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 tithe 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