Heck, it takes almost a month for the Finance Clerk to prepare and the Bishop to schedule Tithing settlement once a year.
If they did this quarterly the leaders would revolt. Not to mention the impact it would have on the average member as they begin to ponder their place in the church.
The additional load on the finance clerk and the bishop would be tremendous. They might have to make new callings, for three people- The Ward Financial Presidency, who reports back to the Bishop every quarter. That would cause some head scratching.
I could see the benefit to having it spread throughout the year instead of all at once, say I have mine in February, you have yours in June, etc., and you report on your status since the last meeting. That would keep from having the bishop tied up in tithing settlement each November/December. But to have each member do it quarterly, that would require a new calling or office to be created, maybe a third bishopric counselor over tithing.
I have a hard time believing that jesus HQ is that dumb as to make the fleecing of the members that obvious, but at the same time I wouldn't be that shocked either.
Elder Costa spoke at a stake conference recently and informed the EQ presidents that they had to have PPIs with every Elder every 3 months, so why not a tithing interview every 3 months?
If it is church wide I expect a lot of "blessings of obedience/tithing" talks during Gen. Conf..
LD$ Inc. would have a hard time justifying that with their scriptures, since DC 119 states
"those who have been tithed...shall pay one-tenth of all their interest ANNUALLY;(emphasis added) and this shall be a standing law unto them forever..."
A person could pay once a year and still be a full tithepayer. Many do it that way.
But then again, this scripture is from a dead prophet, and dead prophets are of no use, as a poster here said recently.
So now they're going to tell The Faithful not only how much to pay, but when to pay it? What about someone (hypothetically) who gets a big Smithmas bonus and uses it to pay the year's tithing in one fell swoop? Is he/she "unworthy" for the first 11 months of the year? Are temple recommends only going to be valid for three months?
Isn't there a number in "Cabaret" singing about "money, money, money, money"? Maybe TSCC could put the lyrics to a funeral dirge and introduce it as a new hymn.
Yes, maybe it's some administrative measure - like having different members report their status throughout the year, instead of having everybody do it in December. Or something like that.
The friend who told me this maybe got confused and thought that every member would have to report quarterly. That would be too crazy.
At any rate, SOME sort of change might be on the way. She may have gotten confused, but she IS a Church Employee with access to important information and she would not simply make this all up.
Once in my ward in Australia it turned out that a bishopric member had formulated an elaborate plot by which he stole tithing that was donated by members whose records were not in the ward. I was one of those members and at tithing settlement I told the Bishop that there must have been a problem because it showed up as if I had paid no tithing. After suspending my temple recommend the bishop told me that there was a minor accounting problem but that it would get sorted. A fortnight later he told me that it hadn't been sorted but that I could get my temple recommend only if I backpaid at least 3 months' worth! Otherwise I'd have to pay for 3 months before I could be given my recommend back. I yelled at him and that landed me in disciplinary counsel.
Just wait till they reinstitute the law of constipation. They will make the Bank of the CoJCLDS and "request that all members have thier checks direct deposited to "the bank". Then the church would dutifully pay members 10% of thier earnings.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/12/2011 02:31AM by luckychucky.
It wouldn't surprise me if they had the financial clerks print out a quarterly statement for the members to review...can't miss paying that tithing even for a month you know.