Some years ago a friend of mine hired a part time maid. She was very poor, and she was LDS. One day she told him that she'd gone to her bishop for tithing settlement, and the bishop asked if she could give extra. She was proud to say that she gave an extra eight hundred dollars. My friend was was not happy to hear about it.
To me, requesting (or even expecting) 10% from every member is both unkind and unnecessary. There are a number of unkind things about the Mormon faith, and this is one of them. It hits the poorest members the hardest. They need every penny to provide for their needs. And they need the dignity of providing for themselves, if at all possible. Instead, they are expected to give, give, give to the Mormon church, and then go back to their bishop, hat in hand (often only to be told that they are not doing enough.)
Jesus did not tithe; neither did he request tithes. The majority of Christian churches do not request tithes. Instead the churches request donations that are at the discretion of each member, generally between 1-3%. The Mormon church wants to bleed its members dry.
I remember a convert she was a single mom with 5 kids working at the mc donalds drive through. Even as an active member I was hoping she would not pay tithing because she needed every cent. Her dream was to get a GED and become a nurse. She came from outside the usa and her English was not that great, no family close by an easy target for the missionaries. A couple of years ago hubby saw her again at the drive through and she said that she has been inactive for a while. Hubby said to her that the church was false and she smiled and said that she thought so too. There is an old saying "show me your checkbook and I will tell you what your priorities are". Well lds.inc buys a mall, land, investments hardly anything of the tithing money goes to charity.
...not to mention the money LDS Inc. does give to charity is but a fraction of the 10% of income required of members...AND it a requirement by the STATE (not god) to maintain 501C3, tax exempt status. I think LDS gives just enough to not stir up the IRS.
Excellent posts on tithing. The mental manipulation that goes along with" tithing settlement" every year makes me want to vomit. I served as financial secretary for a number of years watching middle to lower income families pay 1000s with their hard earned dollars to a multi billion dollar corporation and feeling proud about it. Seeing their kids with very little in the way of proper clothing or nutrition relying on the bishops storehouse for HFCS laden food for sustenance. Nice exchange! I never understand the concept of "paying tithing"- which by definition is a misnomer. The verb of paying implies a debt that is owed. NO ONE OWES THE MORMON CHURCH.
ROBBINGhood. LDSinc takes from the POOR to give to the RICH. Joseph Smith, Jr. never worked and expected the conned converts to carry him high above the clouds. That's what the 1 + 2 + 12 + 70 + 420 + 1,001+ expect still today.
LDSmotto: you take care of us today and we'll take care of you tomorrow (when you are dead and eternally gone). Tithing isn't to be given out. It is to be taken in. Swindling...
Mormonism isn't Christianity! (It wouldn't know a Christian if it meet one a thousands times a thousand) - it's selfish, conceited and shamefully stuck up - the opposite of compassionate, considerate, helpful and concerned for others.
It is a lost and woeful cult; a demanding, heartless, mind control technique; a self-deluded anti-saint.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/05/2016 09:56AM by moremany.
My father taught me that money is God. Not with words but with actions. In Mormonism you pay God with some of the God that you worked for. God provides God with God.
A lot of are aware that one of the main reasons that TSCC lifted the "Priesthood Ban" was because they might have lost their non-profit status and a lot of money.
I would hear members bragging about how the church helps the poor, but I have not heard anything about it.
I've heard about the farmland they own (not sure how that helps the poor), the high-end mall they built, and the high-end skyscraper that they had just "prayed over."
And yet, members are at times forced to act as custodians for the meetinghouses.
Heck, they could have built a homeless shelter in Salt Lake City or somewhere in Idaho, but that wouldn't make them any money, now would it?
I will never understand how the members don't see that paying tithing causes more problems than solutions. Perhaps my parents could've helped a little with college tuition had they not payed so much tithing. Perhaps my TBM sister who has lived with our parents for 12 years as an adult (with her family) and claims she can't afford to move out could actually afford to move out if she didn't pay tithing. But she is 'waiting for the blessings!'