Benjamin McGuire wrote:Harmony writes:
They belly up at the church's trough year after year, living in warm homes with food on the table and clothes on their backs paid for by the widow and the poor, who go without food and shelter to pay their 10%... and then the GA's kids get a college education for free? Does anyone but me see anything wrong with that picture?
Sure. It is tinged with your bitterness. How many of the "widows and the poor" receive assistance from the church? Do you think that the church wants to make people go without food or shelter? Are the majority of tithe payers the poor and the widows? Does most of the tithing funds of the church come from these impoverished individuals and widows?
This is for the most part creative license, and it doesn't describe the vast majority of us middle-class members, who pay our tithing willingly (and who make up the bulk of tithepayers), and don't have the issues that you have. So, if you find some of us unsympathetic, perhaps its because your over-the-top rhetoric does far more disservice to your cause than might imagine. Here, of course, where there are so many critical of the LDS church, you may well find sympathy. But, it doesn't make it a good argument.
My over-the-top rhetoric (which I tend to agree with you about... it does occasionally get out of hand, especially with this subject) does not negate the fact that GA's (who make $600,000 a year, according to another thread) children attend college free, while that widow's child or that poor child has to pay (or get a scholarship, if they're smart or needy enough). Deal with the message, Don't kill the messenger, just because you don't like the message or the tone with which it is delivered.
On the other hand, I grew up in a very poor family (perhaps impoverished is a better word). I had twelve siblings. My parents converted to Mormonism. We payed our tithing, and always had sufficient funds to make do. On the backs of tithepayers (my parents included), seven of those thirteen kids managed to get a good education at BYU at a fraction of the cost it would have taken anywhere else (three went elsewhere, one is in the military, one has never gotten an education past high school, and the youngest is still in high school). Church tithing funds that may pay for the education of GA children have also given my entire family an opportunity to change the conditions of our existence.
Meanwhile, while your parents are scrimping and barely getting by, your average GA is taking home $600,000 a year, with an unaudited unlimited credit card, unlimited travel allowance, and... and their children go to school free. (And no, BYU is not a 'fraction of the cost' of similiar education. BYU costs about the same as many colleges that are just as good, and some better. That's a myth.)
I don't know about your circumstances now, but since I raised a family of 8 children under very trying circumstances, scrimping every penny, picking up produce in the fields after the harvesters went through because the farmer was kind enough to try to help me feed my family in the winters, making do or doing without, putting my kids in hand-me-down clothes, putting the baby's crib in the bathroom because there simply was no other space for it... I speak to the frustration of hearing about this kind of financial malfeasance. Don't try to patronize me, Ben. I lived it; I've been there, done that, and yes... I earned that teeshirt that says "8 kids, all college educated, none at BYU, all upstanding citizens, no thanks to the LDS church". The leaders lie every day, every minute of their lives. They tell the members and the world that they don't get paid... "without purse or script"... look how they sacrifice to lead our church. Horse manure, Ben. If this wasn't the Celestial Forum, I'd call it exactly what it is. They lie, and they cover up their lies by keeping the books closed.
In the decade I spent as a ward finance clerk and later as a district clerk assigned to help high councilmen perform their annual financial audits, I had access to the fiscal records of dozens of church units. I saw how much money came in, I saw what the money was spent on, and I saw how the needy were cared for. To take this tack really represents to me a degree of pettiness - and my perspective is as one who has been in the situation where paying the tithing was at time very burdensome.
Ben
And I don't doubt you at all. But you didn't audit the GA's, did you, Ben?
Let's talk about what they get:
$600,000 a year
unlimited credit cards
unlimited travel
rent-free housing in church-owned housing
all expenses paid
maid service
limousine service
That's the personal stuff.
Then there's the corporate stuff:
$6 billion on a shopping mall
$1.1 billion on a conference center that has leaks and structural problems
shoddy construction, poor quality materials, cost overruns, 7 day cures on concrete.
the whole Main Street Plaza mess
SLC's reputation for bribery and corruption during the Olympics
It just goes on and on... and why? Because the financials aren't transparent. There is no accountability. This is an example of unrighteous dominion and poor stewardship to the max.