What do you feel or know about tithing?

To get to the highest level of heaven, the Celestial Kingdom, one has to be married in the mormon temple.  To get in the temple one has to pay a full 10% tithing.  Therefore, one has to pay to get to the highest level of heaven. Kind of a pay-to-play concept.

The real kicker though, is what the church does with the money.

There is no financial transparency in the church. The little we know is that only a fraction is used for true charity, like feeding and clothing the poor.  Much of the tithing appears to go to investments like businesses and real estate.

We learned a great deal when the SEC investigated the Church’s investments and found that it had hidden investments in multiple funds under different names and with different managers. The documents say the Church did this because members might give less if they knew how much money the Church really had.  The SEC fined the church and its investment company some five million dollars.  Later when the Church auditor spoke at General Conference he stated that the Church finances were properly maintained and he didn’t even mention the fine. As a former CFO, I found this most disturbing.

Of course, the Church could address this quite easily by simply publishing its consolidated financial statements. The Church holds its members to a high level of accountability, but doesn’t appear to hold itself to the same standard.

tom808

I feel giving to people in need..not to an organization, is an honorable practice. It need not always be money. Maybe it's clothing, time, assistance, etc.

serene

I know it's a scam to further the wealth of the church corporation.

kf7heh

Tithing is how the church is funded. My parents made the decision to not pay tithing, because they'd rather provide for my bother and me than pay into the church and rely on the church for help. I applaud that decision. However, it kept my parents out of the temple. It kept my father, a return missionary and life-long believer, from being in the room when my brother got set apart as a missionary. This hurt my father deeply, and my brother defended his bishop's decision. Not paying tithing is going to keep my parents from seeing my brother's wedding; he refuses to have two services. In my experience, tithing is a wedge used against families to either encourage conformity or cause exclusion.

Anonymous

I struggled to pay the bills as a parent of a young growing family. The bills seemed to be more than my sole income every single month. But I prioritized paying tithing because I felt, at the time, that the church was the best organization I could donate money to, and besides it was a commandment. Paying tithing even excused me, in my mind, from donating to other charities or causes that I believed in because I was confident the church did more with it anyway. I trusted in the benevolence of the church, and that they did good things with the donated funds, beyond just keeping the lights on, etc.

As I studied church history and began to look at the church more objectively, I began to find issues with how it dealt with money. I recalled the City Creek Center, and how the church stated no tithing money was used, but there were many rumors that this wasn't possible. I recalled teaching on my mission that no church leaders were paid for their service, because I believed it was true, but I connected the dots to realize the top leaders actually are paid and this disturbed me. I also clued into the church's legal fine print on tithing slips saying they can basically do anything they want with donations, even though I could designate certain categories.

I had been looking for a new job for a while, one that would give me flexibility and let me work remotely. I'd been looking for about 2 years already. One morning, I decided to stop my automatic tithing payments from my bank (which I had set up because I kept getting behind and forgetting to pay it). That same day I unexpectedly heard back about an interview for a position that had opened up. To make a long story short, the interview went well and later that week I was given a job offer! The position was with a well-known company, very flexible, and a great opportunity for career growth; the only downside was that I would take a pay cut of around 10%, but as I'd just stopped paying tithing I was essentially going to be bringing home the exact same amount for a much better job. I took this as a sign that paying tithing wasn't a requirement for receiving blessings. This felt like the exact opposite of all the stories they tell at church when someone decides to pay tithing and then is immediately blessed. So if God was behind the new job, it wasn't because I was paying tithing, and stopping paying hadn't disqualified me from the good fortune. I think it was mainly a coincidence, but the timing was a teaching lesson nonetheless.

evan-mullins