They would not let my TBM husband into the temple to a wedding because the ONLY reason of unpaid tithing... Which of course I don't do. Is this a way of tightening the restrictions to keep Money flowing in? Ugh!

attend. Especially if you choose to attend (which I wouldn't in this situation), it would make a spectacle out of the situation when he does not. Then people will question his worthiness.

The cult is just that crappy.

If you had paid a dollar you could have claimed to be a part tithe payer. Your hubby would have got his recommend on that basis.

Any religion that forces its members to pay money to enter their temple is immoral. My advice: don't attend the wedding, then tell Monson and all his cronies to shove it where the sun don't shine. Those who choose to remain members of this farce choose to suffer the consequences.

+10

Well stated.....

+1

That's why they put me on probation at my job when I worked for the Church. The chapel I worked in was very far away from my home, so that half my salary went to travel expenses.

I couldn't afford to pay a full 10% and because that meant that I couldn't hold a temple recommend, even though mine was current, I couldn't work for the Church either.

I was told that I was worthy to go to church, but I wasn't worthy to work for the Church.

My never-Mo parents couldn't understand why I couldn't just make it 2% until I got back on my feet again. I tried to explain to them that it had to be a full 10%, but they just couldn't understand that.

This is why my TBM friends believe that I left because I was offended. Not so. I didn't really care that they'd put me on probation, because I knew full-well that you had to be temple-worthy to work for the Church. As for the guy who said that to me, I simply thought, "Jerk!"

What made me leave was that this strategy of theirs opened my eyes to the fact that they actually worked to damage my self-esteem. To instill guilt into me to force me to conform. Suddenly the Church didn't seem to be such a great organization after all.

Working for the organization really did make me realize that it was nothing more than a Corporation and that their product was their interpretation of what God wanted.

I thought, "Why am I doing this to myself? Ever since I've been a member of the Church, I've had no self-esteem to speak of. You know what? I shouldn't do that to myself. I should just leave," and so I did.

Guilt, guilt, guilt. It's all about guilt, to make you cough up the money. They're a Corporation. Nothing more.

The church pays it's employees and then demands 10% back. Excellent racket.

The (British) government pays public sector workers with tax money, and then demands 40% of it back in taxes. Same difference.

freeman Wrote:
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> The (British) government pays public sector
> workers with tax money, and then demands 40% of it
> back in taxes. Same difference.

Not same difference when you consider what the Brits get for their tax-funded social services and that they don't get banned from entering government building just because they're behind in paying tax.

It's extortion. You want to see your child married? You want to ordain your son? You want to bless your child? Then pay up, sucker. Not just for you but for your faithless spouse as well. And how about your kids? Have they paid?

My kids have never been in an LDS church other than for the funerals of my TBM parents....and that's a good thing...

So THAT'S what they mean when they say "It's about the FAMILY"

In reality they mean "It's about the Family--we can use their family to control them."

Pay up or your spouse will hate/divorce you.

Pay up or your kids will be ashamed of you.

Pay up or your parents will stop loving you.

Selling tokens and handshakes = selling indulgences...

and you know what happened after that - the Protestant Reformation.

We are seeing this in the exodus taking place right now as people are learning the truth about "their" church.

I predict that following the failed "Rescue" program, there will be a reformation program called something like "New Focus Mormonism - Light for Our Time"

It will be reformation, a restructuring and refocusing on the beliefs "we all hold dear." What it really will be is a PR campaign pointing to the simple Protestant doctrines in the Book of Mormon and the basic ditching of the D&C and Journal of Discourses and Pearl of Great Price.

The BOM will be called America's Confirmation of Biblical Truth.

It's pretty simple- that's all they have to do (besides turning the temples into community centers like Catholics did) HAH!

It's reformation or diminishment to the status of Amish. They will have tourism curiosity with the White Elephant Mall as the major drawing card and the Mormon Masonic Temple with it's Barbie Doll Remotely-Controlled Missionaries.


Anagrammy

http://www.mormondoctrine.net/misc/temple_recommend.htm
Check out the questions here. There may be some more current modifications re: the temple garment that are not included.

