RockSlider wrote:This is my concern, I've continued to pay fast offerings as that money used to stay local and was given to help locals with food/bills etc.
Can/should we assume this is no longer the case with fast offerings?
At this point you'd probably be better off finding a worthy charity. Giving it to the church, you'll just never know for sure.
I wonder what a Bishop would say if one of his members said "Yes I pay 10% of my income to fill in the blank charity. So yes I am a full tithe payer."
I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use. - Galileo
Yeah, well, that's just, like, your opinion, man. - The Dude
Don't you know there ain't no devil, there's just god when he's drunk - Tom Waits
Stormy Waters wrote:At this point you'd probably be better off finding a worthy charity. Giving it to the church, you'll just never know for sure.
I wonder what a Bishop would say if one of his members said "Yes I pay 10% of my income to fill in the blank charity. So yes I am a full tithe payer."
There is nothing they can do to stop you. If all the Church members would do that, the Church would rapidly reform its "truthiness" in relation to donations and openness. That would be a very good thing.
"You lack vision, but I see a place where people get on and off the freeway. On and off, off and on all day, all night.... Tire salons, automobile dealerships and wonderful, wonderful billboards reaching as far as the eye can see. My God, it'll be beautiful." -- Judge Doom
The Church is FUBAR. I really believe it is a matter of time before tithing/Jesus Mall and historical issues such as deter Isaiah finally tear the Church down.
lostindc wrote:The Church is FUBAR. I really believe it is a matter of time before tithing/Jesus Mall and historical issues such as deter Isaiah finally tear the Church down.
Joseph Antley,
Are you still a TBM?
I wish you were right, but I think the church is too big and powerful and there are just too many members who are willing to believe whatever they are told.
I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use. - Galileo
Yeah, well, that's just, like, your opinion, man. - The Dude
Don't you know there ain't no devil, there's just god when he's drunk - Tom Waits
lostindc wrote:The Church is FUBAR. I really believe it is a matter of time before tithing/Jesus Mall and historical issues such as deter Isaiah finally tear the Church down.
Joseph Antley,
Are you still a TBM?
I wish you were right, but I think the church is too big and powerful and there are just too many members who are willing to believe whatever they are told.
The Church will crumble. I am not sure how any TBM can withstand the onslaught if phenomena such as Deutero-Isaiah (if scholars prove beyond reasonable doubt the different time periods). Also, the WWW is killing testimonies. Easy access to information is creating a bloodbath to many religions.
son of Ishmael wrote:Assuming you are right, how long before it implodes?
within 30 years.
The younger generations, with easy access to information will be the end of the faith. For example, a missionary finds a prospective member and instead of neighbors warning them of issues, the prospective member fires up their iPad and has easy access to kinderhook plates, Book of Abraham, polyandry, racism, and Will Schryver. This is not an exclusively Mormon phenomenon, other faiths are encountering the same issues.
I wonder what a Bishop would say if one of his members said "Yes I pay 10% of my income to fill in the blank charity. So yes I am a full tithe payer."
My bishop just said that I couldn't renew my temple recommend. I told him I considered myself a tithe payer and in accordance with the spirit of the law. He asked me whether I thought the funds were being misused, citing local examples. I don't think anyone who deals locally (like stake level, or even within Canada alone) misuses the funds, so I told him no. I didn't bring up the anomalous 150 million transferred from the LDS Canada charity to BYU (Cdn charities can transfer funds internationally to schools), probably to fund you know what. Nor the crazy price of the Arizona land purchases, or other things that I've seen beyond the more local level.
My tithes are set aside for some worthy pursuit, wherever and however it may arise. I'm completely dedicated to the building up of Zion and the church organization. But I think more highly of God than to offer my tithes in a manner that can be so easily abused, or misused. I've thought about donating goods or property with stipulations that it be used as it is intended, not sold for cash which can be abused.
lostindc wrote:... and Will Schryver. This is not an exclusively Mormon phenomenon, other faiths are encountering the same issues.
There are Will Schryver types in other faiths? Poor them.
(Nevo, Jan 23) And the Melchizedek Priesthood may not have been restored until the summer of 1830, several months after the organization of the Church.