The only way to enter the Celestial Kingdom is to perform your ordinances.
Ordinances can only be performed in the Temple.
You must have a Recommend to enter a Temple.
You must pay a full tithe to get a Recommend.
If you do not pay, you do not get a recommend, you do not go to the Temple, you do not receive your saving ordinances, and you are damned (LDS definition: stopped up) for eternity. One definition of "coerce" is to use the threat of force. Damning one's soul for all eternity if they do not pay a full tithe seems to fit that definition.
Another critic attempting to use logical analysis to make their point? Shame, shame. Shall we parse this for its validity or soundness? No, why bother. The author of this piece doesn't understand LDS doctrine particularly well, so perhaps there is no point at all.
I want to draw particular attention to the logically frail inference our intrepid author makes in the last paragraph. He says:
One definition of "coerce" is to use the threat of force. Damning one's soul for all eternity if they do not pay a full tithe seems to fit that definition.
This argument could only work under conditions in which Damnation is understood as a threat, and in which the threat of force is understood itself to be predicated upon an unwillingness to comply. The thorough misunderstanding of LDS doctrine here is critical. Damnation, in varying degrees, is simply the
consequence of the level of knowledge and light we were willing to receive in mortality. It is not a threat so much as
a statement of the cause and effect relationships inherent in spiritual realities.
Further, there are a body of requirements for entering the Temple, of which financial support of the physical Kingdom of God is only one. Why focus on only this? The Word of Wisdom, law of chastity, honesty in business dealings, support of the Brethren and local leaders, and others are requirements as well, and all are fall under the "threat" of damnation if one ignores them. Indeed, in LDS doctrine,
damnation is a consequence of any degree of rebellion against light and knowledge when it has been revealed. Damnation comes then, in a wide variety of forms and in different degrees.
Further, all forms of damnation except damnation in Outer Darkness, involve kingdoms of glory. We are blessed and damned to the degree of our willingness to accept truth in this life.
Our intrepid Church Mouse then, is selling philosophical snake oil. We are free agents unto ourselves here, and have many options in choosing to obey the voice of the Lord, or to go our own way and follow the Yellow Brick Roads of Babylon. What Mouse, as so very many critics (and, in particular, the more secular and liberal among them) seem intent on doing, is confusing threat and coercion with the simple act of
pointing out the consequences of certain actions or choices in relation to other acts and choices against a background of alternatives. Thus, when it is seen that negative consequences are said to result from transgression of God's commandments and counsel, This is perceived (especially by those for whom such requirements are indeed a threat to self concept of world view) as a threat of force.
Of course, after several generations of being taught, through the pop culture and media that, indeed, bad things should never happen to us, regardless of our behavior, I can see the internal conflicts that result when faced with a philosophy that says yes, in point of fact, there are negative consequences that follow, inherently, from certain actions and choices.
All the Gospel does is
identify the choices and their effects; it does not impose by force, that one make one choice over another.
What mouse and other critics of this general persuasion here are really looking for is a church without standards at all; a church for the masses in which all participate at all levels of worship regardless either of what they think, or how they behave.
Frankly, to paraphrase Groucho, I'd never want to be a part of any church that would have me as a member, if by that is meant opening its entire system of doctrine, philosophy, and worship to me
as I am at this time.