EK's STAR LOG
CATEGORY ARCHIVES:
Amphibious Aliens -
The MUFON Interview -
Excerpt From
"For Fear of Little Men"
The Saco Ward
Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter Day Saints:
How is it that the church leaders are claiming you do not pay tithes?

May 29, 2017 NOTE:

The following is part of the Amphibious Aliens MUFON Interview. 

This excerpt appeared in my auto-biography "For Fear of Little Men".

The book is now out of print, used copies show up on Amazon and eBay from time to time, but the entire 700 page books is also available to read online for free, at the wordpress blog linked about. Those pages are being moved here to EelKat.com, this is one of them.

The 2017 10th anniversary update for the book, can be found HERE. It contains an update on what has happened in the 10 years since the original interview with MUFON.

The Saco Ward
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints:
How is it that the church leaders are claiming
you do not pay tithes?

How is it that the church leaders are claiming you do not pay tithes?

Posted on Tuesday, March 2, 2010 | Comments Off

EelKat: Yes. It is.

There is a reason for their accusation.

You see, my LDS/Moron membership records in Salt Lake City, show no moneys received, thus they say I have never paid tithing.

And it is one of the reasons they use to support their claim I should not attend church serves.

My Answer:

EelKat: Like I said – they have no record of my paying tithes. That is true, and they are correct in saying so, but it is untrue their saying I did not pay tithes. I shall explain, but first, you must understand how the tithe system of the Mormon Church is set up.

Every week, in Primary, Young Men’s, and Young Women’s classes (children aged 4 – 18) tithing slips are handed out by the teachers, with the instruction to be sure and pay your tithes before leaving the building that Sunday.

A Tithing Slip, has a place where members write in their name and birth date, as well as address and SSI number . You fill in the income lines telling your pay day amounts for the week, and than tell how much of your pay is going to tithes and how much is going to the church building fund and how much is going to the missionary fund and how much is going to the temple building fund and how much is going to the welfare program.

It is recommend that you put 10% of your week’s income in the tithing slot and than 5% in each of the other slots, for a grand total of 30% of your total weekly income going to the church, before taxes.

The form has 3 carbon copies – one for the Church to keep in your membership record in Salt Lake City, one for you to keep, and one for you to send to the IRS. Each slip includes an envelope. You put the slip and your money in the envelope and give it to your Bishop before leaving the building.

The form itself looks very similar to the IRS tax form you send in each April. And members retain a carbon copy of this slip which they send to the IRS so they can get a tax break for “charitable donations”.

The slips are not handed out to adults, but instead are left in a bulletin board pocket by the front door of every Mormon Church Building. You are expected to take one on the way in, fill it out and hand it to the Bishop on the way out the door after services. And when asked, most Bishops recommend you pay with personal checks rather than cash, because “it’s easier to keep track of who pays how much that way.”

However, Jesus teaches to be meek and humble, to give not for personal glory, to give in secret, and to never be “in the high places” boasting of your offerings.

Because of Jesus’ teachings, I do not place my name on the tithing slips, nor my SSI number, nor my address. I don’t fill out how much I earned that week. I never paid with a check. And I don’t personally hand my envelope to the Bishop. Instead, I paid with cash, often all coins and no bills, because – well, the most I ever made in a single year was only $1,800, so my weekly income was often less than $5.

How much did I pay? Because my income was so low, I often owed only a dime or a quarter each week. This did not sit well with me.

I felt that paying only a single coin was inexcusable, not when I had 10 other coins sitting there too.

So, how much tithe did I pay? I double everything on the slip. In the tithing slot I changed the 10% to 20%. In the church building fund, and the temple building fund, and the missionary fund, and the welfare program fund, I changed the totals from 5% to 10%. In the end, I gave a total of 60% of my income instead of the required 10% and the recommend 30%.

And because of the manner in which I did it, I get no tax breaks from the IRS either.

I would slip my tithing envelope under the door of the Bishop’s office, during the class meeting, when no one was in the hall, while on my way to the bathroom.

How they recorded it on the records and what they did with it I don’t know. It was cash, it had not way to identify the sender, and it was never given in person, so they had no way of crediting it to my church record.

I started doing this in September 1983, two weeks after my baptism, at age 8 years old, after a loud clear voice from the sky told me too, one day while I was praying. I had asked Bishop Mitchel (not to be confused with the Bishop Morgan of my teen years) about this and he said it was a good thing to do, this paying tithing in secret, and that it had been the Voice of the Holy Ghost which I had heard that day and I should obey it.

I gave more than half of my income to the church. I barely had enough to buy food when I got done, but I felt better about giving the money. I always remembered the verse about the woman who gave the mite in secret, and how Jesus blessed her, while chiding the wealthy men who gave so little of his wealth, but than went boasting to others how much he had paid. I strived to follow Jesus teaching in this, and thus always gave more than I was asked and always did it in secret. I don’t care how much the church leaders want to accuse me, I know I paid my tithes and I know I did it in the same manner which Jesus taught I should do it, and I also know that they have no right to judge me or falsely accuse me in the manner of which they have done so.

When I first became homeless in 2006, I went to Bishop Harmon and asked for help. It was the first and only time I had ever gone to the church seeking help. He was a new Bishop so went to Bishop Bryant (the older) for advice. He said, the Church welfare program only provide help to members, in the equivalent of how much tithing they had paid in over the years and because I had no record of ever paying tithes, the church could not help me.

I believe today, that the Voice I had heard all those years ago, was not for me, but for these very church leaders, and that my becoming homeless had a purpose, it was to test their faith to see whether God or Money talked louder for them.

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Comments Offon >RE: How is it that the church leaders are claiming you do not pay tithes?Posted in EelKat, LDS, Mormons, religion, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Tithes, Tithing, Wendy C. Allen

Paying Tithes