Our devotion to the Mormon Church kept us in poverty. And then we were criticized by the a** bishop. He called me into his office because my son wore a white shirt and tie but NOT a suit jacket to church. He came to our house and said "Well, if you like to live like this" because we were barely surviving. Since we left the cult our lives have steadily improved. But we will probably never catch up for the years we wasted. His comments were over twenty years ago but they still make me grimly filled with rage. Could tell many more bad stories about this bishop. He was a retired FBI agent and that was how he ran the ward. I remember taking boiled potatoes to work and eating it when no one was around because I was embarrassed. But we never turned down a calling or failed to pay tithing! God was just testing our faith! What a crock that was.

I am already in a better place having left the church. My wife's business is picking up, and working on Sunday works really well for her business. We are finally moving out of the poverty into a better life, but that is no thanks to the MORG. I understand your pain and anguish based on the MORG keeping you down and depressed. That extra 10% boost in income has done wonders as well!!! Glad to know you are on your way out of the poverty that is MORG induced!

The LORD promised the faithful will prosper!

I grew up desperately poor in the church. How can parents raise 8 children without struggling? Unless,of course, the parents are already well off (ala mittens and co......)

Onto the new generation...
Hubby and I are doing much, much better now that
we have stopped supporting Satans plan
by paying tithing $$$.
We laugh and tell eachother we are now being "blessed" for escaping the clutches of the morg.

My Bishop told me I could not do service work for my tithing. I am disabled on SSD and get $850.00 a month.

He did say I didn't have to pay tithe on my 95.00 in food stamps I receive

I left before I paid a dime and now donate time downtown in a soup kitchen

I thought it would of been cruel.

I will always associate Mormons and Utah with poverty. One of the reasons I read/post on this board is because so few of my friends can comprehend the level of poverty and ignorance I endured as a youth growing up in Mormon Utah.

The whole Mormon thing is just to ridiculous to try and explain to people in the normal world.

And Mormon poverty? Not to many people can relate to me hand loading ammo in a apocalypse room, so I could go out and poach rabbits, because I was sick of eating beehive banana chips for breakfast lunch and dinner at 11 years old. (the gun room was my best friends).

Not to many people know what the hell fasting is, or why on gods earth you would fast when you were all ready malnourished.

You're right, not too many can relate to any of that.
I didn't grow up in Utah. I didn't have the exact same experience, yet I get it.

None of my friends were babysitting so they could buy lunch at school. None of my friends were making their own clothes, or humiliated about how they were dressed because they were so poor. None of my friends worked in the farm fields during summer so they could have a couple of decent things to wear, or a warm coat.

The catch for me that really pissed me off. My parents weren't poor. Far from it. Their children were though. We were often hungry and did without many of the basic needs. It was child abuse.