Would you pay money to get into the highest levels of heaven ? Well, in Mormonism, thats exactly what you are doing. Its strange I never thought of it this way until I actually stopped paying tithing. Let me explain.
I had been a regular tithing payer for several years, and I even scolded my wife whenever she would suggest we reduce our payments. I was a TBM (True Believing Mormon). I had fear that I would lose financial blessings in my life if I didn't pay it. Members would often joke and call tithing "fire insurance" to keep us from being burned on the 2nd coming. Ha ha.
Now that I think about it, all of my motivation for paying tithing was based on fear and not charity. Fear seems to be a common motivator in the Mormon religion as I've come to understand since leaving it.
Let me break it down for you. In order to achieve the highest level of heaven in the Mormon religion, you must have certain ordinances or rituals performed for you. These are called the "saving ordinances." To recap, they are :
1) Baptism (age 8)
2) Confirmation and reception of the Gift of the Holy Ghost
3) Ordination to the Aaronic and Melchizedek priesthoods (for males only)
4) Endowment
5) Marriage and sealing to a spouse
6) Sealing to parents
And here is the problem: you must get a temple recommend to perform 4, 5 and 6. In order to get a temple recommend, you must prove to your local ward leaders (Bishop and Stake President) that you are a "full" tithing payer. This means you cannot get the saving ordinances to reach the highest level of heaven unless you pay the church 10 percent of your GROSS income.
During the middle ages priests of the Church at that time would take payments of money to forgive their members of their sins. If you were rich, you could pay a priest and get a ticket into heaven. This is EXACTLY what the Mormon church is doing. The temple recommend is the ticket. Receiving the saving ordinances should not be based on your monetary contribution to the Church. I can understand the other rules for getting one, obeying the law of chastity and all that other good stuff, but paying money ? Common!
It gets worse, in Utah, Mormon Senator Orrin Hatch passed legislation that allowed members to pay a full tithe even while they were in bankruptcy court.
Mormons are told: "if a destitute family is faced with the decision of paying their tithing or eating, they should pay their tithing." (Lynn Robbins, General Conference, April 2005).
So, it is taught that at all costs, make sure we get our money, and if you don't pay, you're not getting into heaven. This might not be so bad except that the Church never discloses its financial information or where it invests its money and resources. This doesn't stop information from getting out though. Thanks to the internet, we can find out that the Church is in fact investing close to 1 billion dollars on a mall rejuvenation project in downtown Salt Lake City, then not long after they decided to CUT the food budgets of their missionaries from $145 per month to $130. The poor missionaries have a hard enough time as it is ! And they are wasting billions on other things that according to Church doctrine are not as important as missionary work !
In Jan. 2006, from the Church PR department, (Deseret News Publishing Company): Edgley said, “that since 1984, the LDS Church has donated nearly $750 million in cash and goods to people in need in more than 150 countries.” That averages to 37.5 million per year or about $3-$4 per Mormon member went to the poor. The total of $750 million in 22 years spent in cash in goods to people in need is only HALF what the church is spending on these malls. Only Half!! The Mormon church is spending less than 1% of its income to help the poor. Is the Mormon church really a charitable organization?
(credit to Infymus from exmormon.org forums for this data)
And finally, according to the Church you must pay tithing because it is a commandment. I think I would rather buy real fire insurance.
I don't suppose there is a chance of getting my tithing refunded ? Maybe a dividend from profits the Church has made with it ? Oh well.
http://www.mormoncurtain.com/topic_tithing.html
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3 comments:
Lest anyone be confused, Mormons didn't make up the concept of tithing. It's in the Bible. http://scriptures.lds.org/en/mal/3
Those darned Mormons; they're always quoting and relying on the Bible.
It's also unfortunate you left the Church's welfare program, welfare farms, welfare canneries, etc., out of your analysis of what the Church does for the poor.
Ok, I just reread that chapter of Malachi and it does not say that paying tithing is a requirement to get into heaven.
It also does not say you are required to pay a regular 10 percent of your gross income as tithing.
Also, considering how important paying tithing is to the Mormon church as part of your salvation, why is it so hard to find references to it in the bible ?
Also, the original commandment from the prophets of the Mormon church was to pay tithing on your SURPLUS. Not your income. It was changed later when the authorities realized what a gold mine they were sitting on top of, IMO.
Give me a reference where Jesus himself teaches the law of tithing (not his apostles after his death who were setting up a church). Jesus teaches charity, not tithing. He even scolds the Jewish establishment at the time about it.
I personally question a lot of the new testament due to its nature of being a book to justify the control and power of the catholic church at the time of its inception. One only has to see how the catholic church treated anyone at the time who disagreed with them to see how they guarded this power over men. The bible for them was a tool to help them ensure this power and authority. It reminds me of a certain other book.....
This guy has an interesting blog entry on the subject:
http://tinyurl.com/yu2r52
You're right about the canneries etc, but how much does the church spend on these ? Part of my criticism is they do not report publicly where their money goes. Wouldn't you like to know if only a tiny percentage of our tiths and offerings are actually going back to the people in the church ? Rather then a stock portfolio ?
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