After all the years of conditioning members to pray, pay and obey, will any start asking for a financial accounting?

Article from The Salt Lake Tribune:

https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2022/04/05/how-latest-data-lds/

“Latter-day Saint tithe payers “should be informed about where that money is going,” says co-founder of Truth & Transparency Foundation.

“When somebody pulls out their checkbook to write a check to pay their tithing,” McKnight said, “I firmly believe they should be informed about where that money is going.”

“Dodge, based in San Jose, Calif., added that church secrecy on its finances over concerns that public knowledge could affect tithing — as stated to “The Wall Street Journal” — seemed “somewhat deceptive, an abuse of power.

“The Truth & Transparency Foundation is confident of its findings, revealing 1.7 million acres and nearly 16,000 properties held by the church, spread across the country.”


Interestingly, the phrase Pray, Pay and Obey is applied to Catholicism too. Here’s an article (from 2012) about how those days are over in the Catholic Church:

https://www.archbalt.org/researcher-says-days-of-catholics-who-pay-pray-and-obey-are-gone/

“The days of Catholics who “pay, pray and obey” are gone and likely never coming back, according to a sociologist who has studied the beliefs and practices of American Catholics for more than two decades.

"As a result, the church must find ways to reach new generations of Catholics who “don’t think church leaders are any wiser or any holier than they are,” said Purdue University’s James Davidson, who spoke at the opening session of the annual gathering of the Catholic Theological Society of America.”

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I wonder how things have changed in the RCC, if at all, in the interlude since the article was published.

I told a bishop "when the organization is willing to tell me where they spend the money I donate then I will consider donating more" Can you believe I did not get a positive response?

And the GAs keep telling members that they have to obey all the commandments and covenants to go to heaven, which includes honesty about income and tithing 10%, but the church exempts itself from honesty, from disclosing finances, and doesn't even give 10% of its own donations to charity but closer to 1% of its income to charity, the church also awards hefty salaries. Cars, gratuities, travelling services to its top royalty yet tells the rest of us that there's no paid clergy.

But somehow there's a lot of members who ate ok with all this abuse, whenever I bring it up I get a response like, oh the brethren are only doing their best, these are good men, we're so blessed to have a profit in these the latter days!

How has it exempted itself from honesty for you? I've never read much where you complained about the honesty in the church.

So I had a funny thought. When it comes to crime the first rule is "follow the money".

Funny that a tithing settlement is required so that members can prove they are paying an honest tithe, but LDS Inc is under no obligation to account for how the tithing dollars are used. The Mormon church wants its members to be transparent with their finances but then is not transparent with its finances. What a racket.

The way tithing dollars are extracted from members is equally troubling. Tithing is required for admittance to the temple, which is the gateway to the celestial kingdom - the only place in the afterlife where loved ones can be together. There is a threat that if they don't pay up they will suffer for eternity.

When I was TBM I didn't feel that tithing was voluntary. It seemed obligatory. During tithing settlement I was reprimanded because I didn't know I had to pay on the gross. I thought I was required to pay 10% of the amount written on the front of my pay check (net). I was also told to pay fast offering. I left tithing settlement feeling like scum for not paying enough. I wasn't thanked for my donation. I didn't even think to ask about how my tithing obligation was used. I was programed not to ask questions but to obey.

heartbroken Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
I left tithing settlement
> feeling like scum for not paying enough. I wasn't
> thanked for my donation. I didn't even think to
> ask about how my tithing obligation was used. I
> was programed not to ask questions but to obey.

I also felt that way and I was part of the machine as ward clerk.

I had the burden of helping the finance clerk print out 4 years worth of tithing settlement reports. The bishop wanted to "gage" how members/families paid the church. As each member/family went thru his interrogations, he would stamp each set of reports with Full, Partial or Cheater- Yes those who would not meet with him got that stamp even if they paid any amount to the church.

It's all about money.

If I’m remembering correctly, in Hinckley’s interview with Mike Wallace (or Larry King) he asked him why the church wasn’t more transparent with how much money they had. Hinckley flat out lied! He said we prefer to only give that information to the members who contributed with their tithes. Or something to that effect.
Has ANY member ever been shown that info? I think not!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/08/2022 12:14PM by lapsed2.