The history of tithing shows that it has grown over time to require more of church members. It has grown to be required for a temple recommend, and reinterpreted to mean ten percent of your income. It has been expanded to include everyone, not just those who have means. It has been tied to the prosperity gospel and a virtue signal of obedience where members are instructed to pay tithing before feeding their children. Each of these positions can be clearly shown to be previously exceptions to tithing, but today no longer apply.
Here Orson Hyde, the Apostle who in 1840 set apart Jerusalem for the gathering of Israel, makes it clear that those who cannot afford tithing, are not required to pay it. He elaborates that the wealthy can spare the money, so they are required, but those in the situation that it “requires all a man can earn to support himself and family, he is not tithed at all.” He further clarifies that the law of tithing does not take bread from mothers and children. This contrasts the teachings of the church today.
The celestial law requires one-tenth of all a man’s substance which he possesses at the time he comes into the church, and one-tenth part of his annual increase ever after. If it requires all a man can earn to support himself and family, he is not tithed at all. The celestial law does not take the mother’s and children’s bread, neither ought else which they really need for their comfort. … But the rich, and such as have this world’s good which they can spare, without injury to themselves, or without bringing want upon themselves and their families, can never obtain a celestial crown unless they pay their tithing.
Elder Orson Hyde, Millennial Star, January 1, 1847
https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Latter_Day_Saints_Millennial_Star/M1coAAAAYAAJ
The church teaches today that if a family must decide between paying tithing or feeding their children, they should pay the church. This is the exact opposite of previous teaching.
When did tithing become more important than feeding children? The church has no need of the widow’s mite or the destitute family’s bread, they have hidden hundreds of billions of dollars in “rainy-day” reserves. They have even more in real estate and business investments. They would have members, especially the poor, place more emphasis on church service and giving tithing and less on feeding or caring for their own families.
Elder Orson Hyde emphasized that tithing under celestial law should not impose hardship, stating that those who cannot pay without sacrificing their family’s essential needs are exempt. In contrast, Elder Lynn G. Robbins takes a more rigid stance, teaching that destitute families should prioritize tithing over basic needs like food, implying that faith and obedience to church commandments take precedence over immediate physical survival, highlighting a shift toward stricter, more absolute obedience in modern teachings. This abuse of the poor is disgusting, meanwhile church leadership are handsomely paid for their church service.
More reading: