But before I digress, despite all of his business and academic training, including his confidence at donning a stats hat, Dr Bednar appears to have committed a huge calculation blunder when he answered one specific question at the NPC presentation linked above. In short he was asked whether the church would remove tithing requirements for members living in abject poverty, or at least adjust to requiring them only to pay on their increase, or income after expenses.
His response includes this phrase, referring to impoverished people:
This sentence and what it acknowledges has already been widely reported. I won’t retread that ground. But a fascinating new angle on the story came up this week. A thread over at Reddit reveals Bednar’s Blunder.Bednar wrote:The church doesn’t need their money, but those people need the blessings that come from obeying God’s commandments.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vAx1LRSB9kU&t=3082s
In essence, user Daau is claiming information asymmetry. In the west, apostle Bednar informs the media the church does not need tithing money from poor members! But is this message shared with members in the aforementioned “poor” countries? Evidently not.Daau wrote:
The church is telling western country members a totally different message from what they tell members in Africa.
Last month, Elder Bednar told a group of journalists that "the church does not need their money" and he was talking about poor members in Africa.
GUESS WHAT? THAT WOULD BE NEWS TO EVERY MEMBER IN AFRICA!!!
Here is the video at the time he says this.
https://youtu.be/vAx1LRSB9kU?t=3082
Meanwhile, if I am reading the numbers right, the church is sitting on $180 billion in monetary investments, saved up tithing that it never uses for anything. Like pirate treasure sitting around on an island.
https://widowsmitereport.wordpress.com
And that the church only gives about $60 million in money per year to help the poor? And that money is just from extra donations from members?
https://widowsmitereport.wordpress.com/ldsc
I feel like this is the twilight zone. How on earth does any church leader hear at what Bednar said, then look at these numbers, and have the gall to ask a single African member for more tithing money?
No leader ever in Africa tells members that the church doesn't need their money. Or that the church can already pay all its expenses for 30 years with no one paying tithing at all. That is NOT told to any African members. I bet if an African SP or Bishop told that to his flocks, he would be ex'd or at least released.
Members are only informed with talk after talk about how money will magically appear if you pay tithing. See this one:
https://africasouth.churchofjesuschrist ... g-blessing
If people would go there and spend even a day on the ground, you would know right away how hard life is, just to get by. No church should screw around asking good African people for money unless it actually totally necessary. Their average income per year is like the amount Americans will spend for a single vacation.
Even worse, members in Africa are taught that the ONLY way out of poverty is to pay tithing. It's like 99% of members live in poverty. So it's everyone, telling them they can be wealthier for paying tithing. There's a talk about this like every 6 months.
But you should all know, that the church doesn't do ANYTHING with their tithing to help alleviate poverty in Africa. The church hardly helps anyone there financially. It's policy not to hand out too much, like $10 is a lot, because otherwise people would just join the church for handouts. They are afraid of that too and this comes up in trainings all the time.
This is all so disgusting. It is unfair and amoral. It is a lie. For what, more money from the people who can least afford it so the church that doesn't need it can just add more to its pirate island? The church doesn't help break cycles of poverty in Africa. Not yesterday, not today. Local policy of limiting assistance for members also means, not ever.
I am forwarding these links to every member we know in Africa. Belivers or not, they deserve the truth. Truth that members in wealthy western countries already know. Please everyone do the same.
The blunder, as I see it, results from obvious contradictory messages being shared in an asymmetric way to different audiences. To saints in Africa, the church needs their money. They’re never informed otherwise. Meanwhile, to the media in a wealthy country, the church doesn’t need their money but they need the blessings. He’s trying to appease a hostile audience by adding more information, flipping the script just enough to sidestep the accusation of taxing poor members.
By the way, according to this link, it seems only 44% of households in Africa have internet access.
https://www.internetworldstats.com/africa.htm
So it won’t do to retort that somehow there is no such thing as information asymmetry in this information age.
Before making that argument, someone in church HQ needs to adjust the tithing talks in Africa, and other developing nations, so “informed consent” is equalized (for those without web access) about the church not needing their money. Don’t all members deserve to know the same facts when making life altering choices?
This may be a fresh application of chapel vs internet Mormons.