I have been doing my taxes and it got me thinking about Tithing. I grew up in SLC in a very hardcore mormon family, but luckily I went totally inactive a few months after my mission in the 90’s. I SURE AM GLAD I DID!

When I started working I’ve put, on average, about 10% of my GROSS pay into my retirement account (old habits die hard!). While this account is no where near enough to retire on, it is still pretty healthy (including inflation, investment gains, and employer contributions).

I have family members and others who I’m pretty sure are still full-tithe payers and I have to think: SUCKERS!!! I’m a firm believer in free thought and freedom of religion: Kolob, temples, everything! If it makes you feel good to believe in a pie in the sky - GO FOR IT!! When you find out you been conned you’ll be dead!

But, tithing….. That really has a large affect on your life. If I still lived in Utah I could roll with being a social mormon, but I could never pay 10% every month on even my net income. It doesn’t sound like much when your a kid and the teacher gives you ten pennies and you give one back, but when you’re an adult THAT’S ALOT OF MONEY! (even on net income!).

Cypher

ya I agree. I never paid more than a few hundred in all my life. If a person works hard and makes $1000.00/month that would be giving $100 away. Its' just way too much. If I did that I'd starve. There would be a shortage of but wipe around the house, if you know what I mean. But I guess if your in upper management, have millions in an inheritance, and doing really well in the community then it wouldn't be so bad?

I have lots of well to do relatives that are in love with the church and I'm sure tithe and it works for them,
Any thoughts?

When I said my retirement account was “healthy” it is because it is relatively healthy to my standard of living. Anybody who saves 10% of their gross income over their working life will have a pretty good amount of money in relative terms (and, while I’m not an accountant, I think most people who save 10% of their gross income would have a good amount of money in ABSOLUTE terms also)!

Tithing is a very regressive “tax.” It is far easier for a rich person to pay his tithes than someone who is using all his money for food, mortgage, and just raising their kid(s).

It’s funny, or I guess explains, why mormons are so anti-tax. They know how taxes suck!

Cypher

you're absolutely right it is a lot of money to throw away to a greedy corporation.


You said:
"GO FOR IT!! When you find out you been conned you’ll be dead!"

I found it and I felt I was going to die when I did the numbers. Tithing is the one hot button when I look at the lds church and it was their stinginess that made me google info on the church.

You are lucky you left young. I joined the church at 20. What a waste of my youth, my time and my money.

As a nevermo, I never had to endure the indoctrination so I can only speculate, but I have a hard time imagining any point in my life where the moment anyone tried to reach into my pocket, I wouldn't say "hey wait just a minute there".

I paid nothing. My folks paid a small fortune. It got them fuckall in the end as far as I'm concerned.

RB

Lost tens of thousands to this fraud. Now I'm somewhat old, can barely get along on what comes in, can't afford decent health care or dental care (can't even afford to go visit the emerald city, I mean City Creek).

Yes, I'm ANGRY about it.

Despite all of the damnable LIES that have flowed out of MORmON leader's filthy foul LYING mouths attempting to suggest / insist that MORmON god needs his money so MORmONISM employs the biblical based principle of tithing, MORmONISM is NOT practicing biblical based tithing.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xaYMdHNILw

Speaking of "should" these thieving bastards "should" be in prison.



Real Tithing is based on INCREASE, NOT on subsistence.

IT'S A MATH THING !!!!

Example: IF some one had a herd of 100 sheep, and through the course of the year 10 were lost due to being eaten by the owner/ eaten by predators, and 10 new sheep were born into the flock or otherwise acquired that replace the lost 10 sheep, then how many sheep are owed in tithing?


DUMB ASS MORmON answer: 10 ! because 10 is one tenth of 100!

REAL Biblical Based answer: NONE !

The size of the flock is the SAME from the initial year to the following year, so there is NO increase to pay tithing on !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A person has 100 sheep. Through the course of a year, 10 are lost /eaten. 20 new sheep are added to the flock. At the end of a year's time the flock is number at 110. How much tithing is owed in sheep.

DUMB ASS MORmON Answer: 11

Real Biblical Answer: 1, because
the number of sheep in the flock increased by 10 during the year.


Rich MORmONS like Marriott, Rmoney, Huntsman, Young do NOT pay ten per cent right of the top of their (corporate) income in the same way that LDS Inc expects DUMB ASS regular MORmON members to. And Huntsman was honest enough to say so.
It is horrendous that LDS Inc can expect to suck the financial life out of common members, and so many common members allow it, while those elite MORmONS who could afford to give the most are required to give the least in terms of personal sacrifice.

MORmONISM SUCKS !!!!!!!!!

If I remember right, if one pays tithing on the gross income, he won't need to pay tithing on social security.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/02/2015 07:28PM by hausfrau.

That's what they say now, but when you retire, they'll change their tune.

My mother was 62 when she took early retirement (she had just been diagnosed with cancer - which killed her 3 years later). The only income she had was Social Security.

She had given LDS Corp 10% of her gross wages all her life. After retiring, she asked the bishop if she needed to continue paying them. Instead of saying, "No, you've done enough. You need this money to help you get better and feel better," he said, "IT'S UP TO YOU TO DECIDE." Being a TBM, she took the hint and kept giving them HER money.

