
the Church did make was to eliminate the building fund and have those expenses
(utilities mostly) come out of the tithing receipts. We never understood why this wasn’t the case
from the beginning.
We would recommend that the Church give
more money to the poor and needy (both inside and outside of the Church)
without expecting anything in return from the members. Also build enough meetinghouses so the
members can use the buildings during reasonably desirable times. The Church should raise the ward budgets so
the members can actually use more of the money that they donated on a local
level. The Church should employ
custodians again. The humanitarian
funds, missionary funds, etc. should all be covered by the tithing receipts
which are more than enough to completely cover them many times over. The Church should keep enough funds invested
to keep it sound, but billions and billions invested in businesses when it
should be helping others is probably not really the way Jesus would have
intended his church to be run, in our opinion.
The Church is building a large $2
billion mall in
References:
http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,650195673,00.html
http://www.cpnonline.com/cpn/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001307971 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LDS_Conference_Center
In
Oct. 2006 General Conference, Pres. Hinckley told Latter-day Saints, "The
Church is undertaking a huge development project in the interest of protecting
the environment of Temple Square. While
the costs will be great, it will not involve the expenditure of tithing
funds."
That
is a very deceptive statement. Although
technically the funds may come from the profits of the church-owned businesses
or merely from the interest on its enormous investment capital, where did the
money come from to buy the businesses, stocks and other investments to generate
those profits? Everything the church
owns ultimately came from money donated to the Church by its members – past and
present.
Of
greater significance: since the church can quickly raise $2 billion on merely
the interest of its assets, then it doesn’t really need any more tithing
dollars. The Church could function
indefinitely if no member ever contributed another dollar to the Church. The interest on its $100 billion of assets
can easily fund the yearly expenses of the Church.
The church has no accountability
to its members, government regulators, or anyone else for that matter. They
have the attitude that because they are the “Lord’s anointed”, they should not
be questioned. When they are questioned,
they either decline to answer questions or respond with evasive obfuscation.
Critic’s comment: Of all the things Jesus would tell Gordon
Hinckley, He told the Prophet to buy a mall? For ten years, the only new light and
knowledge given to the world by Jesus through His Prophet are the doctrines of
“no penny poker,” “no multiple earrings,” and “no gay rights.” And now we are expected to believe that Jesus’
latest revelation is the need for His church to get in the shopping mall
business? Church leaders are overly concerned about how
Our
comment:
For a corporation to build a mall is one thing but for a church to build
and own a mall just seems somewhat wrong.
Do other churches own malls?
How much do
the General Authorities get paid?
Growing up in the Church many of us
took pride in saying that our bishops and other local leaders are not paid like
ministers of other religions. Although
that’s true, there are at least 100 or so leaders in the Church that are paid,
such as the 12 apostles, First Presidency, and the First Quorum of the
Seventy. People naturally wonder how
much they are paid. Most members are
under the impression that the General Authorities receive some sort of living
allowance or stipend. We don’t have definite
answers as that information is also kept private by the Church. A few fair comments before discussing it
further:
•
Many of the General
Authorities were wealthy before entering GA status.
•
Some make additional
money by writing books.
•
Many sit on the boards
of corporations owned by the Corporation of the President and of course receive
director pay as a member of the board.
•
Some own stock in
companies controlled by the corporation of the president.
•
Some own companies
that have contracts with the corporation of the president.
•
Some own real estate
companies that buy property that the church then purchases.
All
of the published salary levels for non-ecclesiastical positions are relatively
low. In the church postings listed on
church bulletin boards for accountants, engineers, etc. the salaries are less
than what most people would earn in the private sector. Church Education System teachers are not over
paid. So the question is, do the General
Authority salaries follow suit or are they significantly different? Perhaps one thing to consider is the housing
provided to Mission Presidents. All of
the Mission President homes we’ve seen have been luxury homes. Even mission presidents sent to developing
nations live in luxurious quarters, their children attend expensive private
schools for expatriates, and the Church provides servants. It’s quite a difference between where the
younger missionaries and older couple missionaries live and where the
Regardless of the salary, being a
General Authority has a lot of financial perks.
