I recently saw a statement about the great humanitarian good that the Mormon church does - more than any other entity on the earth.

Anyone care to opine?

What I want to see is a comparison of percentage of money received by mormons that goes to humanitarian aid with the percentages of other organizations, and making sure that "humanitarian aid" is defined the same by the organizations. I think the mormons would come in at or near the rear of the pack.

LOOKING OUT FOR NUMERO UNO?

"A study co-written by Cragun and recently published in Free Inquiry estimates that the Mormon Church donates only about 0.7 percent of its annual income to charity; the United Methodist Church gives about 29 percent."

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-07-10/how-the-mormons-make-money#p5

Now this doesn't take into account LDS welfare work. It should be noted too though that the welfare program almost exclusively serves LDS and not non-LDS.

http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/chrts-gvng/lstngs/menu-eng.html


Canada:
Search for latter-day saints (city name)

There's a few entries, but most of them report nothing and if they really were a charity, why is the information lacking?

Did a bit more digging today.

http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/ebci/haip/srch/t3010form22QuickView-eng.action?b=119223758RR0001&e=2011-12-31&n=THE+CHURCH+OF+JESUS+CHRIST+OF+LATTER-DAY+SAINTS+IN+CANADA&r=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cra-arc.gc.ca%3A80%2Febci%2Fhaip%2Fsrch%2Fbasicsearchresult-eng.action%3Fk%3Dlatter%2520day%2520saints%2520canada%26amp%3Bs%3Dregistered%26amp%3B%3DSearch%26amp%3Bp%3D1%26amp%3Bb%3Dtrue%26amp



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/14/2012 12:07PM by Rob.

They must be counting temple work for the dead.

If you count building malls and revitalizing Salt Lake you get a pretty good bump as well.

$1.3 billion sounds like an awful lot. That's what the LDS church has donated since 1983. Spread out over those years, it's just a couple of bucks per member. It represents such a small amount of what they took in as profits since 1983, that it's not worth talking about.

I don't remember the link but one of the recent Mormon articles in the media estimated $6-$7 billion per year received in tithing funds.

As I recall they created the estimate because legally the amount donated in Canada has to be disclosed. So they took that amount and extrapolated to the United States and other areas - as I recall there was some attempt to adjust for expected income level geographically.

So if you figure 6 billion * 30 = 180 billion - 1.3 billion is less than 1 percent.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/13/2012 08:55PM by bc.

I think one of the biggest sins of the church is that they could do SO MUCH MORE!

I dont know the numbers and I dont care. I know that as a member I was constantly being told that I could do more, give more and be more.

The church has a lot of money and should do more and give more and be more of a force for good in the world.

I always feel angry when my mother tells me she doesn't need to donate to charitable organizations because she already gives money to the church, and so she knows it's going to help people. Not so much at my mother, but at the church for letting her believe that.

Care to provide context. You know I can't imagine a time this statement would be create, but for LCD of a better word, what inspired this person to proclaim his statement. Who, where, when, why, what?

The Momon church must lose our socialized support of their business and also we should stop allowing its cult members to deduct their paints. Us is the US taxpayer. Mormons don't like subsidizing "welfare queens", I don't like subsidizing dumbass cult posing as a charity. How the hell is missionary work charity, it's the sales arm of a church the proclaims it is the one and only true church, but requires its' competition and detractors to provide them government roads, public safety, and infrastructure at no charge. It's a parasite on our economy. It produces nothing of value and offers no charity outside of a business plan to require compliance to Mormnism.

A TBM trolling on a recovery board would be the context.

Keep in mind the church is a lying organization. It lies about it's history, doctrine, membership numbers etc. It also lies about it's "humanitarian aid".

On tithing/donation slips there used to be a category for "humanitarian aid" or "other". These are the donations the church spends on humanitarian aid, not their tithing income.

I once sat on a church committee that dispensed money to local charities. We gave away nearly $2 million a year and not one cent came from the church's tithing income. It was all from additional (over and above tithing) donations from members.

So, the truth is some members of the Mormon Church give humanitarian aid, using the church as their chosen vehicle. It is not the church that donates it's own money to humanitarian causes.

That's not to say there is absolutely no such expenditure by the church, it's just that it is not as much as they claim or like to take credit for. Fast offering donations are to help those in need, primarily church members, but they may be supplemented out of tithing funds if inadequate.