How dare they even accept money from a poor, sick and dying member?!

Years later, my father (who was in his early 90s) was asked to start paying tithing on HIS Social Security, so he could get a temple recommend. He declined - he had no desire to go to their temple, and he didn't care about the status of being a temple-recommend-holder.

Then, they asked him to sign his house over to the Corp. They offered to find a nursing home for him (paid by Medicare, not by the Corp). He declined again.

LDS Corp is a blood-sucking leech...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/03/2015 03:20PM by ragnar.

There is no doubt in my mind that Larry Miller was a business shill for LD$ Inc. Larry frequently took the opportunity to tell the public that MORmON tithing was the secret to his business success. Well, it was, just not in the way that he lead people to think.


Here are some more thoughts on tithing.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37GZdl8UYzc

...

gross pay
tax refunds
retirement and pension payments
even some estate donations

I don't even know what kind of percentage that works out to, but its a hell of a lot more than 10% of gross.


(*&^#@@#$ the cult)

A retired pastor at our church asked this question . Her and her husband worked all their adult life and all the money they made they paid well over the 10 % tithings , Now they are retired and they draw their social security that they worked for and paid for it now her question is I paid my tithing on my income as i earned it , so why do I have to pay tithing on that money again ? it seems as though I am paying god twice for the same income . Can you help this lady out please,

My thought is that I would use my money better than any church would.

I remember in a religion class at BYU, our professor was talking one day about our interpretations of doctrine and teachings such as tithing, W of W, rated R movies, etc. He said he watched 'Last of the Mohicans' and even though it was rated R, he and his wife felt completely justified because they know there must be gray areas & he felt God was ok with it. I cracked up, like God is sitting back with His arms folded, completely & utterly disappointed in His children watching a movie about the French/Indian war.

With tithing, he brought up that it's a personal choice to tithe based on net or gross. He said that if you feel "right," even when you tithe based on your net income, then that's between you and the Lord, which actually made sense to me. But then I thought to myself, "well a glass of wine feels right, a cup of coffee with thin mint flavored creamer feels right, and marrying a nevermo husband after not obeying the law of chastity before marriage feels right," so I guess that was the beginning of the end for me!

When you give back 10 pennies on the dollar as a kid, you have everything taken care of. You don't pay rent, your mom cooks you dinner, your schooling is free, your clothes are given to you, your mom does your laundry and gives you rides. You "need" money to buy toys and candy.

As an adult, you likely have kids that you have to take care of. You have to pay the rent, buy the food, buy the car and that gas, pay the insurance, etc. Taking 10% off the top, especially tithing on taxes, makes it tough to pay for everything. You aren't paying 10% on your extras, but 10% on your basics.

As you point out, that 10% may be your savings. Kids don't care about retirement. You have to worry about that, even if you are only 30. Giving 10% to your IRA will make your life a lot easier at 70 than giving it to your church. Those 10 pennies can add up to $1 million if you put them in a good investment plan for 30 years along with 10% of your other pennies.

I thought I was pretty much over my feelings of anger and betrayal; then last year I was cleaning out some old boxes and found check stubs with my tithing amounts.

I was very poor when I was younger, and paying tithing was difficult. Feelings of anger and sorrow were alight again. Had I put the same amount in a savings account I would be far more comfortable today.

LDS, Inc. fouling not only my past, but my future. They are full service rat bastards.

The last time I went to tithing settlement was when I was 18-years old. During the year I hadn’t paid any tithing so I just looked at my December paycheck stub and paid 10% of that. I don’t remember if I paid on gross or net, but I still remember that it worked out to be just over $400 in 90’s dollars.

Think about this! That was alot of money for an 18-year old. Today, according to an inflation calculator that would be nearly $700 I gave away. I truly can’t believe that I actually paid it!! CRAZY! I had really worked hard for this money by working as a cook in a restaurant for just above minimum wage. If you compare my work effort to my minimal earnings, this was probably the hardest I’ve ever had to work to earn a buck!

Now here is the ironic point: At the time I thought I was being pretty righteous by paying it. But, it was only when I became an adult that I realized that I was actually nowhere near being a full tithe payer. Basically the money I earned was totally just “fun” money that I got to spend however I wanted. If I had really considered all that I got from my parents: home, food, college tuition, car, auto insurance, health insurance, etc…. I probably would have had to pay 30% - 40% or more of my hard earned wages to be a real full tithe payer. Unbelievable!

I guess my POINT is that TITHING is alot of money! If tithing was just 10% of “fun” or discretionary money it would be more in the realm of being reasonable.

Cypher

The church holds being with your family together forever as blackmail so you will pay tithing. I have family members that could benefit by a 10% raise. My sister has worked her entire life while her lazy husband has barely contributed. She is 3 years away from retirement. Her health is bad and she is exhausted but she continues to be true and faithful. She serves in very demanding callings. I want to tell her to quit paying the church and start paying herself. Life does not have to be one big sacrifice. She lives her life like a martyr with hopes of celestial glory in the end. It is very hard to watch.