If you want to participate, you have to be in accord with the requirements. It's their system.

Sometimes a partial tithe will suffice. Hard to know, depends on the bishop and stake president. They make those decisions.

That happened to DH too - when his sister's wedding (2nd marriage) came up, he couldn't go because we owed about $3000 in back tithing on his half of the income. I told him he could put it on the credit card but he refused to do that. He thought the whole idea of back tithing was awful - he thinks if people can't pay their tithing and they repent and start paying it again, they should pay from the day they repent. So he missed his sister's wedding, although we hadn't attended church in a while so I think he felt bad about that too.

On the upside, he hasn't asked me in months if we are paying tithing on his half. He can see how much faster we are paying our bills down now that we can use tithing money for it and I think he's just looking the other way for now - at least until the credit cards and car are paid off.

CA girl Wrote:
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> ...he thinks if people can't pay their tithing and
> they repent and start paying it again, they should
> pay from the day they repent.

Ah, but LDS repentance requires restitution. And, if he ever fails to pay tithing in the future, it voids the previous repentance. Such a nice church.

I don't know why some bishops get so weird about tithing during the middle of the year anyhow. Tithing settlement is not until the end of the year.

The thing is, the mainstream Christian churches get along just fine without their members handing over ten percent of their incomes. By my estimate, most mainstream Christians donate in a range of 1-3% of gross income.

Out of that amount, churches are able to pay their ministers, assistant ministers, youth program directors, church secretaries, organists, and oh yes, their janitors. They are also able to run charitable endeavors, often (as a denomination) exceeding the amount of charitable funds spent by the LDS.

In current times, I never heard of any mainstream church denying access to vital ordinances because a member could not pay a certain amount of money. IMO the churches would consider it unChristian to make such a demand.

Mainstream Christian here. Participation is any service, activity, study group, camp, or mission trip is available to anyone who walks in the door at any time. We do charge fees for stuff, for example $20 for a book for a Bible Study, or $200 for a weekend church camp, but if someone wants to go and can't afford it, they will go. They will be offered a "scholarship" and probably be asked to pay a portion of the fee if possible.

Our medium size church has a annual budget of about one million dollars. (How do I know that?? Annual Report!!) Every ministry (youth, mission, etc) creates a budget. The income is distributed among the ministries. If it ever happened that there was money left over at the end of the year, we would probably give it to missionaries or disaster relief or something. We give some money to the national office of our congregation, but it is a tiny percent of our budget.

Today at church it was announced that the cost of the mission trip to an Indian reservation to build houses for spring break is now $50. per person instead of $350. No explanation, but my guess is that a big donation came in earmarked for the trip.

Or BS that you r a full tithe payer. I was a clerk and the president never asked to see any tithe payments. Made me sick to see people go to Temple knowing full well they don't pay. Part of reason I left as well as Steve Benson.

Tithing was my one weak-spot in the so-called Gospel. I could just never afford it. Most of the times that I actually had a current recommend, it was because I was between jobs at the time.

The Bishop would tell me that while I collected Unemployment Benefits, I didn't have to pay tithing, so that's when I'd get a recommend. During the years when employment was going well, if a recommend expired, I likely didn't get another one until I was between jobs again. Every 5 years or so.

I've always lived from paycheque to paycheque. 10% of ones gross is a huge chunk of change. I don't know how people do it.

There were times when I'd buckle down and pay it, usually to get a recommend, but it was a matter of, "Which bill don't I pay in order to pay this tithing?" I remember paying it, but then letting a car payment bounce. Not good.

And it's not as though I was living beyond my means. I lived in a basement apartment. I got rid of any extras, like magazine subscriptions. I had the most basic phone line, with no extras like call-waiting, etc. I had a very basic car. Once my bills were paid, I had $8 left for food, per week.

People would say, "Just pay your tithing first." I'd reply, "Yeah, and which bill do you suggest I not pay, in order to pay that tithing? My rent maybe? Maybe I should just go without food."

It makes me really angry to think about it now. Damned extortionists.