Many are given a place to live, paid travel, chauffeurs, limos, paid
expenses, etc. And of course the members
are very helpful to the GAs. For
example, the billionaire LDS member Brother Huntsman gives President Hinckley
free use of his corporate jet.
Church Loans
In the early days of the Church, some
leaders lived the law of consecration, more or less, where they turned over
much of their assets to the church and then received a very satisfactory living
allowance. Some Church employees have
said that leaders in the church have the Church pay for their homes through
interest-free forgivable loans. The
forgivable loans also allow them to pad their stock portfolios. On the other hand, these loans tie them to the
Church, because if they get out of line, the loans can be called. These loans started in the days of Brigham
Young and it is still reportedly the practice today.
Our
Comment:
Just what would be a fair salary for an apostle? Any dollar figure named by anyone would
either be too much or not enough. We’re
not going to pretend that the apostles of today should be like the apostles of
Christ’s time and live off the members as they travel. We personally don’t think that the General
Authorities should be compared to televangelists that try to swindle the
members to line their own pockets. That
being said, we do feel that GAs should be accountable to the members. The salaries of the paid authorities of the
Church should be made public as every member in effect must disclose their
salary during tithing settlement (it doesn’t take a math wizard to calculate
someone’s salary if they paid tithing of 10%).
Corporations disclose how much their executives receive in compensation
– even if it is extraordinary. Why can’t
the Church do the same? Even the salary
of the president of the Untied States is public knowledge. Perhaps much like the president of the
If the salaries were published, that
would likely not tell the whole story anyway unless a full account of the paid
expenses were provided as well as any loans or any other possible financial
gain afforded their position.
From a former church financial
employee:
Although we generally don’t use
information from sources we can’t verify, the following is from someone that we
feel is a trustworthy source. He claims
to be a former church employee.
The Church consists of at least
400 separate legal entities in 130+ countries...all with different taxation
laws. The Church itself in
The Church owns stock in many other companies that are well known like Bonneville
International, Deseret Book, etc. These companies are not tax exempt because
they are not the Church per se even if they are wholly owned by the Church. The
Church owns or owned more secretive stock in other conglomerates or holding
companies like Times Mirror or the Chandler Fund which owns many big newspapers
like The LA Times,
When
I worked there, Ensign Peak Advisors was top secret. I heard my superiors
mention it and everyone just 'knew' this was something you never talked about. I
knew it was very controversial based on the secrecy even on the inside. Indeed
many assets were transferred from the Corporation of the President to this
other 'company'. At that time Brother Clarke worked in a back office secretly
putting this all together for
The First Presidency and 12
Apostles were at that time paid $600K a year and the 70 were paid about $120K.
In addition, in the mid-1990s the members of the First Presidency each had
unlimited, unaudited charge cards.
To give you an idea of Church middle management, I earned about $100,000 per
year with benefits including pension. I could travel pretty much anywhere
world-wide with little justification.
Our Comment: The claimed salary of $600k (in the mid 1990s – probably
800k+ now) would probably be appropriate for someone assisting in the
management of a $100 billion corporation.
So in that regard the compensation wouldn’t be considered
excessive. But many members probably
would not see it that way if it was publicly disclosed as it just doesn’t seem
right for an apostle to get rich from the Church. However if they are paid phenomenally well,
it offers greater incentive to never leave the church or make it look bad for
any reason.
Tithing, the
poor and blessings
It's disgraceful to read the
propaganda the Church puts out about tithing. Read the article ‘Tithing Shoes’ based on a
true story from the Church’s magazine Friend,
Nov 2007:
http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=21bc9fbee98db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD&locale=0&sourceId=57201b3e50cf5110VgnVCM100000176f620a____&hideNav=1
The story recounts a destitute mother
with a child that did not have any shoes to wear. She had just enough money to buy some shoes
for her son. Instead, she feels too
guilty if she spends that money on her son instead of giving it to the Church
as tithing, so she gives it to the Church.
Of course a ‘miracle’ happens and the bishop gives her son some shoes he
happened to have.
True or not, the fact that people are
conditioned to feel that they should deprive their children of necessities like
shoes to pay the church is just wrong. Have faith?
That’s taking faith to an extreme.
It’s like saying I won’t take my kids to the doctor because I have faith
the Lord will heal them. Irresponsibility,
not faith. There’s nothing noble about
this and the Church promotes it.
