Yesterday deacon knocked on my door and I answered it. I asked him if he could do me a favor and not come back. Then I took the envelope and ripped it in half and handed back to him. Also I was very polite about it.

Never had anyone rip the envelope in half...but I saw a pained look in the eyes of a few poor widows when then handed me the money...so I refused to go out on "collections" after about 2 fast Sundays.

Ron Burr

LOL, same here. I would just go for a walk and take the envelopes back. Nope, they weren't home or didn't answer the door. Maybe we are the reason they have to go out in pairs now.

I just flat out refused. I don't know if my Dad's being a big funder of the cult had anything to do with my not being challenged on it or not. And I was/am really stubborn.

Ron Burr

I would have been berated and probably slapped. Was a nice walk for me and away from the TBM step dad

We did something similar yesterday. We've been out for about a year but they have still been coming by every month trying to collect. I put a note in the envelope and told them to take it out. If that doesn't work, ripping it up is genius!

Whatever we do we shouldn't be rude to these young boys. They're basically forced to collect fast offerings.
I hated doing fast offerings and after all these years (35 years) I still vividly remember the rude things people did and said to me.

You actually should place responsibility where it's due.

Those people in their homes had a right to protect their privacy. Whoever forced you to invade and trespass is to blame for whatever embarrassment you've suffered for all these many years.

+1

Also, being rude to rude people (like the assholes this guy says we should never be rude to) helps teach rude people not to be so rude. I know I sure wish people had been ruder to me when I was ebing a giant ass-hole-for-the-lard both before and during my mission. I would most likely have figured the scam out quicker.

I hate the way fast offerings are collected but disagree with being rude to 12 or 13 year old boys. I don't think we need to stoop to that level.

I resigned about two months ago and my name was still on the envelope!

My husband still fondly recalls the topless sunbather he took the envelope to.

Damn...some guys have all the luck.

I'll never forget the 80+ year old cat lady wearing a filthy housecoat with a cigarette dangling from her mouth asking me what the hell the envelope was.

I agree you shouldn't be rude in the least. Most of the time these are 12-14 year old boys coming to your house. Trust me when I tell you most of them DONT want to knock on your door any more than you want to be bothered. They 100% are not being given a choice by the adults in their life.

I hated doing fast offerings as a deacon. I skipped any house that didn't have people I knew for the most part, but of course that always made me feel guilty so sometimes I just knocked and got it over with. F%cking cult, that's no way to treat kids.

I got sick and tired of seeing little old widows put two dollars into the envelope.

I knew then that it was time for my monthly priesthood meeting at the jade cafe on 9th south instead of this "fast offerings" B.S.

Outside of the Morridor, they have a spot on the tithing envelope to check that it's a fast offering as they generally don't go door to door. That's probably because parents would have to drive their deacons around since wards are often larger than a few blocks. Instead, they use tithing shakedown, I mean settlement to guilt people into paying their fast offerings.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/06/2015 02:11PM by adoylelb.

They have that spot on all the tithing slips. When we were totally entranced we would just tell them we pay it with our tithing. They still came. In fact they still do. Again, we just ignore. Actually, now that I think about it...they didn't come yesterday. Very kind of them.

They used to come by my house here in Texas and our ward was big back in the day. Fifty years ago when I joined the church there was one ward in our city. Now there are ten in the same area. We now have a stake here as well. When the deacon came by I'd simply return it to him after closing it. My offering went in with my tithing. Talk about busy work; that whole thing was nothing but a make work project for the young deacons.

Towards the end of my time in the morg it began to dawn on me just how cowardly it was to send out the children for the task of asking money from the poor.

I'd had enough one day when the weather was treacherous and the bish said do fast offerings anyway. Any reasonable person would have said, "not today."

That is when the ridiculousness of the whole program hit me.

It was insane to send people on Sunday driving all over gods green earth to gather fast offerings wasting gas and time when every single one of those who wanted to give vs emotionally gave because they could not turn down a kid, could have just as easily, mailed it in or handed it in person the next time they showed up at church.

But no. Continuous revenue all the time, on schedule. Guilt the kids, make it a "duty" and god will bless them while Dad waits patiently in the car.