Wise Stewardship and Tithing
Wise Stewardship
As a member of the Church I was often counseled to be wise in my stewardship. Indeed, such counsel is strongly given numerous times throughout scripture. For example: Doctrine and Covenants Section 72:3 has this to say.
"And verily in this thing ye have done wisely, for it is required of the Lord, at the hand of every steward, to render an account of his stewardship, both in time and in eternity."
Evidently, stewardship is an important part of our responsibilities...enough so that God will call us to an accounting. I grew up believing that we do have responsibilities and a sacred duty to discharge those responsibilities with honor and commitment. There is no responsibility greater than that of providing for, and raising our families to become decent, honorable, and kind human beings.
To that end, I wish to discuss "wise stewardship" particularly as it relates to financial matters and Church tithing. How does "wise stewardship" and "paying tithing" intersect? How is tithing defined in the scriptures? Well according to Doctrine & Covenants Section 119:4-5 here is how it was defined
"And after that, those who have thus been tithed shall pay one-tenth of ALL THEIR INTEREST annually; and this shall be a standing law unto them forever, for my holy priesthood, saith the Lord." (emphasis added)
"Verily I say unto you, it shall come to pass that all those who gather unto the land of Zion shall be tithed of their SURPLUS properties, and shall observe this law, or they shall not be found worthy to abide among you." (emphasis added)
Something I find very interesting in all of this is the fact that tithing both Biblically and in the early days of the church, was assessed against the "surplus" among the saints...and even more importantly, tithing was assessed against the increase, rather than total income. Ask any business owner if income and increase are the same thing. The business owner will respond with either a resounding "NO!" or he will be a former business owner.
If a business owner was to pay tithing on his "Gross" It is very likely that business would go under inside of one year. For example, in one year a business sells $100K in product. The cost of the product is $90K. That leaves $10K in profit. That profit is 10% of the gross...so if you pay on the gross profit, in this case $100K then every cent of your profit just went to tithing.
A business has many requirements in order to make money. They have, for example, transportation costs, employee labor costs, facilities costs, and so forth. If a business were to pay 10% of it's gross income, the shareholders would likely be suing the CEO for misappropriation of funds.
Lets look at a household. Is "income" the same thing as increase? Do you have facilities costs? I'd call a home "facilities costs." Do you have transportation requirements? Few people are able to walk from home to work. Do you have personnel costs? Actually you do, because the children require clothing, food, medicine and other costs. Income is not increase. Increase is what you have left over that you can put away...after your expenses. Why would it be okay for a business to pay tithing on "increase" but if you are not paying on your gross income, you are not a full tithe payer? Which ranks higher in value to you...a business for the purpose of making money, or income for raising a family?
Picture it this way. There is a ravine on your property in which there is a stream. Sometimes that stream has increased flow and sometimes decreased flow. Over time though, the flow remains pretty constant. Money, like the stream is "flow." If you dam the stream and hold some back, that becomes "increase." The money in your "reservoir" (aka "your savings account[s]) is what should be considered increase and the annual increase considered titheable.
In the meme posted above, this church leader is asking you to gamble your stewardship for your children. Your family is uniquely your responsibility. I doubt that God is pleased or considers it "good stewardship when you put your family at risk for basic necessities. Necessities are not increase; they are necessary for the health and well-being of your family.
I'm reminded of the scripture in Mark 2:27
"And he said unto them, The asabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath:"
Likewise the church was made for man, and not man for the church. To gamble your children's welfare for the sake of the church is an abrogation of your most sacred responsibility. It is a violation of your "stewardship."
Tithing from surplus is vastly different than tithing from income. One will lead to financial security, good stewardship, healthy and happy children, and significantly reduced stress. Few situations will become "financial emergencies" because you will have adequate resources. Paying tithing on your "income" is asking people to tithe from a position of lack...regardless of expenses. According to the church you demonstrate your faith by paying tithing this way, yet according to the scriptures, tithing has always been paid on surplus and increase...from a place of sufficiency not of dependency.
Please consider this carefully. The church has often said that it is you who determines whether you are a "full tithe-payer." These scriptures tell you that God's requirements for tithing disagree with the definition of "ten percent of your gross income."
I don't know about you, but I'd far rather answer to the Lord that I fulfilled my stewardship to my family than paid exhorbitant and excessive tithing.
Excellent thoughts, Max. Having never been a Mormon, nor any particular religion, I've been amazed that so many people believed giving to a church was something a god would need.
ReplyDeleteThanks for writing this, Max. While I no longer practice any religion nor give any of my income to such organizations I do believe in sharing my "increase" with those in need. It's not the concept of tithing that I disagree with but the duplicity of so many religions that require such great sacrifice of the members while the church is gilded and gaudy with excess decoration. Let the church experience the same spare realities as the members.
ReplyDeleteAs the LDS church promoted this anecdotal guilt trip for more money from the bleeding turnip members they also announced the building of five new temples. The average cost could be estimated around 7-10 million for each temple. And the rituals performed in these temples are for dead people. Dead people don't need our money or food or shelter. They're dead. Imagine what 50 million dollars could do for truly hungry living people in the developing world.
