Wasting Tithing Money?

[_Ludd]

I'm surprised that no one has commented on something I found especially bothersome in this latest conference. Saturday morning there was a talk by a seventy named Craig Christensen. In his talk he spoke of the building of a temple and how he was walking through it with the contractor before it was completed. He told about how the person inspecting the workmanship ran his hand along a wall that was going to be covered with wallpaper. The wall had a little bit of what he called "grit" on it. They were told "this is not up to temple standards" and so they would have to redo it. Then they went by a stained-glass window in a part of the temple that few people would see, and that would be covered by a plant anyway. He noticed a single small pane in the window that was a little skewed in some way. He said again "this is not up to temple standards" and he told the workers that the window would have to be replaced.

His point seemed to be that the quality of temple construction had to be absolutely perfect or it wouldn't be good enough for God to come to it. But all I could think about was how much tithing money was unnecessarily spent on the extra work to re-do a wall and an expensive stained-glass window just to satisfy the white-gloved nutjob that was reviewing the workmanship. It makes me wonder what happened to the expensive window? Can you imagine how much those things cost? At least hundreds if not thousands of dollars to do fancy windows like that. Surely the window with the slightly out of square piece was good enough, especially if it was going to be behind a plant and rarely seen by temple goers.

Anyway, that really bothered me and made me wonder how much tithing money is wasted in a similar fashion, just to satisfy the demands of people who probably live in million dollar custom built mansions and are used to getting things just how they want them, no matter the expense.

[_Yoda]

My feeling, though, is, at least we are AWARE that our tithing dollars go to building temples. Frankly, the building of temples, church buildings, etc. is what tithing SHOULD be for. I would rather have my tithing money going toward perfect construction of a temple than toward a high end mall in Salt Lake.

[_Stormy Waters]

I was bothered by it and was going to mention it but I forgot.

What really would this say about God? Does he want the widows mite to be spent fixing things that no one will notice or care about? Can he really not think of better ways to spend the money? Would he have been offended if they'd just said the square was good enough?

Is that what God thinks is important?

[_Yoda]

I was bothered by it and was going to mention it but I forgot.

What really would this say about God? Does he want the widows mite to be spent fixing things that no one will notice or care about? Can he really not think of better ways to spend the money? Would he have been offended if they'd just said the square was good enough?

Is that what God thinks is important?

I think that it really isn't so much what God wants, but what God's people want to give to God. I also think that there is some symbolism at play here. The temple, in a sense, is supposed to be symbolic of God's Celestial mansion, which would be perfect in every sense...in the places that could be seen, as well in the places that could not be seen.

[_Kishkumen]

Only the best offerings are presented to the Lord.

I am surprised this even raises an eyebrow.

[_bcspace]

His point seemed to be that the quality of temple construction had to be absolutely perfect or it wouldn't be good enough for God to come to it.

I think he also used the term "moderation", but in that case I believe he was comparing to Solomon's temple which was likely a large percentage of Israel's GDP. In any case, I certainly don't think it's a waste of money. It's part of the principle of sacrifice which is akin to fasting.

[_zeezrom]

I'm surprised that no one has commented on something I found especially bothersome in this latest conference. Saturday morning there was a talk by a seventy named Craig Christensen. In his talk he spoke of the building of a temple and how he was walking through it with the contractor before it was completed. He told about how the person inspecting the workmanship ran his hand along a wall that was going to be covered with wallpaper. The wall had a little bit of what he called "grit" on it. They were told "this is not up to temple standards" and so they would have to redo it. Then they went by a stained-glass window in a part of the temple that few people would see, and that would be covered by a plant anyway. He noticed a single small pane in the window that was a little skewed in some way. He said again "this is not up to temple standards" and he told the workers that the window would have to be replaced.

His point seemed to be that the quality of temple construction had to be absolutely perfect or it wouldn't be good enough for God to come to it. But all I could think about was how much tithing money was unnecessarily spent on the extra work to re-do a wall and an expensive stained-glass window just to satisfy the white-gloved nutjob that was reviewing the workmanship. It makes me wonder what happened to the expensive window? Can you imagine how much those things cost? At least hundreds if not thousands of dollars to do fancy windows like that. Surely the window with the slightly out of square piece was good enough, especially if it was going to be behind a plant and rarely seen by temple goers.

Anyway, that really bothered me and made me wonder how much tithing money is wasted in a similar fashion, just to satisfy the demands of people who probably live in million dollar custom built mansions and are used to getting things just how they want them, no matter the expense.

Imperfect men trying to build a perfect edifice? How does that work? We admit these men are imperfect, right?

[_Ludd]

I was bothered by it and was going to mention it but I forgot.

What really would this say about God? Does he want the widows mite to be spent fixing things that no one will notice or care about? Can he really not think of better ways to spend the money? Would he have been offended if they'd just said the square was good enough?

Is that what God thinks is important?

I don't think it says anything about God or what he thinks is important. I'm sure the damn window was beautiful just as it was. It probably represented the total tithing of a whole branch in Africa or Guatamala, thrown into the trash bin because someone thought God would be offended by one piece that was slightly imprefect.

[_Gadianton]

I have to agree with the Reverend, if standards weren't so high, it's unlikely the Lord could dwell in the temple to give revelations like the recent one lowering the missionary age.

[_Ludd]

I'm surprised that no one has commented on something I found especially bothersome in this latest conference. Saturday morning there was a talk by a seventy named Craig Christensen. In his talk he spoke of the building of a temple and how he was walking through it with the contractor before it was completed. He told about how the person inspecting the workmanship ran his hand along a wall that was going to be covered with wallpaper. The wall had a little bit of what he called "grit" on it. They were told "this is not up to temple standards" and so they would have to redo it. Then they went by a stained-glass window in a part of the temple that few people would see, and that would be covered by a plant anyway. He noticed a single small pane in the window that was a little skewed in some way. He said again "this is not up to temple standards" and he told the workers that the window would have to be replaced.

His point seemed to be that the quality of temple construction had to be absolutely perfect or it wouldn't be good enough for God to come to it. But all I could think about was how much tithing money was unnecessarily spent on the extra work to re-do a wall and an expensive stained-glass window just to satisfy the white-gloved nutjob that was reviewing the workmanship. It makes me wonder what happened to the expensive window? Can you imagine how much those things cost? At least hundreds if not thousands of dollars to do fancy windows like that. Surely the window with the slightly out of square piece was good enough, especially if it was going to be behind a plant and rarely seen by temple goers.

Anyway, that really bothered me and made me wonder how much tithing money is wasted in a similar fashion, just to satisfy the demands of people who probably live in million dollar custom built mansions and are used to getting things just how they want them, no matter the expense.

Imperfect men trying to build a perfect edifice? How does that work? We admit these men are imperfect, right?

I'm sure the window, as it was, represented the best efforts of someone. So what if it was slightly imperfect? Isn't the fact that it was the best effort of someone enough?

I remember Pres. Hinckley talking about the imperfections of the stones used in the SL Temple and the Conference Center and how they were symbolic of the imperfections in the Saints. But he didn't seem to think they all had to be thrown out and replaced with perfect stones.