Where's the Christ-like
compassion? Why does the Church have to
humble people by making them feel that they have to pay tithing first, and then
these destitute people have to beg the church to help them with
necessities? Doesn’t it make more sense
for the people to use the money they have to just pay for the necessities
themselves? Why does the Church even have
to get involved? The Church causes the
problem in the first place by requiring all of its members to pay 10% of their
income before ANYTHING else whether they can afford it or not?
From a member:
I remember my heart sinking when
I first saw the pictures of the expensive
A Commandment Even for the
Destitute.
In Sunday School the other day, the
Gospel Doctrine teacher was speaking about church members who are
"groaning under crushing debt." He expressed his sympathy for such poor souls
and then asked, "What is the first step to getting out of debt?"
"Pay a full tithe!"
We can see it now: What is the first
step to saving yourself from drowning?
Add more water! What is the
first step to surviving a robbery? Give
the robber a bigger gun! What is the
first step to stopping masturbation? Buy
more pornography!
We've heard other members refer to this
concept as "The Lord's Math."
Unfortunately for them, Mormons will now have to deal with Banker's
Math. The bank doesn’t care that you
paid your mortgage payment money to someone else when you could have paid your
legal obligation to them instead.
Blessings of paying tithing
Some people claim to have received
financial blessings when they paid their tithing when they thought they
couldn’t afford to. Some claim to
actually have more money by paying their tithing? If true, how can this be? The answer is that people naturally budget
their money better when they know what expenses they will have in advance. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. If they know they will pay tithing first,
then they do it and stretch what’s left to cover what they need to.
If you do the math with and without
tithing, it’s obvious that you’d have more money at the end of each month if
you don’t pay tithing. Extra money won’t
magically appear in only the version where you do pay your tithing. The unexpected bonus from work, tax refund,
birthday money, etc. would happen in either case. People compensate for tithing by buying fewer
groceries, fewer luxuries, and fewer toys for their children, lowering the
thermostat, making their children go without something they wanted and whatever
else it takes to live within theirincome.
My tithing miracle happened when I QUIT
paying tithing. When I paid tithing, I
had one financial problem after another. When I quit paying tithing my problems ceased.
“If we decide
now to be a full-tithe payer and if we are steady in paying it, blessings will
flow.” Elder Henry B. Eyring of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, “Spiritual
Preparedness: Start Early and Be Steady,” Ensign,
Nov. 2005, 40.
And if they
don’t flow, what do we do – starve? Go
crawling to the church like a beggar when we could have provided for ourselves?
LDS will fair worse than non-LDS
The Winter
2008 BYU Magazine has an article called "How to Build A Solid Financial
Future".
Of course, it states that tithing should be paid first. Then it goes on to say:
"BYU Experts are quick to remind Church members to take tithing into
account when budgeting for expenses large and small. Having 10 percent less money will likely mean
you live in a smaller home, purchase a less-expensive car, or take a
less-lavish family vacation that the average American household"
This seems to contradict all the stuff the General Authorties say in General
Conference about 'opening the windows of heaven' and getting a blessing 'that
their will not be room enough to receive it'?
At least this article was a
refreshing dose of honestly regarding the paying of tithing.
The gold fillings
From the church’s own site is a
somewhat disturbing story of how members of the church in
“[Faust] emphasized the need to
sacrifice for temple building and shared how members in
http://www.ldschurchtemples.com/portoalegre/
Although some may tout this story
as one of ‘faith’, to us it is an example of pushing people to the limit of
unnecessary sacrifice. The Church did
not need the gold fillings from these people to pay for the temple. The interest off the $100 billion of Church
assets could have easily covered this.
Are there any LDS members that actually wanted these poor people to feel
that they had to rip the fillings out of their mouths and give them to the
Church?
