Tithing receipts is everything. This works best if you have old checks from a closed account from a closed bank. The bank cannot have morphed into one you currently use. Write really large checks every week for tithing, fast offerings, etc on this closed account and write offerings in the memo area. When the bishop finally asks about the bounced checks just tell him that you need to look into it but write a few more checks. No harm is done. You got nothing for the donation and they got nothing either. No crime. Lots of pissed of leaders.

As much fun as this sounds (and I don't mean to spoil your good fun), but ...

Bouncing a check is also known as writing a bad check. And bad check laws generally make the practice illegal.

A person commits check fraud when:

Acting with the intent to defraud or deceive;
He writes a check;
Knowing that there are not sufficient funds; and
That the check will not be honored when presented at a financial institution.

http://blogs.findlaw.com/blotter/2011/12/is-it-illegal-to-bounce-a-check.html

I'm guessing since you didn't get anything in return they can't do much about it.

If by they you mean the mormonites, correct.

If by they you mean the DAs office, incorrect.

Ya I am going to skip check fraud but i got a better idea: when those young men come around for fast offerings take the envelope and stuff it with monopoly money. Much funnier when you dont commit a actually crime.

Put grocery store buy one, get one free coupons in the fast offering envelope, along with a note suggesting that the bishop go and buy all the food, and give the free one to the hungry people of the ward. :-)

HMMM I should have really logged in so I could edit the above comment. Oh well

I like the play money idea.

It would be cool to copy an image of the Kirtland Anti-Banking Society banknotes off of the internet and print out a bunch of them to pay your tithing and fast offerings with.

Joseph Smith thought it was okay to pay for things in worthless banknotes from an illegal bank, so it must be okay for members to do the same.

http://mormonthink.com/glossary/anti-banking.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirtland_Safety_Society

Have you ever heard of anyone being arrested for writing a bad. Heck to a Church? You have to receive goods or services for a bad check to be illegal. The bad checks messes up the finances which makes the bishop look bad.

My younger sister got arrested for writing bad checks. It wasn't just one. They took her to jail and the kids went with DHS. They were preschoolers. 25 years later, she still cannot have a checking account.

Other Susan

In my ward finance clerk days I dealt with bad checks for tithing periodically.

Once when I was a clerk or in a pec meeting or something someone forgot to sign a tithing check and the bishop was all over it, having people chase down the person, go to his house, etc

Yes, people get arrested for writing bad checks all the time. You can go to jail for a long time for that. And no, you don't need to receive goods or services to make fraud a crime. Moreover, a charity can easily argue that you did receive services in the sense of agreeing to support whatever cause the charity supports. Bottom line: bad idea.

Your political point is better. The church may decide not to press charges because of the PR backlash. But if a large donor writes a bad check, or if a small donor does it several times, I'll bet the church presses charges. This has almost certainly happened many times in the past.

Monopoly money is a better approach. Makes the same point with more humor and less legal liability.

It wont be to funny when you are sitting in a jail cell

Yes, print some of these and stuff them in a tithing envelop:

http://www.utlm.org/images/3dollarbill_bank.jpg

It is never a good idea to write a bad check. I like the idea of using copies of Kirtland Anti-Banking Society banknotes. Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's.

I sometimes secretly hope that the boys with the fast offering envelopes will show up some day (have not seen that for years but I know they still do it), and I dream of taking it into the kitchen and writing little slips and coupons that say things like 'good for 5 free hugs'.

OK, forget the bad checks.

Subscribe to PLAYGIRL (or better yet, PLAYGUY) using his home address.

Haha, that reminds me of a childhood memory of hubby's. When hubby's dad was a bishop (in the late 1970's) and, unbeknownst to his family, "suffering from same sex attraction" someone would leave copies of Playboy in their mailbox.

Better yet, refuse to pay tithing or use Monopoly money.

RB

I hadn't stepped foot in a Mormon Church - or paid tithing - for many years, but, a few years ago, before finding RFM (and the truth), I attended and filled out a tithing slip and handed it to the bishop.

It wasn't until later that I realized I may have accidentally forgotten to put the cash in the envelope [This would have been the last time I had ever given money to the changers].

Realizing my (possible) 'mistake', the next time I saw him I said "do you still have the envelope"? He did, and when he tore it open, sure enough, there was no money inside- just a slip with numbers on it.

I laughed aloud and it was right then and there I decided the church didn't need - and was not going to get any (more) - money from me.

Then, looking at the 'find print' on the slip, I knew why. Look at the current version of the 'hold up note' and you'll see (No matter which category you earmark your 'donations', it all goes into the same (bottomless) bucket.

It was about that time that the feeling/ SSV, tithing, bishop, family, practices (and secret church missions, websites, multi-faceted descrepancies and changes to the WoW [caffeine is okay now, and has been all along - RIGHT!?] became clear.

I've been enjoying the company of (you) saints every since.