http://mormonprophets.org/

Pay Lay Alol

I don't believe that number. Not even close. Without the threat of death, people are cheap, regardless of how demanding their authoritarian leader is.

I don't believe that number either as liars do ---- non working women and children that don't make any money and yet are "full tithe payers" must be counted as paying 10% even if it is $0!

Also, the number of temple recommend holders is way out of line. Only 40+% attend, many children, yet over 56% temple recommend holders ----- I have no clue how they come up with that except inadequate survey!

Clearly, t he percentages reflect only the number of people who responded to the survey,not the LDS Church as a whole.

Yes, we were tithe payers, temple recommend holders.

They're just leaving out an important fact, is all. They do this all the time, and are not alone in withholding important facts. The fact is, 79% of those who are considered "active" (roughly 4 million people who attend sacrament meeting at least once per month) may pay some sort of tithing. They pay a full tithe? No. They represent 15 million. No.

"ain't got no name yet" is on the button.

25 years ago the GAs used to quote 10% of the membership pay tithing and I don't think it has got any better.

So, let's look at that 79%, based on just over 1,000 self identified Mormons. Of course it sounds right, but not of the 15 million members claimed by the church.

4 million active members at 79% would be 3.16 million tithe payers (not necessarily full tithe payers, but some payment of tithing).

Of those 4 million a half will be children with no income (except those who tithe on birthday money and allowance) so they will either be tithe payers in their own right or based on their parents' status. Of the 2 million active adults that would mean 1.16 million are tithe payers which is 58%.

Therefore, taking active membership, the numbers stack up. But taking the 15 million we're talking a lot lower figure.

Very good information, Annointedone. I believe those figures have merit. I was the biggest idiot. I paid 10% even when I could not afford to feed my family. What a moron. Fortunately I left the church at a young age and took my children before they could be indoctrinated or baptized. So, even though I really did pay a full 10% while I was active, they didn't get much of my money. By the time I got a good job, I was inactive. At the time I believed most people paid a full tithe. I have since learned otherwise.

I could buy a really nice house on the Utah bench for cash from what I paid over the years. Like the GA Jon Hunstman said it is not charity it is membership dues.
Now I donate to real charities.

Not even 79% of temple recommend holders pay a full tithe. They just say they do!!

No way in hell. Dh was executive secretary once, and he was privy to how much tithing individual members paid. He never divulged details, and I wouldn't want to know anyway, but he said he was astounded at how little tithing many people in the ward paid, yet declared themselves full tithe payers. He said so many members paid pretty small amounts annually. I was glad, because we were rarely full tithe payers (yet still paid out the nose), and I always felt guilty because of it.

Yes I was an idiot. I paid on net. I never understood those who said it was supposed to be on gross. Why would I tithe on money that belongs to the government?

I wonder how many were like me and never gave 'em a friggin' penny?

Ron Burr

like you, I never gave them a cent.

I wish I was like you and never gave them a cent :(

Mormons don't know the meaning of tithing. By it's twisted nature and misrepresented presentation, it is inferred that one is to give to the corp./org./bus./cult/ass./inc./devil that takes from you and has nothing of value to add.

I was in the 79%. I paid gross for part if the time, then net and finally just FO as I lost my belief.

I solidly paid 10% gross. No fudging of any numbers. I only wish I found out the truth before dumping my money into TSCC. I could have done a lot more useful things with it. Too bad I can't sue to get it back.

Same here...always paid on gross. Luckily it was only for several years. It was still 10's of thousands of dollars and it pisses me off to think about it. Would have made it a lot easier to pay off the mortgage early, to go on a family vacation, to help kids out with college, etc...

If (in Utah) the average sacrament meeting attendance is 48%, then I doubt tithing of 10% is any higher than that, and probably lower, in the mid 30s. Worldwide it is probably 20%. Somebody made up the number. Maybe people said yes because they thought somebody would find out if they said no. Or somebody could have just pulled it out of their arse...

I paid 10% on net. I wish I had paid 0%.

The number I'd heard from Bishops and clerks is that 40% of active members pay a "full tithe". That's 40% of the 40% who attend regularly.