A bad
consequence of paying tithing
The following article describes how
http://www.beliefnet.com/story/125/story_12596_2.html
The reason is obvious. If the majority of the
Instead of money going to help cure
terrible diseases like cancer and leukemia, the money is going to the Church to
build its asset base. The Church of
course isn’t donating the money they receive to these worthy causes, so for
every person that joins the
LDS leaders often hint at promises that tithe
payers will receive increased income from paying tithes, yet
See: http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,595072079,00.html
http://www.abiworld.org/statcharts/HouseRank.htm
Excerpt:
|
|
36.5 |
Rank 1 - the highest # of filings for any state |
|
|
156.2 |
Rank 50th - ( |
Some reasons for the
large number of bankruptcy filings are due to: 1.) Mormons paying 10% or more
of their gross income to the Mormon Church in tithing and other offerings, 2.)
large families, and 3.) the pressure in Mormonism to be, or at least appear,
financially successful as proof the Lord is blessing them. http://www.exmormon.org/mormon/mormon356.htm
Lenders
do not figure in charitable donations (i.e. tithing) into the debt to income
ratios. So, when a person goes into the local bank to get a loan, and they are
right at the top debt ratio limit, they can still get the loan even though 10%+
of their income is going toward tithing. If that same 10% were going to an
obligation that demanded payment, they would not qualify for the loan. Same
thing on mortgages, and the foreclosure rate in
This is
a huge problem because these financial people assume financial contributions
are optional and come after everything else is paid. They have no idea that for
Mormons, tithing is not an option, and it is often paid first.
The
church demands that tithing be paid before all other obligations. A March
2004 Ensign article is written by a
Mormon bankruptcy attorney who also advocates that tithing should be paid
first.
Our Comment: We wonder how much the
bankruptcies would decrease in
See
related articles:
#274 Pay Tithing - Ignore Other
Obligations and #332 March 2004 Ensign on
Tithing
We’ve
all heard the faith-promoting stories from the pulpit. However, here are just a few stories from
active and former members regarding tithing:
1) My mom has a friend who is a single mom with
4 kids. She was an active true-believing member, got her endowment, and was
doing everything right. She was having a very hard time making ends meet and
got behind on her tithing. Her bishop was “counseling” her regarding her
finances. (He works in a mine—he’s not a financial advisor). He told her that
paying tithing is of utmost importance and should take precedence over bills
and other obligations. He told her to use her credit card to pay her tithing
and heavenly father would bless her for it. Heavenly Father blessed her by
letting her go bankrupt. She had to file bankruptcy because of how tithing
maxed out her credit card.
2) My friend was made to feel so guilty about
not paying his back tithing that he actually took out a home equity loan to pay
his tithing; it was around 9k and he paid on gross.
3) My older brother and his wife refinanced to
consolidate their debt; went from a high interest rate to sky high - from
$1000/mo payments to $1600 interest only payments and are locked in for two
years. With all that "good news" she tells me, "well, I paid off
my van and had enough to get caught up on our tithing"! They will be
paying on that little tithing loan for the next 30 years. They are on church
welfare now.
4) When I was a single mom (divorced due to
abuse), I had four young kids. I was working for $7 an hour and getting child
support. I was NOT making ends meet. We were eating from the food bank. I had asked the bishop for help, and he never
"got back to me." Well, eventually he did, and let me go to the LDS
Food pantry a couple times. But I mean, I was so broke!! Had my power shut off
in winter.
So I had always been a full tithe payer AND made fast offerings. My bishop had
also told me I had to tithe, not only on my $7/hour gross, but also I had to
tithe on my scholarships and grants, and had to tithe on my child support
(which was paid by my LDS ex who had already tithed on it). So I did. One year
it was just too hard and I got behind on the tithing because my little kids
needed some clothes. It was Christmastime, I didn't have any presents bought
for them and they had holes in their shoes. I wanted to get them shoes for Christmas.
I went to tithing settlement, ashamed. I hung my head and told him my dilemma.
I HAD paid tithing, for about 7 months of the year. I said, "I'm sorry,
you'll have to mark me as a partial tithe payer this year. I would have to pay
$500 to be a full tithe payer, and I only have $510 in
the bank right now and haven't paid the bills yet or bought my kids shoes or
food." He just looked at me, all disappointed. Asked me something about
faith and trusting the Lord. I said, "I can't afford to pay it." and
he said, "You can't afford NOT to pay it." After a minute of silence,
I pulled out the checkbook and wrote him a check for $500. He smiled and
checked the Full Tithe Payer box, and said, Merry Christmas.
