Peter Sean Bradley, it seems has a real problem with the amount of money spent by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints aka the Mormons aka the LDS Church (non-polygamist) (non-reformist).
We the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints aka the Mormons aka the LDS Church(non-polygamist)(non-reformist), pay our tithe money to the general church fund and our fast offering money to our ward. There are also many other funds, humanitarian aid, general missionary, ward missionary, Book of Mormon, Temple construction, Perpetual education and then there is an other section for something you want money sent to the church for specific reasons it could be table clothes for all the wards in the state of IL, it could be for cub and boy scouts; it could be for the activity days of the girls age 12-18, it could be for anything you can think of that would be a good thing for your ward or for the church as a whole.
Every week the gray envelopes are handed in to a member of the Bishopric. This includes the Bishop, his first and second counselors. This is done during the three hour block of meetings that we have each Sunday.
The first Sunday of every month the young men are sent to the houses who ask for them to come and collect the Fast offering. Some people are shut ins and can not get out. Some people chose to give their Fast offering directly to a member of the Bishopric. Some can mail it to the Bishop.
Now while the Bishop is busy with his meetings the ward secretaries and the first and/or second counselor help to add the money given into each and every category. When the secretary is finished putting the numbers into the bank he then turns the money over to a member of the Bishopric for deposit into the bank. Once deposited then the member doing the depositing gives the receipt back to the secretary.
That is how the money is handled at the grass roots of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints aka the Mormons aka the LDS Church (non-polygamist) (non-reformist).
Now the tithing money is used to build Temples, ward buildings, and rent buildings for branches, this includes buying land all over the world and including Nebraska. Now extra money from the Temple Construction can only go for the building of Temples.
The fast offering money is kept in a separate account for the good of the ward, or branch. This money is used to help the people who are in the ward boundaries, member or not, who need helping with food, clothing, utilities, etc. There is an interview with the Bishop and he decides if you need his help or if there is a way to cut your budget so you can live within your means. Yes sometimes you have to go without cable or without dish network, or maybe even satellite radio. Or perhaps he will suggest that you quit smoking, or taking illegal drugs. He may decide you can not afford a cat or dog or both. If you don't agree with his decision or his cuts in your budget then you don't get the help that you thought you could have. You must also explain how you got into this situation. Just like receiving welfare from the government you need to explain your situation to the Bishop and help is at his discretion. I have never known anyone to be turned down. But I also don't know all 12 million+ members in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints aka the Mormons aka the LDS Church (non-polygamist) (non-reformist).
The fast offering money is put into a fund that is used by the Relief Society President to go with you, here in this part of MO because it is cheaper than sending someone to ST Louis and having to fix their car or truck as well because it broke down on the way there or back.
Now each and every storehouse across the world has a paid Bishop. The amount of payment is posted for anyone in the church to see if they go to LDS.org and sign in using their number, which they can get from the secretary, and look under jobs and opportunities.
The storehouse is like a huge grocery store where you get the basic staples of life. You can get meat, canned vegetables and canned fruit also fresh vegetables and fruit, you can get milk, butter or margarine, sour cream, cottage cheese, cheddar cheese, onions, tomatoes, lettuce, cabbage, apples, oranges, bread, eggs, toilet paper, diapers, dish soap, laundry soap, laundry dry bleach, shampoo, conditioner, cereal, flour, wheat flour, yeast, tampax, pads, aluminum foil, plastic wrap, spaghetti sauce, ketchup, mustard, chili con carne, canned beef, canned turkey canned tuna, soups, mushroom, tomato, vegetable beef well I think you got the idea. Additionally depending on what region you are in people donate their extra foods, bakeries donate day old breads and pastries, in AZ they donate grapefruit and lemons as well as oranges other parts donate broccoli or cauliflower or zucchini or other squashes.
It is the job of the storehouse Bishop to make sure his storehouse has enough food to last six weeks for every member his storehouse covers, fyi that is twice as much as in any given grocery store on any given day in this country. His wife helps with the people that come and checks them in and out. She also helps with the humanitarian canning. What is canned is determined by where you live. In FL it is the beef and turkey; I frankly don't know where the tuna comes from. In AZ they do all of the tomato products, salsa, ketchup, tomato soup, veggie soup, white beans, spaghetti sauce, chili con carne. The members of the several wards have the opportunity to help out and can purchase at cost food for themselves for food storage.
That is what the fast offering money goes to and is for.
