Tag: Tithe

  • We Preach Tithing

    We Preach Tithing

    From an article published in the Deseret News, April 16, 2018: 1

    “They received a message tailored for eastern Africa, where many tribes continue to insist that grooms or their families provide a dowry or pay a price for a bride.

    “That’s not the Lord’s way,” President Russell M. Nelson told about 2,000 Kenyans and other Africans Monday night inside a large, oval, wooden event center styled after traditional huts in Nairobi, Kenya. “The Lord’s way is to be married in the temple, for time and all eternity, with your children sealed to you.”

    He added that if he’d had to pay for his wife, “I would have missed five children, because only with my last five was I out of debt.”

    They received a message tailored for eastern Africa, where many tribes continue to insist that grooms or their families provide a dowry or pay a price for a bride.

    “That’s not the Lord’s way,” President Russell M. Nelson told about 2,000 Kenyans and other Africans Monday night inside a large, oval, wooden event center styled after traditional huts in Nairobi, Kenya. “The Lord’s way is to be married in the temple, for time and all eternity, with your children sealed to you.”

    He added that if he’d had to pay for his wife, “I would have missed five children, because only with my last five was I out of debt.”
    President Nelson also said tithing can break cycles of poverty in poor nations and families.

    “We preach tithing to the poor people of the world because the poor people of the world have had cycles of poverty, generation after generation,” he said. “That same poverty continues from one generation to another, until people pay their tithing.”

    The law of the tithe was followed by ancient peoples as taught by Old Testament prophets. LDS faithful believe God restored the law and its blessings for those who follow it by giving one-tenth of their income to the church.”

    From a 2012 article published in Bloomberg, ‘How The Mormons Make Money’: 2

    “According to U.S. law, religions have no obligation to open their books to the public, and the LDS Church officially stopped reporting any finances in the early 1960s. In 1997 an investigation by Time used cross-religious comparisons and internal information to estimate the church’s total value at $30 billion. The magazine also produced an estimate that $5 billion worth of tithing flows into the church annually, and that it owned at least $6 billion in stocks and bonds. The Mormon Church at the time said the estimates were grossly exaggerated, but a recent investigation by Reuters in collaboration with sociology professor Cragun estimates that the LDS Church is likely worth $40 billion today and collects up to $8 billion in tithing each year.”

    References

    References
    1 ‘Dowry is not the Lord’s way’ In Kenya, LDS President Nelson says tithing breaks poverty cycle’, Deseret News – https://www.deseretnews.com/article/900016023/dowry-is-not-the-lords-way-in-kenya-lds-president-nelson-says-tithing-breaks-poverty-cycle.html
    2 ‘How The Mormons Make Money’, Bloomberg – https://archive.org/details/HowTheMormonsMakeMoney and https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2012-07-18/how-the-mormons-make-money
  • Tithing and the Poor

    Tithing and the Poor

    Excerpt from “The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball”, Pg. 212,213: 1

    The poor have special need to tithe. There are people who say they cannot afford to pay tithing, because their incomes are small. They are the people who need the blessings of the Lord! No one is ever too poor to pay tithing, and the Lord has promised that he will open the windows of heaven when we are obedient to his law. He can give us better salaries, he can give us more judgment in the spending of our money. He can give us better health, he can give us greater understanding so that we can get better positions. He can help us so that we can do the things we want to do. However, if we like luxuries or even necessities more than we like obedience, we will miss the blessings which he would like to give us.

    One woman went to her bishop and wanted to pay a little tithing that she owed. The bishop said, “No, you keep it. You can’t afford to pay tithing. You need every cent that you make.” But this woman said, “Bishop, you have no right to deprive me of the blessing that I will receive if I pay tithing.” Encourage children to tithe. Now, I know that you do not have very big incomes, but remember it does not matter how little you make, you pay your tithing. Give the children a chance to learn tithing. If one of the little boys or girls earns only fifty cents in a whole year, he goes to the branch president and pays one nickel for tithing and that is just as good as the man who pays $10,000. The Lord is not looking at the amount; all he is looking at is the percentage.

    Let children see parents pay tithing. So, wouldn’t it be wonderful if every father in Zion would take his children with him to pay his tithing and let them see him give the bishop the amount of money that represents sacrifice to him, so that the children also would feel the need of it.

    The tithing principle is a solution for poverty. The cure to poverty lies in Isaiah fifty-eighth chapter and in Malachi third chapter: “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house. ” I hear voices asking in insolence and wonder and disbelief: “How can a scripture solve poverty and want?” Then I quote further: “And prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.” (Malachi 3:10.) Ah! That is what we need across the tracks, in India and Pakistan, in our big cities, in disadvantaged countries — to have the heavens open. Apparently earth has not provided the answer; now shall we try heaven? The Lord has promised to open the windows of heaven. To hear the population explosion experts talk and write — those people who think themselves so wise — they would depopulate the earth so that the few left would roll in luxury rather than that all the Lord’s children could come to earth and have a body and mortality and the good things of the earth….

    References

  • Buy anything

    Buy anything

    Excerpt from the LDS ‘For the Strength of Youth’ (2011): 1

    “A tithe is one-tenth of your income. In order to enter the temple, you must be a full-tithe payer.”

    Question 10 from the LDS Temple recommend interview questions: 2

    “10 Are you a full-tithe payer?”

    Excerpt from the LDS endowment ceremony performed in the temple: 3

    PETER: We do not wonder that you cannot comprehend such doctrine. Have you any tokens or signs?

    LUCIFER: [Interjecting.] Do you have any money?

