Well done and said, Jana!Jana Riess wrote: It’s rare to say that a news story changed your life or your course of behavior. But that’s what happened to me a year ago, when Religion Unplugged and the Washington Post broke the story that my church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, had amassed a nest egg in excess of $100 billion.
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The short version of all this is that while I am still a full tithe-payer, I have not paid a dime of it to the Church in 2020.
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At tithing settlement this year, I declared myself a full tithe-payer and explained why none of that money has gone to the Church. I don’t know what fallout there will be from this decision, if any. Frankly, it’s not important whether I continue to hold a temple recommend or not. What’s important to me is that at least a few kids who didn’t have food or access to education will have meals, school, and the basics. I should have done this a long time ago.
When I told my Branch President, a couple of years ago, that I would not contribute financially in any way to the LDS church, he asked, a bit snarkily: "What do you do with the money, then?" (He apologised later)
I listed the causes that I had supported in the previous month, and told him that I felt good knowing my money was going to people who needed it, and not to a huge rich corporation.
