When I was an assistant ward clerk about a dozen years ago, we received a credit card convenience check for several thousand dollars at tithing settlement from a ward member.

The ward clerk explained that he processed several of those each year. He had looked through the handbook and found nothing that prevented someone form financing their tithing on a credit card account.

Does this seem consistent with the teachings of the holy honchos regarding staying out of debt? Does the church still allow this?

Tithing is a debt in their eyes.

However.....decades ago I remember asking if I could use my debit card to buy temple clothes. I was rebuked strongly. I evplained it took the place of a check and was not a loan. They still treated me badly for asking.

Now I see they gladly accept credit cards once they merged Deseret book with the garment store.

It Gets Better, maybe you were the clerk of my ward!

Oh, but apparently we weren't the only ones. Sad.

I did that one year....stupid, I know.

I was a loan officer in a Utah county credit union and we had quite a few active mormons who would come get signature loans in November. We always had to ask the purpose of the loan and many acknowledged it was for tithing and Christmas.

...tithing IS Christmas.

Christmas? Have successfully avoided that and tithing settlement for years. Christmas is a scam of the highest proportion. Oh wait, I meant tithing settlement. Christmas. For hell's sake. Christmas...Sorry, tithing or is it Christmas. So confusing. Same caca.

Even if you're not paying tithing with credit card convenience checks, but you're paying a full tithe and then charging groceries and other living essentials that you can't pay off every month, you're still going into debt for tithing.

Unfortunately, I think many Mormons live this way and they don't understand that they're not in debt in order buy food and clothes, but in debt because of tithing.

There are some things money can't buy. For everything else, like getting into the house of the Lord, there's MasterCard.

Yes, I did this too. One year when my husband was in school, we were $600 short on tithing and had to pay with a credit card check. A husband in school, two kids and a wife who ran a small daycare who could barely afford expenses without tithing - who takes money from someone like that on credit? I realize it was bad planning on my part but in my defense, DH decided to go back to school in his 30s so I thought we were stable before we had kids. Still, tithing on credit? That was dumb.

The promise they offer for paying tithing is the real problem. All these people going into debt, or really making sacrifices, because they think the windows of heaven will be opened to pour out blessings. I used to think the same.

Tithing, especially at Christmas, reminds me of a shakedown by the mob. Protection from hell fire and guilt. Fear. Fear and guilt is the reason most people pay tithing. It isn't that they expect blessings, but just don't want a fiery judgment.

Otherwise they wouldn't feel obligated to 'charge it'. It is payment to a church that runs on guilt and fear instilled in its members in oh so many ways.

Tithing is one of those ways. Want to feel really guilty? As a member? Don't pay tithing.


If you don't pay? Not having a temple recommend restricts particiation in family events at the temple. Fear of shunning by family and other members.

I see it as religious extortion. Family is held hostage by the church if you don't comply.

Sad, very sad.

Too bad LDS Inc doesn't pay off ten percent of your debts.

The windows of heaven were opened and I received double the points on my airline rewards Visa card!

Christmas through the eyes of a child is not a scam IMO.

OTOH, there isn't much reward in tithing, except self-aggrandizement.

My parents struggled during their marriage to pay tithing. Somehow they did. We went without when dad was out of a construction job as those were seasonal and not steady. Mom had to work to help provide. They never had much to feed and clothe their family with. But that tithing came first so they could keep their TR while their marriage was going down the tubes.

They thought if they played by those rules they'd be blessed. Until their lives fell apart leading up to their divorce. After their devout, true blue Mormon friends splintered off following their divorce they both became inactive for the rest of their lives. The church did little to offer support to divorcees and their families.

It's very good at taking resources until it depletes them. Without giving anything in return.

We had several Decembers in our early married years where every dime we spent for living expenses and Christmas went on credit cards so we could use the paychecks to settle tithing.

I was too stupid to see that we were going into debt for tithing. Honestly, I didn't see it. We were going into debt for food and living expenses.

Where was my brain?

Don't beat yourself up. You weren't alone. Oh, how I would love to have that money back. I could retire.

dont pay tithing with borrowed money,

pay with the faith based currency. currency that is dependent on the same blessings that a person was expected to wait for but never show up. WHat is good for the goose ( the member) is good for the gander (THE blood sucking MORmON church)

When the Utah economy was on the verge of collapse, Brigham Young suspended tithing faster than Joe Smith trying to take advantage of a vulnerable 14 year old girl.

And when the inevitable young mormon family bankruptcy is filed, all of us are chipping in on this tithing "debt"

LDS Inc needs to pay taxes on EVERY penny that passes through the company.

Er....

to accept c. cards, they'd have to be in a network of financial partners; (they don't play well with others!)
I never heard of such an outright hook-up with MC or any others (+, they keep a hefty % in fees!)

Shirley you jest.

I worked for a short time at a Utah County bank. Every December the TBMs came in for loans - not for Christmas - to pay tithing.

As the loans were usually unsecured debt the bank president had to approve them. Being a major TBM (bishop at the time), he always approved them.

The bank failed during the financial crisis and was taken over by another bank.

They may not be financing it, but accessing the reward points. I suspect that the reason the church has never allowed tithing by credit card is because the church doesn't want anyone to use a credit card to pay for it. But there are now people who make a fair amount of money off the reward points on various cards for using a credit card to pay everything.

so very sad to me, that there are that many people being totally duped to go into credit card debt to pay tithing ;(



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/30/2017 06:14PM by cinda.

If you miss tithing once, your blessings are over. This is an evil thing to promote and believe. Tithing back payments (are you going to get a more blessed past?) are another evil fraud. People resort to credit and run up unnecessary debt. Families do without as their wealth is consumed in interest payments. Members are asked to give more on top of tithing. The fraud never stops.