You need to stop paying tithing 💸
Non-Mormons, feel free to sit this one out.
Mormons: Stop paying tithing. It’s a blind misallocation of your resources and goodwill.
I stopped paying tithing long before I left the Church. I don’t recall exactly when, but it was around 2014 when the Church’s doublespeak really started to bother me. Things like how gay people were cool as long as they weren’t gay-gay, and women were so spuritchul unless they wanted institutional spiritual power.
One day, I woke up and saw tithing as a tool to control my behavior. A box I ticked on temple recommend interviews. With that, I was done.
I’ve been quiet about these thoughts because people’s money is their business. But the more time goes by, the worse I feel about that silence.
Here are four key points from yesterday’s news in the Washington Post:
The confidential document, received by the IRS on Nov. 21, accuses church leaders of misleading members—and possibly breaching federal tax rules—by stockpiling their surplus donations instead of using them for charitable works.
The complaint was filed by David A. Nielsen, a 41-year-old Mormon who worked until September as a senior portfolio manager at the church’s investment division, a company named Ensign Peak Advisors.
Ensign is registered with authorities as a supporting organization and integrated auxiliary of the Mormon Church. This permits it to operate as a nonprofit and to make money largely free from U.S. taxes.
Philip Hackney, a former IRS official, said the complaint raised a “legitimate concern” about whether the church’s investment arm deserved its tax-exempt status. “If you have a charity that simply amasses a war chest year after year and does not spend any money for charity purposes, that does not meet the requirements of tax law.”
IN ONE SENTENCE: The Church owns a company that’s taken tithing to build a $100 billion investment fund that it does not pay taxes on, and that it has not used for charitable purposes.
(Just wait. It gets worse.)
To contextualize what a billion dollars is—and by extension, 100 billion: the average income of a full-time salaried worker in the U.S. is $46,800 (2018 data). Assuming this person spends literally nothing and only works, it would still take them 21,000 years to make one billion dollars.
Last year, the Presiding Bishop, Gérald Caussé, quoted President Hinckley in a General Conference talk: “When all is said and done, the only real wealth of the church is in the faith of its people.”
Well, heh. About that.
The whistleblower claims the church receives $7B billion in tithing each year. $6B goes to the IRS’ required “religious, educational or charitable activities”—with the additional $1B transferred to Ensign. Based on internal accounting documents from February 2018, the complaint estimates this portfolio has grown in value from $12 billion in 1997, when Ensign was formed, to about $100 billion today. (If these returns seem impressive, eh. I did the math. It’s roughly a 7% rate of return.)
You know what’s even less impressive? The whistleblower, who is testifying under penalty of perjury, says that in its 22 years of existence, the fund has not been put toward any direct religious, educational or charitable activities.
If for some ungodly reason you haven’t thrown something across the room yet: he also says the fund was used bail out two of the Church's for-profit entities.
First up: A $594 million bailout to Beneficial Life, a Church-owned insurance company that went belly-up in 2009 after credit default swaps turned out to be a bad idea. (Oh, you didn’t hear about this?)
What’s worse than bailing out a for-profit insurance company with nonprofit assets? How about spending more than double that amount—$1.4 billion—ON CITY CREEK MALL?
Man, credit default swaps and malls. Where’s the gift of financial prophecy when you need it? 🎩
I’m not in the mood to equivocate: I think the Church has Dorian Grayed itself into a toxic, morally unsalvageable institution.
Here’s what it has to say about this tithing issue:
From the newsroom: “Over many years, a portion is methodically safeguarded through wise financial management and the building of a prudent reserve for the future. This is a sound doctrinal and financial principle taught by the Savior in the Parable of the Talents and lived by the Church and its members.”
(Ah, yes. Ye olde we-squirreled-away-$100B-tax-free-because-that’s-what-JESUS-would-want. An impenetrable defense. Gah, foiled again!)
And from the Church-owned Deseret News: The Washington Post says the Church of Jesus Christ has billions. Thank goodness. “The church actually practices what it preaches regarding provident living and self-reliance. They take seriously the biblical story about Joseph and Egypt’s seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine.”
oOoH, Technicolor Dreamcoat Math 🌈 If it takes an average person 21,000 years to save $1B, and the Church has $100B, it’s officially prepared for TWO MILLION YEARS OF FAMINE. Let’s turn that moon to blood and get this party STARTED.
Back to the whistleblower, David Nielsen. Together with his brother, Lars, he wrote a 74-page supplement to his IRS complaint criticizing church leaders for continuing to seek tithing, despite having huge unspent reserves.
He wrote: “Would you pay tithing instead of water, electricity, or feeding your family if you knew that it would sit around by the billions until the Second Coming of Christ?”
As he was writing that document, Lars Nielsen said, he reflected on his mission to Sonora, Mexico, where he encouraged members to pay their tithing.
“One woman in particular, a very old woman who had dirt floors, went without tortillas for a week, so she could give her tortilla money to the Mormon church so her sick child would hopefully get better,” he said. “I am so utterly ashamed that her money, week after week, has gotten buried in a mountain, which is Ensign Peak Advisors.” (source)
To reiterate what I began with: Tithing is a blind misallocation of your resources and goodwill. You need to take control of these. It is your responsibility not just as Mormon, but as a person with a global family.
More tomorrow with ideas on how to do it.
Thanks for reading Gemini Mind! Elsewhere, you can find me as @yokizzi 💫