    PETER: We have sufficient for our needs.

    LUCIFER: You can buy anything in this world for money.

    PETER: [To Adam.] Do you sell your tokens or signs for money? You have them, I presume.

    ADAM: I have them, but I do not sell them for money. I hold them sacred. I am looking for the further light and knowledge Father promised to send me.

    PETER: That is right. We commend you for your integrity. Good day. We shall probably visit you again.

    References

    References
    1 ‘For the Strength of Youth’ pamphlet – https://www.lds.org/bc/content/shared/content/english/pdf/ForTheStrengthOfYouth-eng.pdf?lang=eng
    2 Referenced in ‘Preparing for a Heavenly Marriage’ by Robert D. Hales – https://www.lds.org/liahona/2006/02/preparing-for-a-heavenly-marriage?lang=eng
    3 LDS Endowment, the celestial world – http://www.ldsendowment.org/telestial.html
  • Exempt

    Exempt

    Excerpt from the LDS 1940 General Handbook of Instruction: 1

    Who Should Pay Tithing
    All members of the Church who have any income or increase from property, or who receive wages, salaries or gifts, should pay one-tenth of their “increase” annually. (See Doc. and Cov. 119:4.) Children eight years of age or over who have been baptized are amenable to the law of tithing and should be encouraged to tithe their earnings. They should be given an opportunity to pay some tithing each year. no matter how small the amount.

    Persons Exempt From Payment of Tithing
    Aged persons without incomes; women who have no income separate from that of their husbands; children who have no individual source of revenue; and persons dependent entirely upon federal or other relief are exempt from the payment of tithes. Those receiving federal or other relief may be considered exempt because the relief rendered is supposedly only sufficient to sup-ply their absolute needs. All Latter-day Saints should be encouraged to cultivate the spirit and practice of tithe paying when conditions are such that they are able to earn.

     

    Excerpt from the LDS 1968 General Handbook of Instruction: 2

    Who Should Pay Tithing
    Church members should pay one-tenth of their interest (income) annually into the tithing funds of the Church.

    Those without income (including wives who have no separate income from their husbands) , and those entirely dependent on relief, are exempt from the payment of tithing.

    Missionaries on full-time missions are not required to pay tithing on money received from their families or others for their support. Additional personal income should be tithed.

     

    Excerpt from the LDS 2010 General Handbook of Instruction: 3

    Who Should Pay Tithing
    All members who have income should pay tithing, with the following exceptions:

    1. Members who are entirely dependent on Church Welfare assistance.
    2. Full-time missionaries. (However, missionaries should pay tithing on personal income beyond the amount they receive for their support.)

     

    References

  • Charity

    Charity

    It is estimated the LDS church pulls in between 5 billion dollars annually in tithing revenue alone, sans additional for-profit enterprises. [footnote]Mormons Inc. – Time Magazine [/footnote]

    From a Dallin Oak (LDS Apostle) 2016 address on religious freedom at the University of Oxford:[footnote]Transcript: Elder Dallin H. Oaks at University of Oxford [/footnote]

    “Care for the poor and needy is not optional or incidental in our Church. We do this worldwide. For example, in the year 2015 we had 177 emergency response projects in 56 countries. In addition, we had hundreds of projects that impacted more than a million people in seven other categories of assistance, such as clean water, immunization, and vision care. For more than 30 years the magnitude of these efforts has averaged about 40 million dollars a year.”

    The Deseret Morning News LDS Church Almanac gives information on historical membership records of the LDS church. The church’s reported membership as of December 31, 2015 was 15,634,199.[footnote]2015 Statistical Report for April 2016 General Conference [/footnote] The growth of 1.7% in 2015 is the lowest percentage growth since 1937.[footnote]LDS Church Growth Slows to Its Lowest Level Since 1937, But Here’s the Good News in That [/footnote]

    Though the LDS church has a robust welfare program, funded through fast offerings, the percentage of tithing funds that go towards external humanitarian causes is fairly low considerings it substantial resources. Even adjusting the estimated numbers to lean more conservative, the per-member donation would still fall under $10 annually.

    Contrast this with the recent estimated $2 billion cost of the City Creek mega-mall in downtown Salt Lake City. [footnote]The money behind the mormon message – Salt Lake Tribune [/footnote]

    Since 1959 the LDS church has not publicly disclosed its financial statements… even to its tithe payers.

     

    Crash Course:

    How the Mormons Make Money – Bloomberg

    LDS Church Finances – Wikipedia

    Mormon Leaks

  • 2012 Tithing Slip Change

    2012 Tithing Slip Change

    In 2012 there was an disclaimer added to the LDS tithing slip which reads “Though reasonable efforts will be made globally to use donations as designated, all donations become the Church’s property and will be used at the Church’s sole discretion to further the Church’s overall mission.”

    Since 1959 the LDS church has not publicly disclosed its financial statements… even to its tithe payers.

  • Closed Books

    Closed Books

    When asked about the Church’s lack of financial reporting by a reporter in 2002, then LDS Prophet, Gordon Hinkley responded as follows:

    REPORTER: In my country the…we say the people’s churches, the Protestants, the Catholics, they publish all their budgets, to all the public.
    HINCKLEY: Yeah. Yeah.
    REPORTER: Why is it impossible for your church?
    HINCKLEY: Well, we simply think that the…that information belongs to those who made the contribution, and not to the world. That’s the only thing. Yes.

    The LDS Church has not publicly disclosed its financial statements in the United States since 1959… even to its tithe payers.

    [footnote] Finances of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – Wikipedia [/footnote]

    Audio of the interview:

    Crash Course: