I opened my mail this morning to see my daily crap, newsletter from supermarket, work mail, and Quora daily digest.

Today`s Quora digest, top of the mail was:

https://www.quora.com/Do-Mormons-realize-they-preach-no-paid-ministers-but-the-top-100-+-get-paid-large-corporate-salaries

So with glee I clicked and had a looksee, and found the answer by a J Brian Watkins, which ended in "Frankly, the question as phrased is just embarrassing." to be passive-aggressive in tone and embarrassing in itself.

Since then a few more answers have appeared on that page, but that was the one I read this morning.


Opinions?

I noticed they made a passive aggressive swipe at John Dehlin. they also conveniently failed to mention that Dehlin makes it clear when you donate to Mormonstories that part of your donation is to him, since he has made Mormon stories his full-time occupation. In the videos he produces, I've heard it mentioned more than once that the donations he's gotten have helped pay for his Ph.D. It's not like he's hiding it, and yet the comment the person made who responded to the question seemed to imply as though it was some kind of deception on Dehlin's part.

I bet he earns less than $120,000 a year, which is something no one in the Quorum of the 12 can say. As I have heard various Mormon responses to the pay stub revelation, I can't help but notice them obsess over how little they seem to think $120,000 is. My dad makes probably four times that much money, but I know for a fact that he considers $120,000 a substantial amount of income, and if he worked in a profession where he made that much money, he would have no problem with it. Although as a doctor to only be making $120,000, that'd be bad..

I know very few people, if any at all, that consider $120,000 a year a trifle. Yes, compared to most of the 12, $120,000 is nothing compared to their former salaries I'm sure, but it is also over twice the national household income. Which is substantially more than most people make.

I'm not even saying that these members of the 12 don't deserve it. Or haven't earned it. To me, those questions are mostly irrelevant. It's the run-around, double speak, and half-truths that Mormons give people when they talk about their unpaid clergy and the corporation's total unwillingness to engage in any kind of financial transparency. They would never have gone into this kind of specific detail until this pay stub Revelation came out. They would have just kept on going with the company line about Mormons having no paid clergy, even though that is not true.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 01/17/2017 04:54AM by midwestanon.

<<but it is also over twice the national household income.
<<Which is substantially more than most people make.

This is one point I would like to clarify and really nail down about the amounts here...
Since this is one persons salary not a families earnings and tax deductions, We really ought to be comparing it to an average full time job with insurance, 35 hours a week. Most jobs which have expectations higher than lets say fast food (for example) will likely make about $15 an hour in America on average. Which actually translates to less than $30,000 a year gross.

Families report a $60,000 income because there are two people working and they get all kinds of exemptions and deductions on average. There are very few individuals making wages that are so high they are bringing national catastrophe (doctors wages, those that have created the Obama care disaster). Should people be allowed to make so much? Only if it doesn't bring national bankruptcy, lol!

So when a GA says "modest compensation" they are actually making 4 times a real wage. That's not modest at all.

I have no problem with the church paying GAs whatever they want. But I do have a problem with the church paying GAs and others and being secretive about the fact that they're paid and what amount they're paid.

I think it's wrong for the church to suggest that GA pay has no relevance to the average Mormon. Most people make decisions based on information that is available to them. Because Mormons are commanded to pay tithing, they should be able to make the decision to tithe or not or how much to tithe with all the facts in front of them. And currently, church members have almost no facts or they have misinformation perpetuated by the church.

I've heard the argument from church members that those who don't donate to the church are making the most fuss over this situation. "Why should they care when it isn't their money?" they say. I currently do not donate to the church, but my TBM husband does. He takes money every year that could be spent on our children and family and gives it to an organization that won't say how it uses money. So in that way, I think it is most certainly my business how the church uses what I consider to be our funds.

And besides that, I faithfully donated to the LDS church for over 35 years. There were times when my donations came at a great personal sacrifice. That sacrifice still affects some aspects of my life today. So yeah, I think what the church does with money is still my business.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/17/2017 12:11PM by want2bx.