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I signed on to pay tithing today and discovered this message: Quote:Important Message
Under the direction of the Presiding Bishopric and to simplify the donation process, the following changes have been implemented:
A new donation category called “General Offerings” has been created. The “General Offerings” category will be used in lieu of categories such as “Book of Mormon,” “Temple Construction,” “Perpetual Education,” and “Temple Patron Assistance” (these categories have been discontinued). This change will allow members to contribute to a general donation category that will be used under prophetic direction to meet a variety of ever-changing needs as they emerge.
Going forward, if any donation to any of these four discontinued categories is still received, it should be recorded to the new “General Offerings” category.
It’s no skin off my nose because I haven’t given to any of those categories in many years. I strongly believe education is important and did at one time regularly give to the PEF, which I think was discontinued a few years back because they had all the money they could use. And back in the day when we had to contribute locally for temples I also gave to that fund (for two temples).
But my concern is that by consolidating all of these into one fund there is now even less transparency than there already was. This is not seeing through a glass darkly non-transparency, these are walls (probably lead-lined so Superman couldn’t see through). My guess is in the big picture the amounts donated to these funds is miniscule, but from my experience counting tithes and offerings donations are not non-existent. The general missionary fund and humanitarian funds do seem to garner more support than the others, and they are notably not consolidated with this bunch. I guess non-transparency is non-transparency no matter what your point of view (I don’t know what Obi Wan Kenobi would have to say about it).
I see it as bringing the tithing slip more in line with what the practices probably are. The following language used to appear on the slip:
Quote:Though reasonable efforts will be made globally to use donations as designated, all donations become the Church’s property and will be used at the Church’s sole discretion to further the Church’s overall mission.
In other words, they’ll try to use the funds how people designate them but don’t have any expectations.
Removing categories probably just reflects reality, where they don’t put much effort at all into matching donations with bills. I imagine each department gets a budget and they have enough money now to ensure that each department will be funded regardless of whether member donations towards individual departments are enough to cover the budget or if they fall short.
In looking for the language on the tithing slip, I ran across this image:
The “old” and “new” appears to be a change that happened in 2012. DJ, what’s interesting to me is that the categories mentioned in your quoted text (Book of Mormon, Temple Construction, and Perpetual Education) don’t even appear on the “new” tithing slip, only the “old” one. What is the actual change?
Maybe the “change” is meant to address how donations will be handled from people making their donations by depleting their inventory of outdated tithing slips?
nibbler wrote:
I see it as bringing the tithing slip more in line with what the practices probably are.The following language used to appear on the slip:
Quote:Though reasonable efforts will be made globally to use donations as designated, all donations become the Church’s property and will be used at the Church’s sole discretion to further the Church’s overall mission.
In other words, they’ll try to use the funds how people designate them but don’t have any expectations.
I don’t disagree and it’s likely you’re absolutely correct. Yet, I think there are members out there who gave to the BoM fund full well expecting their money was providing the BOM to missionaries/people who may not otherwise get one. Those of us who are more thoughtful and “with it” recognize that those BoM are going to be there regardless of whether or not people give to the BoM fund (although there was probably a time in the not-too-distant past where such was not the case). Likewise, there are likely people who have a strong belief/testimony of the temple and gave to the temple construction or patron assistance funds because they thought that money was being spent on temples and getting people their essential ordinances (helping them on the “covenant path”). I’m thinking of a particular older couple in my ward who likely gave/give to all of those funds as well as general missionary and humanitarian. Again, no skin off my nose if the church decides they’d like another little pot of money to secretly and without accountability spend as they please – I don’t give to those funds (I only pay tithing and that not on gross). I figure my tithing covers it all, and since I don’t know specifically what it’s spent on it is what it is (and I am at peace with that despite this little rant).
Since the ability to pay online came about I have not seen an actual tithing slip and I don’t recall ever reading the fine print. I bet most people haven’t.
:problem: There is fine print on the online version, which I had also never read and it differs slightly from the above example (I have no way of knowing whether this was a recent change):Quote:All donations to the Church are free-will offerings and become the Church’s property. In furtherance of its overall mission, the Church may shift donations from any designated use to other uses, at its sole discretion.
I guess they got us there.
DarkJedi wrote:
I think there are members out there who gave to the BoM fund full well expecting their money was providing the BOM to missionaries/people who may not otherwise get one. Those of us who are more thoughtful and “with it” recognize that those BoM are going to be there regardless of whether or not people give to the BoM fund (although there was probably a time in the not-too-distant past where such was not the case). Likewise, there are likely people who have a strong belief/testimony of the temple and gave to the temple construction or patron assistance funds because they thought that money was being spent on temples and getting people their essential ordinances (helping them on the “covenant path”).
One thing that I have observed by spending time in other churches is their direct support of specific causes. For example, one church has a wall of all the missionaries that they are supporting monthly. I remember a church doing a fundraiser (complete with oversized thermometer as they drew closer to the goal) to buy a missionary couple a new van to further their missionary work. I remember a missionary doing a presentation on all the good work that they are doing in Romania before asking for donations.
The giving felt more connected than what I had experienced in the LDS church.
In the LDS church we tend to donate without really knowing exactly what our money is spent on. It feels disconnected. It sounds like these changes will only further the disconnect.
Roy wrote:
One thing that I have observed by spending time in other churches is their direct support of specific causes. For example, one church has a wall of all the missionaries that they are supporting monthly. I remember a church doing a fundraiser (complete with oversized thermometer as they drew closer to the goal) to buy a missionary couple a new van to further their missionary work. I remember a missionary doing a presentation on all the good work that they are doing in Romania before asking for donations.The giving felt more connected than what I had experienced in the LDS church.
In the LDS church we tend to donate without really knowing exactly what our money is spent on. It feels disconnected. It sounds like these changes will only further the disconnect.
That’s a good point Roy, and I have seen similar things in other churches. Related, the local Methodist church has posted up front for everyone to see how much they took in last month and how much they needed (every time I’ve seen it they got more than they needed, I’m not positive what happens with the surplus). I’ve also been to their Christmas cantata and other musical presentations where they take a collection specifically earmarked for the choir for sheet music, etc. It’s an interesting contrast with our church.
Roy wrote:
In the LDS church we tend to donate without really knowing exactly what our money is spent on.
I donate blood regularly. This morning I received an email telling me the hospital, city, and state where my blood donation was sent. At first I wasn’t going to open the email. “What do I care were it went?” I thought to myself. However, I thought better of that and decided to take the extra few seconds to read it. I’m glad that I did.
This was the first time that I have ever received such an email and I would have continued to donate even without it. However, it is a nice extra step. I know that they can’t tell me exactly who is receiving my blood. However, with this extra bit of information, I feel more connected to the recipient. It feels like my little bag of blood really did make a difference instead of just disappearing into the opaque corporate structure of the healthcare industry. If I were to consider ceasing my blood donations, this email might just help me to reconsider.
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