Today i have been thinking a lot about the " Law of Tithing" We as memebers, we are asked to pay a full tithe, which is 10% of your total income. If you dont do this you dont qualify to recieve a temple recommend, if you dont go to the temple you wont make it to the Celestial Kingdom or be entitled to certain " blessings" It is a lot of pressure. We are taught that the tithing money is used to build up the Lords house, our Temples and is used for humanitarian services to help people in times of disaster.
As a memeber i didnt know that the Law of tithing has changed over the years. I didnt know the church owns a shopping mall in Salt Lake City, i didnt know that the church is connected to 13 LLC companies. These companies collectively owned the stocks at the end of 2017 and provides the collective value at $ 32,769,914,000. There is a lot of information on Mormonleaks.com.
The LDS Church has not disclosed its finances since 1959. The church is a corporation and everytime you pay your tithing your feeding into it.
So lets talk about how the law of tithing applied in my life. When Alan and I got married we tried so hard to be worthy temple reccomend holding members. When we hit hard times thats when we struggled so hard to pay a full tithe, but we wanted those blessings promised to us so we would do it. As a members we are told story after story of people who were dirt poor and they had a choice to make, they either pay tithing or buy groceries for there family. They would choose tithing, and somehow magically money would just appear out of thin air and they had enough to provide. What a blessing right? Well these stories made us feel like a piece of shit. Im sorry but magic isnt real, money doesnt just appear out of nowhere. Where were our blessings? We fought day after day to make it as a young couple with little kids, and a husband in school. I would be worried sick week after week, i would cry privately so Alan didnt know how worried i was. There were times we would stop paying our tithing and we could catch up on our day to day, paying bills, getting grocieries and buying diapers. We went through this agonizing cycle of me feeling a heavy burden to uplift Alan and encourage him to stay faithful, so we could pay a full tithe together. We would pay it fulling expecting to be blessed, we had the faith! I tried to put faith above the fear.
This idea of putting Faith above Fear... its a tool that religions use to keep members faithful. It invokes these feelings that are interpreted as a spiritual confirmation, or experience. When you are joyfully giving all you have to the gospel you will be more willing to serve and give of all you have. If you dont pay..... the guilt.... the cycle of " If i had been more faithful i would have recived more blessings".... back n forth again and again, it was awful! Meanwhile as we cant afford to buy grocieries for our family we are depending on the church for help. We needed food and they paid some bills we couldnt afford to pay. Since leaving we got 10% of our income back! Now we can pay our bills, buy groceries and not feel the burden of not being worthy to receive blessings. In fact we have had little " miracles" if you want to call them that since we left that have helped us tremendously! Alan got a much deserved raise, i found 60 bucks in a random book, we also got a check in the mail for $300 from somewhere unexpected. Where were these " blessings" when i was crying on my knees begging God to help us? Why were we not blessed when we were being faithful and striving to be worthy?
I cringe when i listen to my best friend vent about the struggles they are facing with her husband out of work and they are paying a full tithe. Where is there magic money? These stories the church tells us are just that, faith promoting stories with not a lick of truth in them. The LDS church is a corporation. I am so glad im out!
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