We took a road trip down to visit my mom this past week - hadn't seen her since last summer.

My NoMo husband told me later that he had been chatting with her and that she mentioned that she was paying tithing on her Social Security, and felt like it was the right thing to do because the church used it for taking care of the members and for charity.

Oh, gag! I'm glad she didn't tell that to me directly.

SO ANYWAY, wondering what the church's stance on it might be, I Googled "tithing" and "Social Security" figuring something from the LDS church would pop up, but the top hit was a site called "Ask Gramps" - which is not officially run by the church, but sure LOOKED like it was.

And oh my, "Gramps" had some really inspirational thoughts on whether you should tithe your SS payments.

AT FIRST, IT WASN'T TOO BAD - "As for your question regarding payment of tithes during retirement years . . . Suppose you paid tithes on your gross income all your life. You could, possibly, consider your retirement benefits to have already been tithed, and thus not pay further tithing on them. This is the rational approach that I can put together."

BUT THEN, OH YEAH, HERE IT COMES - " However I think it misses the spirit of the commandment as it was intended.

AND THEN SKIPPING ON DOWN -- "The long-term message is to gain an understanding that whatever we give to the Lord, whether out of mere obedience, or out of loving and willing sacrifice, we do so trusting that he will make a better use of those funds than we would. We do so trusting that sacrificing whatever is asked will bring upon us blessings from heaven too numerous to count. "

****

So GOD can make better use of mom's SS money than she can, and as a result, she is SOOOOO blessed with so many blessings too numerous to count, if only she could enjoy them more, but her health is failing, she's sick a lot, can't walk very far at all and is lonely at home.

Oh, and guess what, I guess all of you are STILL paying tithing to the LDS church whether you like it or not, since you're putting into SS and she's taking it out and paying tithing on it. Sorry about that. I can't tell her anything.

You have to remember that Elohim is VERY OLD now and probably also on a fixed income.

Please tell her that the church's official policy is that tithing is used ONLY for the church, and that 0% of it goes to any charity or back to the members in any way whatsoever. Any money that goes anywhere else was donated through fast offerings or some other fund.
The cult tries to convince all of its members that tithing money is used to help people while its own scriptures and handbooks attest otherwise, when I found that out I was furious.

Sadly, she wouldn't trust me if I told her that. I'd have to show her the actual church document that states it.

seekyr Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> whatever
> we give to the Lord, whether out of mere
> obedience, or out of loving and willing sacrifice,
> we do so trusting that he will make a better use
> of those funds than we would.

But, you're not giving the money "to the Lord."
You're giving the money to a corporation in Salt Lake.
Oops.

EXACTLY!

I think this site especially bothers me because clearly it is designed to appeal to seniors and the posts seem so so . . . orchestrated.

And then the "Gramps" (team) says that not paying tithing on your SS is "technically" okay. But the word "technically" definitely has a negative connotation here, and I know my own mother wants SO MUCH to be a good person and to be able to contribute to the betterment of others.

So unless the church comes right out and says "NO, you've already paid your tithing in full. Thank you for all your support these many years, but now we only want YOU, not your money." - unless they refuse to take her money, she'll keep believing that it is expected. And they know that, of course.

And suddenly I feel very sad, because she most certainly will NEVER hear anything like that.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/21/2015 11:30AM by seekyr.

I might conclude by adding that my mother is taken care of by our family and does not have to subsist only on her SS funds, But that also means that the family is basically paying tithing.

The church is a predator if ever there was one. Think how a lion or a crocodile selects the slowest, weakest animal in the herd, runs it down and devours it. Missionaries are like the young zebra colts that get separated from the herd and devoured. The elderly are the old antelopes, too slow to run away. Shoot, even the healthy are lured in by the crocodile, who says, "Just sit up here on my nose and I'll carry you safely to the other side."

I saw God driving an awesome new Ford F-450 double cab 4X4 with custom lights and suspension. That sucker must have cost a fortune in just aftermarket accessories, so you really need to give him money so he can afford the gas to go out on those old red dirt roads with a cooler and a hot chick on Saturday night.

Chicken N. Backpacks Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I saw God driving an awesome new Ford F-450 double
> cab 4X4 with custom lights and suspension. That
> sucker must have cost a fortune in just
> aftermarket accessories, so you really need to
> give him money so he can afford the gas to go out
> on those old red dirt roads with a cooler and a
> hot chick on Saturday night.

No, CnB, that was just me.
I know, easy mistake to make. It's OK. :)

But his work definitely lives on after him.

Check out how he was a young earth creationist and yet claimed to be a top scientist at a firm my retired-rocket-scientist old man worked at... Pop said he'd never heard of him, BTW.

Okay, I had to fact check my aging memory on that one; sometimes it's hard for me to keep my nutwads straight. I'm safe...

http://askgramps.org/5239/does-the-mormon-church-accept-the-theory-of-evolution

>If we go to the turf of the scientists we will find that there are many scientific reasons that clearly demonstrate that the theory of relativity is passé. It stems from the theory of uniformitarianism. Scientific evidence for the opposing theory of catastrophism carries much more weight in today’s scientific world. So indeed, the theory of evolution is on its way out, and would have been swept away by now except for the great tenacity of scientific theories to hang on the in the universities long after their demise.

Bowhowdy, he took out Darwin and Einstein in one paragraph with that one...

Fucking cult. Accepting tithing from the elderly, living on a limited income, is about as low as you can go in my opinion.

Plus, turning around and being a supposed apostle of a heavenly being who has a grandiose home or two, a very high end income, expensive clothes, usually a maid or two, and don't forget very nice wheels. They can travel, eat high end food, dining out when they desire while those members who scrimp and save live very modestly, often scrimping and saving to make that money stretch to cover doctor bills, dentist bills, buy gifts for grandkids, and oh, don't forget paying their tithing.

Stupid, evil, evil cult.

There are a lot of creeps out there who go after the Social Security income of the elderly. Some of those creeps use God as a cover for their fraud. Some use other lies. They're all creeps.