Jana Riess doesn?????t feel great about her tithing payments...

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_I have a question
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Jana Riess doesn’t feel great about her tithing payments...

Post by _I have a question »

Church members are expected to settle accounts by the end of the calendar year, which is why this morning found me logging on to the church’s website to authorize a transfer that will get me caught up with my donations.

But I did not feel great about it — not nearly as happy as other kinds of giving have made me.

https://religionnews.com/2019/12/03/i-j ... -about-it/

I don’t mind being held accountable; I view it as an important part of a Christian life. But I want the church to be accountable too. In 1959, the church stopped issuing expenditure reports to members, so for six decades now we have had little idea of how much money is coming in, how much of it the church uses for charitable purposes, and where the rest of it is going. (For a fascinating in-the-weeds history of this policy and its legal ramifications in U.S. tax law, see Sam Brunson’s 2015 Dialogue article here.)

We do have some limited information from nations that require churches to issue annual reports to the government, but since the LDS presence in those nations is thin on the ground, they don’t tell us much.

I think the church stopped making disclosures in 1959 because it was on the brink of financial disaster — as its final report indicates, it outspent its income by $8 million that year. I suspect that the nondisclosure policy continues, however, not because the church is poor or indebted, but because it has grown wealthy enough that exposing the extent of its holdings could cause embarrassment and prompt unwanted questions.

Would knowing the extent of the church’s abundance diminish Latter-day Saints’ ongoing generosity?

Great question. To which I think the Apostles would answer “Yes”. Which is why the financial records of the Church remain sealed. They aren’t faith promoting, if they were they would be published in a heartbeat.
“When we are confronted with evidence that challenges our deeply held beliefs we are more likely to reframe the evidence than we are to alter our beliefs. We simply invent new reasons, new justifications, new explanations. Sometimes we ignore the evidence altogether.” (Mathew Syed 'Black Box Thinking')
_moksha
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Re: Jana Riess doesn’t feel great about her tithing payments

Post by _moksha »

Cry Heaven and let loose the Penguins of Peace
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Re: Jana Riess doesn’t feel great about her tithing payments

Post by _MsJack »

I love Jana's writing but I don't really understand why people continue to give if they aren't happy with the church's lack of disclosure. Giving should be an act of worship and of joy.

Give 10% instead to a charitable organization with open books and let the church know you're happy to tithe as soon as they open the books.

You'd lose your temple recommend and perhaps not get callings. Oh well. If enough people do it, things will change.
"It seems to me that these women were the head (κεφάλαιον) of the church which was at Philippi." ~ John Chrysostom, Homilies on Philippians 13

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_Dr Exiled
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Re: Jana Riess doesn’t feel great about her tithing payments

Post by _Dr Exiled »

My guess is that the church doesn't give detailed and meaningful disclosure because:

1. The church leaders do not want the members to have any say in what is done with the money. There is no respect given to the hard working tithe payor. Just give and shut up. Don't question whether the church invests in Starbucks or some armaments factory. It's about return on investment and the silly member might be too principled to deploy capital where it needs to go. The tithing slips have a statement on them that says the donor gives the money without reservation and that it thereafter belongs to the church to do whatever it pleases.

2. The church is sitting on a huge pile of wealth in the form of investments in cash, equities and real estate and could do just fine if 10% were reduced to a much lower level. The leaders don't want any reduction in recenue and probably have dreams of hitting a $Trillion in investments someday.
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_moksha
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Re: Jana Riess doesn’t feel great about her tithing payments

Post by _moksha »

Exiled wrote:My guess is that the church doesn't give detailed and meaningful disclosure because of:

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Re: Jana Riess doesn’t feel great about her tithing payments

Post by _Dr Exiled »

Maybe the church could use this line of reasoning:

1. The tithing funds are most sacred.
2. It is too sacred to tell the member where all the money goes.
3. As the explanation of fig 11, facsimile 2 says: "If the world can find out these numbers (fighting through all the barriers we will erect), so let it be. Amen."
"Religion is about providing human community in the guise of solving problems that don’t exist or failing to solve problems that do and seeking to reconcile these contradictions and conceal the failures in bogus explanations otherwise known as theology." - Kishkumen 
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