If we are inclined to care about sharing our increase then there are legitimate charities who use that money wisely and for living breathing human beings in need. We donate to the Red Cross and Habitat for Humanity. We don't have a lot of "increase" but we share out home, share our food, share our warmth with any in need. I find that far more worthy than giving it to a corporation/church that gives less than .04 percent of the money collected to charitable causes.
All the work in temples IS NOT for the dead. Marriages are performed there. Spiritual instruction and learning occur there. If you have never been in a temple, you should not assume to know what goes on. Also, you do not understand the spirit of tithing and the many, many blessings that come from paying tithes. I think you will find that most people who tithe will tell you they never missed the donations, never suffered a lack. Please talk to more than a couple of people before forming your opinions. Much good all over the world is done by the LDS Church from member tithes and offerings. In fact, you will find that in national or international disasters it is most often the Church that provides the most relief and aid. I remember reading an article once after Katrina that the top three donors of aid were the LDS Church, the Mormon Church, and one other. I guess they did not realize that LDS and Mormon were the same church. Mormons take care of their own but they also share with the world. The Church welfare system has often been lauded as the perfect example of how a welfare system should work. The Church isn't greedy, the clergy is all unpaid, members give of their time freely and leaders hold other jobs like everyone else to pay their own expenses. The Church is about doing the Lord's work, not lining individual pockets. As to tithing, offerings, or even service, it is all voluntary, there is no force to do any of it, and if you choose not to, you are still loved and welcome as much as those that do. Please take the 'worldly' interpretation off all this and try looking at it through a spiritual perspective. I assure you that you will find that most members consider these things blessings and not burdens.
DeleteNora, I can appreciate your ardent defense of the Mormon methodology but first of all many of us who are no longer members are former temple going, tithe-paying members. We know full well what goes on in the Temple. The bulk of what happens in the church is "work for the dead" so while Insana D's comment is not perfectly accurate it is "in the main" correct. Your comment is actually a strawman fallacy, using a single point to attempt to discredit her comment.
DeleteSecond, if you are not a "full tithe-payer" you are not granted a temple recommend, which means that the church actually holds members hostage from the "temple blessings." That means that tithing is in fact *NOT* voluntary in the Mormon church and that the "saving ordinances" given in the temple are not available for you.
Third, the financial data provided by the church indicates that over a 25 year period, the church actually only donated $300 million in cash toward charity. That means that the church donated approximately $1.2 Million dollars per year "IN CASH." When you compare that to the estimated $7B annually the church takes in tithing income, it means that the church received over that period $175 B dollars.
Let me write that out.
300,000,000.00
---------------------------
175,000,000,000.00
=.0017
= less than .2% of their income to charity.
Put another way, that means the church retained 99.93 percent of the tithing income...for the church.
There is literally no other "charitable organization" which retains that much "overhead."
Finally, the article above only says that "traditionally" tithing was always paid initially on "surplus" and thereafter on "increase" and it says this in canonized Mormon scripture. The church's demand of paying tithing on "income" isn't supported in its own scriptures. So when Elder Cordon suggests that people should pay tithing before buying food for their children he is incorrect, and in my opinion violating God's commandments both regarding the law of Tithing and the stewardship a father and mother have over their families.
As with most of what I read from you, well written!
ReplyDeleteFor years after I left the LDS church well meaning members and my own family erroneously assumed that I must not know the church well enough or have a true perspective of how wonderful it is so they'd send the missionaries or some sweet neighbor to try to woo me back in with their intense inside knowledge of how the church "REALLY IS". It was mildly irritating but eventually became quite offensive. They often assumed that I just hadn't read the Book of Mormon, hadn't gone to the temple enough times, hadn't heard the words of the leaders, hadn't understood the gospel. They assume that if I'd seen it through their eyes, adopted their views that it would have the impact of turning my heart and mind to the same conclusions they have.
ReplyDeleteI've been to the LDS temple, before the rituals were neutered and after. I found them as creepy in 1985 as they were in 1998 and other than my own temple sealing and some for relatives, ALL the work I did in the temple was for dead people. People who are dead. Dead and buried or cremated and dead dead dead. Imagine taking the time to shower, get dressed up, get a sitter, drive to the temple, get undressed, put on the temple garb, go through the rituals of an endowment ceremony for two hours, get rushed out of the Celestial room where none of my questions were ever really answered, and then get dressed back in my own clothes, drive back home, pay the sitter, all for someone who is dead. Someone who was either Catholic or some other faith or no faith at all. Someone who may well have not given a fig about the paltry efforts of the LDS church to coerce them to change their religious beliefs. And all that time, energy, money for a dead person.
No well got dug. No homeless person got cared for. No child got comforted. No one was taught to read. No garden got built. No road was improved. No one got a life saving immunization. Just all that time for a dead person.
When you boil all the sap out of Mormonism, and there is a lot of sap so have some big buckets ready, it's a death cult. It worships the dead, has rituals for the dead, builds expensive temples for the dead, requires the members to spend their own money and time for the dead. Dead, dead, dead.
No thanks. Mormonism is a silly religious cult that I have no taste for anymore. If I'm going to give of my time and energy it will be for the living.
Nora, you're out of your league. Your testimony plays well among the believers but the rest of us have been there, done that, and gotten the messy garments to prove it.