Are you paying too much tithing? (Probably…)

Have you ever actually read the law of tithing? If you do so while referencing the 1828 dictionary (to understand the meaning of words at the time), a far different picture emerges than what is understood by most people in the church today. And it probably means that you're paying more than is required of you.

[icecreamladydriver]

Well, if it is excess then I think most of us can stop paying tithing.

[morjulies]

You most definitely are not alone in this! My husband brought this to my attention when we were studying d&c last year. It's been a concern that the church has so much money when there is so much poverty. So true that being more generous would be more doable without such steep tithes. Donation to humanitarian aid that may go to other places like unicef and inoculations is a concern also. 🤔

[personalitymanager]

I was shocked when I read the disclaimer that any contribution belong to the Church to use as they see fit. So if you check where you want your money go that doesn't mean a thing, legally. There are some places I would never donate to that the church has given to.

[tl]

My mission pres told us god would make us rich if we payed our tithing a year ahead. It worked for him and his wife. Very weird. Never felt right.

[richardtannehill]

There definitely needs to be better transparancy in the Church's expenditures. There ARE problems in this area; why else would the Church end up paying a $5M fine to the SEC last year? Up until at least 1959, the Church DID present an annual report to the membership on expenditures. When asked why they no longer do this, they responded that they were afraid that the membership would want more input on those expenditures. Isn't that a good idea?

[kimberleyk]

Your keen observation on subjects astounds me. Amazing. Thank you so very much for teaching us scripture and truths from our Heavenly Father.

[Kopaka-epug]

For financial transparency, how about we start with something basic, a pie chart. X% spent on maintaining chapels, Y% spent on church leadership stipends, etc. it doesn’t have to be crazy transparent but how about we just get a little window. Is that too much to ask?

[robinpauleota]

You wouldn't believe what my Bishop told an elderly, single, disabled woman recently. She needed help with her electric bill. He told her she had to come to church and pay $50 in tithing that week, and then $50 the following week, and a fast offering. Blew. My. Mind!

[WalterReade]

I'm curious what "by common consent" is supposed to look like for a church budget. Does everything need to be spelled out? Does the voting have to be unanimous?

[ethanevensen]

I just have a hard time believing that if we universally paid less tithing as a church that more good would be done. We would certainly have to stop building as many temples

[ethanevensen]

I think the current understanding of tithing is a simplification for a complicated financial reality. How many people do you know that tithe on their 401k, or raising value of their residence. If you want to get super technical I think you can just make sure you take it all into account.

[aBrewster]

You can even take all the “case law” discussion points at face value and the current practice of prioritizing gross income (or something close to it) is deeply problematic.

The prosperity gospel idea might resonate with some, based on their experience, but the results there are spotty, so earthly blessings cannot be promised as a law.

The biggest problem is the difference in faith requirement. GA and mission president compensation presents those men with the same opportunity to exercise math-defying faith to prioritize tithing over needs. But the Church opted for generous compensation that reduces leaders’ faith requirement to sacrificing some material wants. It’s a night and day difference that strays into priestcraft to the extent that members are allowed to believe that they must sacrifice needed resources in order to support a higher standard of living for leaders.

[incognito]

How can we follow the D&C when we're told to only listen to current prophets and disregard all previous prophets?🤔

[loudogg]

Assuming you're right here, and you definitely make some solid points, I doubt church leaders are hiding the truth nor have read the 1828 dictionary in regards to these words. That's a pretty new thing to gain popularity in the church. They teach what they know.

[dcgwpnz]

Look at all the people on the earth and I wonder exactly how much most of them donate to a worthy cause? I'll bet the lds people donate more voluntary money with their 10% and generous fast offerings every pay check than most people ever do. So that's the reason why it's so "hard" to get them to donate more.

From what the Bible teaches about tithing, a portion of it is to go to the Levite Priests, a portion of it is to be reserved so we can fund our journeys in observing the Lord's Feasts and Festivals, and a portion of it is to Feed the Poor. It also teaches we are to pay a tenth of our interest/increase (which is defined as what is more than what is required for our needs).

Now that we understand this law much better from actually studying the Bible, since we are already used to donating 10% of our income, we reserve extra after paying the proper amount of tithing, and we now feel honored to help the poor we are aware of with the additional money we have to donate. We also donate more than that at other times when we feel prompted to by our intuition or the Lord's Spirit. But it sure is nice to be able to donate to worthy causes now because we feel like we can; unlike in the past when we felt we couldn't due to how much we were already giving to the church, as it isn't always easy to budget when so much is taken off the top. And we always tithed the full amount of what we earned, which means the "gross" of our pay checks.

[kahina]

When I was on a mission, there was a branch president who was teaching about tithing and he also based his teachings on paying tithing off surplus advantage. The missionaries from the US confronted him about it. Then he was reported to the Mission President and the church made a big deal out of this teaching. They sent mission president's counselor to have a special lesson in the branch and clarify the law of tithing as being 10% of all our income and not interest. So while I get your point and you also support it with the Scriptures, I think this approach would be deemed as false interpretation of the law of tithing. I am in no way trying to dismiss your opinion, I only wanted to bring this to your awareness that this approach might be problematic with the leadership.

[ghstrdio]

Now look at this angle...How about a family of 5 on one income of 50, 000 paying 5, 000 in tithes a year compared to a single person making 50, 000 yearly paying 5, 000 in tithes... The tithes seem grossly unfair and even harsh for the family of 5... Five times the people and costs of the family of 5 compared to the single person, is just not right some how.

Family of 5 struggles to feed, clotge and house everyone while the single person can go to cancun and random trips paying the same tithing... It seems off for sure.

Having said that, I do have a testimony of the law tithing and ill never stop paying it to the best of my understanding BUT in this economic unstableness you got to ask why the disparity. Why does the family of five have to live in poverty compared to the single person? Maybe the way we understand the law is outdated and needs to be refreshed?

[jerry_phillips]

I have a strong testimony of tithing because I pay it. It's been proven to me over and over again that Malachi's promise is true. I prefer being on the safe side of the law by paying more not less. As a business owner I pay 10% of my income and annual distributions. I don't subtract personal expenses nor taxes before calculating tithing. I want to make clear that I'm just sharing my method and not dictating anyone else's.

[TJ-hwjr]

What about Alma 13:15 that says “And it was this same Melchizedek to whom Abraham paid tithes; yea, even our father Abraham paid tithes of one-tenth part of all he possessed.”

JST of the Old Testament doesn’t seem to agree with the BoM?

[strikeanerve]

I agree. Well done, i looked into this years ago and am on the side of 10% of profit. And some people may only have $10 profit at the end of the year. $1 would be their required tithing. Remember the widows mite.