My kids did get a couple things for Christmas, from Salvation Army, but they
didn't get shoes. They did get a Christmas turkey from their elementary school
who was giving them to the "needy" families, but honestly, we
suffered. I have to wonder about a bishop who would ask such a thing of a single
mom.
KC
More stories are here: http://mormoncurtain.com/topic_tithing.html
Many people
that have come to the conclusion that the LDS Church is not really the one,
true church feel betrayed, angry and foolish for donating many thousands of
dollars to the Church. Some wonder if
they can sue the Church for their contributions they have paid over the
years. A lawyer and former member of the
http://home.teleport.com/~packham/lawsuit.htm
Advice for
those that wish to be a member but not pay a full tithing.
Some members wish to remain in the
Church but not pay a full tithing but don’t want the embarrassment of having
the bishop and some others in church know that they no longer pay tithing. Here’s one suggestion. The Church has a program set up so members
can pay electronically to the church headquarters. This was set up as some wealthy people do not
want the bishop to know how much money they make. The LDS headquarters only send an
acknowledgement to the local ward that some funds were paid in the year. They do not say how much money you paid to
the Church. You can donate $5 if you
want and declare to the bishop that you were a part-time tithe payer at tithing
settlement time and leave it at that.
You could say you were a full tithe payer if you want to also, but we
don’t advocate lying.
To get the forms and instructions, just
email Church headquarters at RE-FRD-Electronic-Donations@LDSChurch.org
We certainly encourage people to give
as they are able to worthy charitable causes.
We think that all givers should carefully consider what organizations
are most deserving of their funds. What
they do with the money and how much do they need are
two of the most important questions to think about. Many former Mormons continue to pay their
tithing, but now do so to more traditional charities – where they know how the
money will be spent.
The
LDS tithes are not used for charity,
but are used to build the kingdom. The
Church gives so little to the poor and needy.
Only 1% of it’s income goes to helping really
needy people. Why not just give the
money to the needy yourself (via Red Cross or other established charities) and
know with some surety that your money is actually going to help people and not
be used to buy malls or even to build more unnecessary temples?
The yearly tithing settlement has
always struck us as very corporate and controlling. Reminds us more of the IRS than Christ. Somehow we can never imagine Christ’s
apostles having yearly tithing settlements and demanding that repentant people
pay 10% of their income before being allowed to worship in the temples. Why is a tithing settlement necessary
anyway? God knows what we paid and to
whom. Perhaps we’d have an easier time believing
in the Church if they didn’t harp on money so much. With $ involved, it’s obvious they have
something to gain by your continued membership in the church, so how can you
ever trust them to be totally honest on issues that would affect your membership
and thereby their income?
How much to pay?
Perhaps giving to a church instead of a
nonreligious charity requires additional consideration. Most people feel that they derive some
benefit from belonging to a church and that makes sense. Is it perhaps $5 to $20 a service whenever
the collection plate comes around or is it perhaps 10% of your income for your
entire life?
If you totally believe in the Church
100%, then of course you will want to pay a full tithing. However people that still attend church for
social reasons or whatever, often wonder what they should pay. Our opinion is that you should pay to the
church based on what benefit you feel you receive. To many people, that may be something like
$100 a year. Now people that have been
paying tithing for ten years, and then realized that the Church isn’t true have
probably already paid enough money to the Church to cover a lifetime of
perceived benefit in the Church. For
those people, it probably makes sense to stop giving money to the
The Church doesn’t need the money.
There was a time when the
Now if the church was struggling, even if it wasn’t true, we
would be inclined to help out but in this day and age it’s like donating money
to Bill Gates. And even then Mr. Gates
is now using most of his wealth to help the poor.
We strongly support charitable giving
–even 10% or more but to organizations that need it, deserve it and actually
help people in a tangible way. The
modern
So you can donate your charitable
dollars to organizations like The American Cancer Society to help fight cancer,
a homeless shelter to feed the poor, the Katrina fund to help survivors of a
terrible flood, the Red Cross to help the truly needy or you can help the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Corporation grow from $100 billion
to $200 billion.
http://equalitysblog.typepad.com/equality_time/2006/05/more_than_a_mal.html
See also: John Heinerman, Anson Shupe
(1986). The Corporate Mormon Empire.
Beacon Press. ISBN: 0807004065.