All of the other funds are covered by committees. As for the reimbursements for the members of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the twelve and on down to the individual members of the church, if you spend your money in behalf of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints aka the Mormons aka the LDS Church(non-polygamist)(non-reformist), then you have the right to be reimbursed. Every president of every organization of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints aka the Mormons aka the LDS Church(non-polygamist)(non-reformist), has the same form for reimbursement to be reimbursed you must present the receipt along with the request.
Now we do have attorneys on retainers, we do have outside non member auditors who submit the audit to our tax attorneys to do our filing. They make sure that the time guidelines are met promptly.
Our most prominent member who is paid would be our Church President and our Prophet, Gordon Bitner Hinckley. He is given the house to live in next door to the Church Headquarters and is given a stipend of 12,000 per year to live on. He also has the money he saved his whole life and any he makes off of book sells.
Many of the members of the quorum of the twelve have written books. Most are retired from work and donate their time, they do get reimbursed. It would not take long to run up a 40,000 dollar tag for all of the places they stay and all of the plane rides around the world. So that should be no shock to anyone.
The other group that gets paid is the Missionary Presidents. When they are called and they chose to go, they quit their job and hope in three-five years someone else will have left and their job is saved for them. Lets take President Top the Mission President for the Nauvoo Mission, he left his job at BYU as a professor of Ancient Scripture to come to this area to serve as Mission President. He still has children that have not graduated and they had to leave their life to move here as well. His sole job is to keep the missionaries busy and on the task of serving the Lord in their missions. He is reimbursed and given a small stipend depending on where he lives.
Which brings us to the missionaries. My mother consulted with the church's attorneys regarding the differences between when IRS will or would not allow the mission monies spent as a charitable deduction.
Since some did and some did not and congress didn't feel a need to clarify the problem we came to a solution, I consulted and did the leg work, as paralegals do, for my mother. The law was very ambiguous regarding monies paid out for your children’s' missions and yet if it went into a general fund there were no problems.
There was also a disparity between who had to save how much. A mission in Tonga or Africa is much cheaper than a mission in LA or NYC so they developed 2 missionary funds instead of a general fund. The missionaries are still encouraged to save enough money to cover 350 dollars a month for two years for the young men and 18 months for the women. All of this is put into the fund for ward missionaries. That way they are paying with the money they saved, people also have the opportunity to put money in the other missionary fund that is the general fund. What happens is that many of the young men who are worthy to go on a mission could not do so with out the general missionary fund. By doing this the way it is done now no one is shocked about having to pay 2500 a month for a NYC mission as opposed to a 50 dollar month mission in Africa.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints aka the Mormons aka the LDS Church (non-polygamist) (non-reformist), is a 501c corporation and is therefore obliged to make its records available to the public upon asking.
So Peter Sean Bradley your friend is mistaken as a lot of members are regarding church policy and church tradition. An example of that is the Word of Wisdom, it say we should eat very little meat (not become vegetarians) eat fruits in season (as out of season they do not set well with the body) to not drink hot drinks (specifically green and black teas or coffee) to not imbibe in alcohol at all so we use water instead of wine and to do everything in moderation. Hot chocolate is fine just now fifteen cups a day, caffinated sodas are acceptable as long as they are drank in moderation (not two twelve packs a day)It also talks about exercising in moderation. Everything in moderation except for having children then have all you feel you are capable of taking care of.
I want to address LookinforLucy as well here we do not have arranged marriages in this country
or at least in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints aka the Mormons aka the LDS Church(non-polygamist)(non-reformist).
As for child abuse, starting when Elder Scott became one of the Twelve Apostles this is a topic that has been widely discussed during general conferences (the first weekend in April and October). These prophets have all addressed and stressed to not allow your child to go unwatched at church because anyone could become a member and claim to have changed. Many children have been molested in church not just ours. I believe the difference is that our church leaders are not trying to brush it under the rug, but to make parents aware that out of your site is out of your control. I hope this helps you somewhat concerning the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints aka the Mormons aka the LDS Church (non-polygamist) (non-reformist).
When it is alleged the first thing done now is the police are called if the parents have not already done so, then court is held by the High Priest Group along with the Bishopric, the accuser, and accuser's family and the Stake Presidency and then the Bishop does all he can to get counseling for the child and gives the family the support they need.
For the most part that has been my experience. I do know many Bishops feel betrayed because they were taken in. They forget they speak for God for the ward, the perps are not lying to them they are lying to God who knows the difference. In the end they will get theirs.
Thanks LookinforLucy for not letting this topic go. Beth.
