{"id":104,"date":"2003-11-20T17:36:06","date_gmt":"2003-11-20T21:36:06","guid":{"rendered":"\/?p=104"},"modified":"2009-01-16T17:57:18","modified_gmt":"2009-01-16T21:57:18","slug":"utah-tithing-and-generosity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2003\/11\/utah-tithing-and-generosity\/","title":{"rendered":"Utah, Tithing and Generosity"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Note: This is a cross-post with Seeking for Righteousness. I am joining in the trend of cross-posting, as others have done, as a temporary means of jump-starting the blog.)<\/p>\n

Several people have posted online about Utah and generosity. There are posts by David Sundwall<\/a>, here<\/a> and here<\/a>, a post by Nate Oman <\/a> over here<\/a>, an update by the very busy Matt Evans (who apparently has time to promote a pro-life organization<\/a>, assist with an international charity outfit<\/a>, and still post on blogs) here<\/a>, and a detailed statistical analysis here<\/a>. (It seems like most of the Mormons and Mormon-discussers have weighed in, though we still need to get Dave<\/a> and Taint<\/a> to opine).<\/p>\n

I agree with much of what has been said by others. I especially think that David Sundwall’s recent post <\/a>is a nice balance of giving Mormons credit for their giving, while also noting valid concerns with attributing too much in the way of mental state to the tax-return chart.<\/p>\n

Is Tithing Really Confidential?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I wanted to disagree, however, with one characterization made by Matt, Nate, and one of Matt’s commenters. That is the polite fiction that nobody knows who pays how much tithing. I think this is fiction, of the same variety as many other phrases which church members perhaps wish<\/em> were true, but often are not. (It is along the lines of “All investigators meet the Bishop or local leaders before baptism”, or perhaps “Church basketball games can be a friendly, non-violent way to show a good example to non-members”).<\/p>\n

The reality is, first, that church members gossip, and one of the favorite topics is who is or is not keeping up. Members are very sharp-eyed, and will often start chatting immediately if a member stops going to the temple with the ward, or is released from a church calling for no apparent purpose. This is compounded by the fact that church leaders gossip. Not the First Presidency, of course, but gossip is endemic among local leaders. <\/p>\n

I cannot count the number of times I have been told private, personal information by a bishopric member or elders’ quorum presidency member, where is appears that the disclosure is for no reason other than to gossip. (As a member of the Elders Quorum presidency, I am often privy to personal information — I mean instances beyond where my calling would suggest I need to know certain facts). There are numerous reasons for this, I am certain — People like to name-drop, they like to show off that they have information, people are not good at keeping secrets. I am certain that I have, at times, engaged in such gossip myself (I don’t remember specific instances, but gossip is like that — and yes, I try not to). Information that I have been told (again, without apparent reason) includes members’ tithepaying status. This has occurred in more than one ward (and I haven’t been in the Elders Quorum presidency in other wards — so there was no possible reason I should be privy to such information). <\/p>\n

And, related to their gossip, church members ostracize and form cliques. Because of this reality, I am not convinced that social pressure does not coerce tithepaying. The idea that tithing is between the member and the Lord is certainly how things should be, but I think it is often not how they actually are.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

—–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mormon-life"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5913,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104\/revisions\/5913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}