LDS prophet summer to appear in British court/LDS Prophet Summed To Appear In British Court
Dear Reader;
I have and never will claim to know all the inner working of everything that happens in the LDS church. I admit that there are times where I am asked to do things I do not complexly understand, tithing being one of those issues for me. I do not have many quick comebacks or clever things to say to the people who attack me and what I believe, nor do I believe that addressing a persons angry actions with my own anger is going to have much effect in the end. But after viewing this ridiculous public display, I have to say I am both grateful for my own meek understanding and sorrowful for the individual who made the mistake to try and attack President Monson.
One of my favorite authors of all time is the legendary author and lifelong champion curmudgeon, Mark Twain. He once stated "It is better to keep your mouth shut and have people think you are stupid than to open your mouth and relieve all doubt." From the example of the very angry gentleman who requested this investigation, anger seems to have consumed him to a point where his tolerance for things he does not understand or agree with has clouded his better human judgement. As a result he has made a very poor decision to display his pains and frustrations in a way that I know he will come to regret at some point. I am sure his anger is going to fester and grow and he will walk about the earth in a state of unhappy rage trying to convince the world of the evils of a people and gospel that he simply did not agree with himself.
I cannot help but wonder though, in my own simple way of thinking, why he does not attack Catholics, or Lutherans, or any OTHER religion that is asked to pay tithe? Why seek out to call blasphemy on the church he was a member of before, and single them out as the "deceitful" and "illegal?" Why try to tarnish our name with such anger and fury when people of the LDS faith CHOOSE to pay tithing? Our membership and fellowship in the church is not revoked for not paying tithing.
We do need to be paying tithing to attend the temple, which though it seems unfair, is actually not that illogical to one with an open heart who is not attached to their dollar bills as a sense of peace and well being. For me, paying my tithing is a physical sacrifice that I make to my heavenly father to accomplish 2 things.
#1) I am giving him a symbol of good faith that I know that he will take care of me in difficult times and that I trust him to do so, and that I am worthy to accept a greater calling and remain focused in him and not my financial complications. I am not saying I do not worry at times about my finances, because I sole heartily do! I am human too, believe it or not. But I am showing him that he is the most important figure in my life, and that all other worldly things come AFTER him in my priorities.
Money is the #1 temptation and symbol of the world we live in. It represents a material list of wants and physical needs, and though it is necessary in the civilization we live in, I believe that heavenly father wants to know that he can trust us with the sacred things we will promise inside the temple, and that our focuses are where they need to be to make those promises worth while and understood.
My #2 Reason is this:
Running this church on the scale that it is run, with the charity work that we provide for the world around us, is not cheep. Yes we absolutely DO have a extensive rainy day fund, but that is just what it is; A RAINY DAY FUND. During the collapse of the economy in 2008, our church continued to run and progress when everything else was failing and many of our members had lost their jobs. We supported those members by paying their bills, giving them food, and helping them get back on their feet. Lets do the math on that shall we?
A fairly normal LDS family has 3 children and 2 adults. They probably have a home where they need to pay a mortgage and bills. A normal home in Utah is roughly $800 per month in mortgage. Utilities generally range around $500 if the family is fairly conservative. Car bills have to be paid and the average I came up with is about $250 a month give or take on 1 car. Food for this family a month is about $400 for us to supply through our service with our bishops store house. Yes, we donate the time to package and raise that food, but there is still cost involved in feeding that cow, buying and growing the crops...etc. We also provide service to help these individuals find work. That service cost money to run too. All in all on a conservative scale, ONE family will cost the church around $1450 for basic life per month.
There were 304.09 million people living in the USA as if July 1 2008, according to the US census, 7% of our population was unemployed. Now, if we follow this statistic, our church had 14 million members around that time. IF 7% where unemployed, that means we where taking care of 980,000 members at that time. If we cared for these 980,000 members at 1450 month we would have been using $1421000000 to support our members alone. Yes, there will be variables in this but allow these numbers to let you think about what I am trying to show you. It cost a lot of money to run this church the way we do.
Make a list of all the things that the LDS church takes part in that COST MONEY. Upkeep of the building, building new buildings, supplies for the buildings, caring for in need members, humanitarian work...IT ALL COST MONEY AND A LOT OF IT. At the end of the day, tithing is asked for the benefit of not just us and our church but to help those not of our faith is well. Tithing is another act of trusting our heavenly father and our leader to take care of Gods sheep and allow ourselfs to believe in what we do, even when we do not understand totally. Letting of part of your paycheck when you are hurting is hard, and I wont deni that. But look at the bigger picture in what you are being asked to do. You are simply being asked to let go of your monetary worship and allow that money to support the good in humanity that we try and accomplish.
Further proof is available if you look at the actual facts available and not the facts of those twisting our manuals and records.
Wikipedia:
Finances of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) are similar to other non-profit and religious organizations, where the principal source of funding comes from the donations of its members and the principal expense is in constructing and maintaining facilities.
When the LDS Church takes in more donations than it pays out in period expenses, it uses thesurplus to build a reserve for capital expenditures and for future years when period expenses may exceed donations. The church invests its reserve to maintain the principal and generate a reasonable return and directs its investments into income-producing assets that may help it in its mission, such as farmland- and communication-related companies (see below).
The LDS Church has not publicly disclosed its financial statements in the United States since 1959.[2] The church does disclose its financials in the United Kingdom[3] and Canada[4] where it is required to do so by law. In the UK, these financials are audited by the UK office ofPricewaterhouseCoopers.
The LDS Church maintains an internal audit department that provides its certification at each annual general conference that contributions are collected and spent in accordance with established church policy. In addition, the church engages a public accounting firm (currentlyDeloitte & Touche) to perform annual audits in the United States of its not-for-profit,[5] for-profit,[6] and some educational[7][8] entities.
IN a nut shell, I hope you can forgive me my ramblings, and I hope that I was able to provide some insight to someone along my little journey. In the end, I only pray for the poor angry soul who is looking for someone to assure him his anger is just. I do assure you sir, your anger is valid. We all get frustrated when we do not understand things and anger is a natural response. Your anger is absolutely valid and I feel for you and your Frustrations, but your accusations fueling that anger...they on the other hand are not accurate. Unfortunately, you are barking up the wrong tree in dealing with whatever caused you to be so angry. I wish you the best in finding the answers you seek, and I hope that at some point you will relize you are loved and not forgotten, and that your anger and Frustrations with your former faith will be put to rest so that peace can once again find you. Whether you come back to the church or not, I wish you nothing more than the peace and rest from this anger; you deserve that. Best of luck, my friend.
Artfully Yours,
Jetta Marie
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