'Special fasts' have been held in the past for specific humanitarian aid projects. The church includes these expenditures in it's claims of humanitarian aid. Again, the money is provided by members, in addition to their tithing, using the church as a distribution channel.

Tom

Regarding tithing supplementing fast offering funds: Correct me if I am wrong but from my experience:

1) There is SIGNIFICANT pressure on bishops and especially stake presidents to not go over their fast offering budget. Yes, you can get some help but the expectation is that you shouldn't and it is the exception, not the rule.

2) The "principle" the church operates under is that you need to learn self-sufficiency - thus a ward should be responsible for itself, etc. Along these lines areas with major poverty - e.g. the Philippines get minimal church fast offering aid coming from outside their area.

Tom is right.

Look closer at the reported numbers and you will also see that they have monetized the "charitable time" donated by members and added this into the totals as well, claiming credit for hundreds and thousands of hours of charitable donated time.

What is not said is that this so-called donated time is calculated by adding up the hours members spend performing their callings.

Therefore, every administrator, teacher and clerk merely doing their assigned jobs catering to mormons and promoting mormonism, are counted as providing charitable time.

Is there anything this cult doesn't lie about?

I am always amazed every time someone here talks about what is disclosed by the LDS church in other coutnries, but not in the US.

Other churches, even humble ones of 150,000 people nationwide, seem to do this much better than the bigger, better equipped and supposedly more inspired LDS church manages to do.

I found this for one province of a church I used to attend (my mom's childhood church); I googled "Moravian church budget information 2012" and up popped The Moravian church in America Church Budget, Southern Province 2012.

This is not the budget for the music foundation, seminary, medical facilities, homeless missions, soup kitchens, food banks, etc and does not include the other 19 global provinces, though contributions to those things from this province are found within this budget.

A congregation budget for each church in a province looks a little different, in that those are usually much more specific/detailed, and include much fewer admin costs than this one has, but more school/educational fund and homeless mission costs:

http://www.mcsp.org/resources/prov_finances/At%20a%20Glance%20-%202012.pdf


Anyone can ask to see documents, receipts, POs, bills, estimates, credit card submissions, etc, and object to pretty much anything proposed. Audits are regular, so are tax returns, and you as a member have a right to see either if you ask.

I sat on a board at the province level (Northern) and also on a congregation (Ohio). NOTHING is off limits, everyone gets to introduce, comment, discuss, and vote, and local congregations can and do veto provincial requests or demands, all the time.

Heck, we once had a fairly heated discussion over a 30 dollar dinner someone submitted for reimbursement on a church credit card, in an open forum where everyone from the music director to the custodian to the children's minister weighed in and had their say. In the end, on that one, somebody paid 1/3 the bill out of their own pocket, because it turned out the visiting preacher's and his wife's dinner was covered, but not his sister's (she was traveling with them but was not church affiliated).

Why doesn't someone take this in to their ward and show it to their bishop and basically say: if these noninspired yokels in podunkville can do this, and choose to share this with their flock and include them in the decision making process, why can't we let the elect see where their time, talents and money ultimately go? Don't we believe they are wise enough to understand and handle the information?

Tagged

The Book of Mormon is the most correct book in the whole world.

The Bible is incorrect because it was translated badly.

Joseph Smith never practiced polygamy.

Joseph Smith is a martyr.

And so on.

Are there any accountants on the board? How do they get away with this?

All the ward list themselves as charities and claim charitable donations to other charities...which just happens to be 'The church of jesus christ of latter-day saints in canada'. The TSCC then sends some of the money back to wards claimed as charitable donations, and the rest to SLC. There is no actual charity work being done on record.

The charity description as follows:

1. We hold religious meetings on Sundays.
2. We sponsor youth and ladies programs.
3. We provide for the needy.
4. We visit the elderly.
5. We sponsor Boy Scout programs and other related activities. 6. The primary purpose of the charity is to teach the religious doctrines of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and to help people improve their lives and satisfy their temporal needs by encouraging education.improving employment, and providing welfare assistance.

They don't actually take care of the needy, and their visits to elderly are home and visiting teaching which is usually a church lesson, sometimes mixed in with actual help for the people but not always. Also, in every ward I've been in, people had to be nagged and bugged to do their HT and VT. A lot of it wasn't getting done.

Why provide for people's temporal needs when you are paving their way through eternity?