I was a counselor put in Bishopric in 1980. We had to attend a stake meeting for Priesthood Leaders. People from SLC presented a power point explaining all about preaching the gospel world wide. The last presentation had to do with the GDP (Gross Domestic Products) of various countries. Of course Canada and the USA topped the list. I was fascinated by the presentation. In short they said that poorer countries could not do what the USA and Canada LDS members do in the Church due to lack of wealth. They said that as the Church becomes more global they can not have rich places like Canada and the US having better ward/branch activities than the poorer countries. It was a few years after that I saw a decrease in fun activities in Canada.
This past week I was talking to some members from Africa. They think that the church here has so many activities compared to where they lived. The ward that my wife goes to is having a games night. She is on the food committee and was asked to get a price for food. Well 3 people submitted the prices and were told they have no budget. This is a ward that is filled with rich members. I estimate tithing is about 6000 per week with the three wards. So guess it will be pot luck!!!!
So this presentation makes sense to me today. I still remember the concluding words of that presentation. "All the saints worldwide need to be treated the same no matter where they live." "Members from countries with large GDP will be treated just like members from small counties with little or no GDP." "The LDS Church can not have one group who live in a place that has lots of money be seen as being different than the LDS Church in smaller poor counties."
The church could give everyone world-wide a budget for activities proportional to local tithing revenues. But church administrators are too cheap and too shortsighted to do that.
If the top dogs are so concerned about activities not being equal around the globe, why do the GAs have a big banquet during conference, open only to the GAs and their families? How is that equal? Faithful members are doing without to pay tithing and the GAs are pigging out on an all you can eat lavish feast, paid for with tithing donations/extortions. Hypocrites!
I don't remember that roadshow cost much, except for the gas to drive from one ward to the other. Same with a lot of fun church activities I remember that were held at local parks or schools. I think the real issue was liability. If someone were to be injured during a church activity it could have cost LDS Inc. a lot of money.
How does one cash out of the stock market when the internet is down, there's no electricity for the computers, and nobody will sell you anything in exchange for paper money?
"And Jesus said unto his disciples, 'Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, and also guns and ammo... For lo, the Kingdom of God must shoot first, then baptize for the dead later.' And his disciples did gather up guns and ammo, and all other manner of munitions."
If the church now feels that we should only listen to boring talks, attend the temple, pay tithing, pop out children, do only what we are told, and keep the kids from doing naughty stuff.
Does anybody really want to go to the celestial kingdom?
If I were to describe "Hell" and eternal torment, it would align with what I mentioned above.
The whistle blower has revealed that the lds church has an 100 billion dollar rainy day fund. No excuses for not having a "fun budget" give every ward and branch x amount of money yearly for some fun activities. Pay the janitors again to clean the church buildings. Members have enough callings without cleaning the church buildings. Instead of announcing more temples announce a soup kitchen with paid staff. The lds church could make girls camp free nope parents need to pay for it. The lds church has enough money to support every LDS ward and branch. Remember paying tithing breaks the poverty cycle? Fun doesn't break poverty. Money doesn't break the poverty cycle. No paying tithing breaks the poverty cycle.
When I was young, we did a lot of fun things in mutual. SO when I got to YW we were told all our activity nights had to be centered on a goal from their goal books and all had to be focused on the church. And no money that was the church's was to be spent.
I got in trouble for taking some girls to the mall on the way home from the festival of trees. They actually let us go to this. I planned it for my girls and then the rest of the Yw wanted to go. I found free passes for my girls. So I stopped at the mall in Ogden to pick up some portraits of my kids I had taken in the mall. The 6 girls I had with me had their picture taken with Santa. One of the girls was the YW president's daughter and I got in trouble.
Their instructions were never consistent. We could have slumber parties, but not an ice skating party. I was in charge of the whole YM and YW for a party in January one year and I planned it for the local ice skating rink. I found all my girls skates, but the other teachers didn't. It cost a WHOLE $26 for the skates we had to rent. There was a bigger turnout to that activity than any we'd had in the time I'd been there.
My feeling was that if you don't want to lose the kids, you need to make it attractive to be attending and participating. Oh, I got in trouble for the $26 spent for skates.
As an adult, I loved being reprimanded for trying to make church interesting for the girls.
I asked to be released (I was going inactive) and I heard that some of the girls said "Now we can get someone who does fun things." The next leader never let them do fun things. Most of the mothers eventually came to me and told me how much the girls missed me.
If the Church is actually distributing money equally to the poor nations as much as the US and Canada, it is surprising.
In the New Testament they have it implied that socialism was occurring. In this you see that those who had money gave it all to the church and it was distributed to all as to what they needed. The punishment for not doing it or withholding was death (Peter used divine power to have a family killed who withheld).
Looking at what Mormons say now about such things I would have thought they have no understanding of such stuff. They seem to think that if they ever have to live like the early saints under Peter did, they will just have the church give them back everything they already have...the poor stay poor, the rich stay rich.
What the first post describes actually sounds something like what the Christian churches actually purportedly did (if you believe that part of the New Testament).
I think that if the Mormon church ever tried it fully like the early church did, they'd find a mass exodus. It doesn't match what Mormons in the US think how it should work. No way would Mormons in the US live with a wood shack with a small metal roof over their heads so others in other nations could also have a wood shack and food as well.
If it ever went that far, I would think Mormons in the US would exit the church en-masse.
So...I find it hard to believe the Mormon Church is actually doing this on a World wide scale in regards to it's wards.
It MAY be. I think it is also possible that the wards in poorer places don't get that much of a budget either (possibly even much smaller depending on the economics there) and the Mormon Church is actually more pocketing the extra money and investing it to increase the pile of money.