A neighbor of mine lost his job a few months ago. He's not mormon, but his wife is and he paid tithing to keep her happy. So when he lost his job, he went to the bishop and said that he didn't know how he was going to pay rent and asked for some help from the church. The bishop said, "Why don't you get together half your rent and bring it to me in cash and I will help you out with the other half?"

So a few days later my neighbor brought the bishop 350 dollars in cash, gave it to him, and the bishop came over to his house later with a check (from the church, not the bishop) for 700 dollars. My neighbor thought this was weird so he asked me and a few other neighbors about it. Two other neighbors said that they have received financial assistance from the church and that it was the same thing, the bishop asked for half in cash and then gave them a check for the full amount.

My neighbor thinks that the bishop is pocketing the cash, especially because he was so specific about bringing him half "in cash." No one knows what the bishop does for a living. He's not a nice man (in my opinion) and I wouldn't put it past him, but I'm wondering, is this how things are normally done with the church when people get financial assistance, or is this suspicious? I left the church when I was 18 so I don't know.

NO, this is not normal. Typically if the bishop is going to help, he issues a check (written by the clerk and signed by 2 people) and that's that. Sometimes the bishop my counsel with the member about their finances to make sure they don't have waverunner payments, RV payments, and an airplane payment (unnecessary expenses) before he helps with a rent/mortgage payment. He may also require the member to help out in the bishop's storehouse or cleaning the church building or he may brew up some other kind of busywork for them to do in exchange for the church's help.

This is VERY suspicious if he is asking for cash. I would contact the Stake President right away and go talk to him about it. The stake prez can ask for an accounting of where the cash went. if the bishop is legit, he will be depositing the cash into the fast offering account and then issuing a check for the total amount needed. I suspect the cash isn't being deposited.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/30/2011 03:25AM by Susan I/S.

I'm sure he sees it as his own "inspiration," received by revelation. This is one of the indicators of Mormonism constantly being played on uneven fields. In the ward next door the bishop might just freely give away the money. In the ward next to that, the bishop may tell everyone that they have to sell all their luxury items and visit all their relatives before they're eligible for funds.

...when the bishopric writes a rent check the payee has to be the landlord. Same with utilities, payee is the company.
We weren't allowed to write on-your-honor checks to the member. They had to produce the actual bills and we wrote checks to the biller, not the member.
Cash assistance directly to a recipient was by exception, and it was usually just petty cash for busfare, laundry, small stuff.

However, I can't think of ANY case in which we took cash from a recipent! I wouldn't even know how to deposit it, because what is it? It's not tithing or an offering. The checkbook is on a centralized church account, not a local account that the ward has any control over, that is there's no way to deposit money INTO the checking account. What we did in partial-payment cases was simply to write a check to the landlord for the partial amount, and it was up to the recipient to pay the balance out of pocket.

On the other hand...we did have recipients who weren't honest about their funds, and they'd claim to be paying bills that they weren't paying. Getting the church to pay bills was a way for them to pocket their own cash. By insisting they hand over the cash, you know that they did in fact pay that share instead of pocket it.

But the church requires double-escort of all intake...all donations are escorted by two members of the bishopric all the way to the bank. I'm wondering how this bishop deposited the cash. It's possible that he just deposited it as a fast-offering, which would be legit I guess. But whatever the case, the recipient should have been given a receipt for the cash. Did they get a receipt?

I am still a finance clerk and dumpweed is 100% correct. Someone should talk to the stk pres b/c the bishop is not following std operating procedure.

I received assistance from the church.

Oddly enough; I never asked for any help.

Several times I received cash.

I am working hard to pay it back, even though it was only a few hundred dollars. I was unemployed with no money coming in so it's not like they made it up from me in tithing.

Still I'd like to put that money back in case they can use it for others.

Having been in member homes, there are a lot of needy people near by.

"You've won a $700 check for your rent! To collect, bring me $350 cash." Say WHAT? That's what this bishop is saying, in essence. If he wants to help by paying half the rent, then he should hand you a check for $350.

There is NO honest reason for that bishop to demand cash from you, in order to help you!!!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/30/2011 04:52PM by WiserWomanNow.

What the bishop is doing seems fishy to me. At a bare minimum, his practice is in need of oversight from a higher-up.

Next time I see him I'll suggest he talk to the stake president about it. Thanks

Just to clarify, if this bishop is not on the up and up, the last thing he'll want to do is talk to the SP of his own accord. As previous posters have said, You need to talk to the SP directly, and let the SP confront the bishop. If Bish is siphoning cash from you, he needs to be called on it by his superior.

Sorry, what I meant was, next time I see my neighbor I'll suggest he (neighbor) talk to the stake president.

The last time I was clerk, one of the members getting help could only get rent money, but the rent was already paid, so he got the rent check and had the landlord endorse it back over to him. The folks in the ivory tower had kittens.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/30/2011 09:04PM by luminouswatcher.