That means about 16% of Mormons pay a full tithe, or 2.4 million out of the 15 million the church brags about.

If half of those are American, and they make an average of $55k a year, that is 13.2 billion a year in revenues just from the US.

"That means about 16% of Mormons pay a full tithe, or 2.4 million out of the 15 million the church brags about.

If half of those are American, and they make an average of $55k a year, that is 13.2 billion a year in revenues just from the US."

If half are American, that's 1.2 million x $5,500, or $6.6 billion. However, that 1.2 million should probably be grouped into households, so that might only be 300K full tithe-paying households...or, less than $2 billion annually. I think it's probably a bit higher than that, but nowhere near $13 billion.

From the Des. News article.

"Part of the explanation for these high numbers may be that the survey focused only on those who self-identified as Latter-day Saints.

“The method they used tended to identify people who are strongly committed,” said BYU sociologist Marie Cornwall , who advised the Pew Forum on the new survey. “They don’t have the people who are kind of marginal. But that’s okay; we just have to be careful with the way we interpret the findings.”

So of the highly committed people only 80% are following one of the most stressed commandments. Hmmm.

The survey shows that that only 1% say that they pay less than the full amount. This is pretty clear that highly committed Mormons lie to polls.

They estimate closer to 5 million Mormons in the US than the 8 million that LDS, Inc. claims. LDS, Inc. claims everyone baptized, while Pew only counts those who self-identify as Mormon, active or not.

http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/facts-and-stats

15,082,028 members and 29,253 units. That's 515 members per unit. How many active members would you say there are per unit, on average? I would guess that it's not even close to 150. It might be slightly higher than that in the U.S., but in S. America and Africa it might not even be 50.

If half of these units are in the U.S., and average attendance is close to 150, you only have ~2 million active members in the U.S. More than half of those are probably in the Morridor, and the church is insignificant almost everywhere else. Of course, there are many "inactives" that still self-identify as LDS, but it's pretty clear that the church is overstating membership by at least 100%.

Due to the teachings of my TBM father, I paid a full 10% on my gross until the day came where I could either pay my bills or pay my tithing. I chose the former and felt a burden lift from my shoulders. The very next Sunday was the last time I went to church.

However, I don't believe the 79% number, even if it is just temple recommend holders. I was finance clerk a few years before leaving the church and would put the number at more about 50% of temple recommend holders in that ward.

We got a new bishop while I was finance clerk. He was in his seventies and a wonderful man. During tithing settlement the first year he walked into my office and asked if I thought most the members were telling the truth. I said no. He said he agreed, but had to let them live with their own consciences.

The 50% (of active, temple-recommend holding members) number fits with what I've read online. I came across a chart which showed the average donations for members of various faiths. The average donation for mainstream Christians was pegged at 2.7% of income, which fits with my own personal observations of a range of 1-3%. Mormon donations were pegged at 5%. So that could mean that roughly half of the active membership is tithing.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/22/2014 07:59PM by summer.

10% of net earnings, Yes. 10% of gross, No.

Our bishop made us bring our W-2 forms to tithing settlement and would argue that we weren't full tithe payers since we paid on the net and not the gross income. We were barely scraping by, despite us both having college degrees. I had to quit work due to various pregnancy complications. The company my husband worked for at that time hit a rough patch and cut back on his hours. We had to move to a tiny slum apartment with no heat, it was winter (no one from the church offered to help with the move). Things were so bad that my husband would pretend not to be hungry so I could eat first. We were beyond poor and STILL paying tithe!

The bishop knew our situation but offered no help or sympathy and instead tried to guilt us during tithing settlement for more contributions such as fast offerings. He said if we were more generous with our offerings then the Lord would bless us financially. Also, he stated he wouldn't give us temple recommends until we paid on the gross. Seriously! You couldn't force us to go back to the temple and he was dangling recommends like some sort of punishment to with-hold.

Honestly, I only saw the blessings after I quit paying tithe.

makes me angry - wow! Shallow church. Dumb bishop!
I'll tell them where they can put their tithing.

A FULL TITHING!!!

No way. I'd say it was more like 35% of ACTIVE mormons at most.