I guess one of the reason there is such a stir is the fact that they continually try and highlight the for-profit businesses that are owned by the Mormon Church (Official name - The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints)
As is pointed out in the article and other commentary about the article is that it is very, very hard to talk about and quantify the finances of a religious organization. In the United States and many other countries around the world a religious organization is tax exempt and the contributions make to said organization are also usable as tax deductions depending on how you figure out your taxes. Now there are the typical Religious organization we all know like the Southern Baptists, Roman Catholics, etc. Then you get into the slew of smaller lesser know church and group that in some cases end up in court because they are not deemed to be religious or one reason or another. The majority if not almost all of these entities live off of donations. These can be physical donations of clothing and the like to group like Salvation Army, and monetary donations in the form of Tithing to the more traditional. In some cases you may have a combination of the two which can be fairly standard for those in the LDS Church.
One would assume that most religious groups are not in the business of making money and thus should be given the above mentioned tax break. However, there are some that do appear to be in it for the money or do have some for-profit enterprises and that brings up a whole new animal. Should the for-profit business be taxed and the other parts be exempt? I'd imagine that many would think so until they find out that their church has a for-profit business.
Most churches are a money consuming affair when you look at the face of it. They have a meeting house and need to pay the electrical and water etc to keep things running. They will also eventually replace the roof or other parts of the building. Then you have things like office supplies and church material (Scriptures, manuals, hymnals, publications, etc) that have to be covered as well. You may also have a paid clergy. All this takes money. The property and building don't just magically appear. Nor do the books, and other items that are put into use. This is where tithing comes into play. The members of a religion or church will offer up monies for the sustaining of the church. In a smaller group everything is handled locally. In larger organizations like the LDS Church or Roman Catholics there is a very prominent central church headquarters.
So for the smaller groups you can easily see where the tithing might be utilized - salary, utilities, building maintenance, etc. It is not so easy to see this when dealing with larger religions. Since you also find that many of them run addiction recover and other social outreach programs, seminaries or various schools, as well as having meeting houses spread all over the place and the associated infrastructure to handle these things. It can get quite large depending on the scope and size the church.
Let me mention just a few of the ways that the LDS Church receives funds from local members. Tithing by faithful members, Fast Offerings, and other monetary donations to specific purposes like Temple, Missionary, and/or Perpetual Education Fund.
Now what do I know these funds are being used for?
Tithing the backbone of funds is used mainly for buildings (maintenance, construction, etc) and the running of the unit (i.e manuals, sacrament materials, auxiliary reimbursements, etc.).
Fast offerings are used to handle welfare cases. These funds may be directly allocated to help pay the rent, or utilities for someone that has lost a job. It can also be used as part of the Bishop's Store House which provides food stuff and other basics again to people in need.
If you donate to the missionary fund you be either helping to pay the way for a missionary in the field, printing of Book of Mormons or other literature the church gives away. It might also help to maintain the Missionary training centers around the world as well.
Things like the Perpetual Education fund are special in that they to have a very specific purpose. In this case it is to help make small loans for those in underprivileged areas so they can go to school. Under normal circumstances they would not normally qualify to get a loan for school, or none are available like the system that exists in the US.
Same with Humanitarian donations. These are bundled together and help send aid to those areas that have been hit by natural disaster or other unrest. Per the article the amount of monetary funds just for this area since the mid 1980's is well over 1 billion. That fails to include to amount of human service hours that are provided in many of these areas by local members in places like Joplin Missouri. Great article on this In the Aftermath of the Tornado
Now I know that the LDS Church handles finances a little differently then many others. We do not pass around a plate or collection basket during services. We also don't have a donation box located near the front doors. Our donations are placed in an envelop and include a slip that designated what we are donating to and how much. We retain a carbon copy of the receipt for our records. These envelops can only be handed to 3 individuals in a unit; The Bishop or one of his two counselors. Not even a Stake President can take these monies. The monies are entered into the system (Recorded) by a specially called finance clerk together with a member of the Bishopric. Again, controls are in place with regards to the finances. Both these individuals will take the money down for deposit at the bank. Warning messages are provided when no deposit(s) have been made for over a week. Go to many and you'll get a special visit from Church headquarters.
On a quarterly basis a person comes to audit the finances. This checks to make sure outstanding checks have been resolved and that expenditures and donations have been recorded properly.
Quickest way to get thrown out of the church is to miss appropriate funds.
At the end of the year each family will meet with the Bishop in what is called Tithing Settlement. Here you have the the chance to declare if you are a full tithe payer and also to review the records of what you donated. At that time you can bring up any errors. Once again a checks and balances system. For those of the church you might wonder how someone would know if you really did give 10% of your income. They don't. They take your word for it as you never supply pay stubs or financial reports.
The church works off the principle of the widows mite. It's a huge sacrifice to donate and thus the money must be used wisely.
Also I've heard that if they are going to build a new meeting house they will have all the money lined up upfront before construction. Can confirm or deny this but, it makes sense. This can help keep cost over runs and other issues to a minimum. They also use standardized designs that require only slight modifications to better bit a site. In the past the local unit was required to raise a portion of the funds to build the new meeting house. That was the case of the one where I currently meet. Also back then each family had to pay a portion of the unit's budget. Back in the mid 90's they moved to a standardized budgeting system. No longer would there be an assessment to each family. It is mentioned either in the article or other commentary from desert news (church owned) that they are dedicating a new meeting house some where in the world weekly.
Let's just use a simple example and show how much of the monies received in tithing might be expended on a building.
Let us say we have a typical ward meeting house that will house 2 units. Let us also say for argument sake that the building will run 3 million dollars to build. The property is say going to be 1.5 million since it is expensive here in California. So a rough estimate will be in the neighborhood of 5 million dollars to build and outfit a new meeting house. Think of how much tithing you have to collect just to be able to build that building.
If a typical unit has 400-500 members or about 150 families and a portion of those will be inactive. You say drawing on tithing from about 100 people. If on average these individuals are giving $4,000 annually you come up with in the neighborhood of $800,000 in annual tithing. If that unit or units were in need of that building and you wanted to wait till they had all the money in place you be looking at a good 6-7 years time. Thus the up front costs of building is far greater then the monies being received in a given area. However, with the funds being pooled on a worldwide basis you can then construct new buildings and relive the burden from the local members.
I served in Brazil on my mission and in many areas they had buildings and very few members since was very new there. They would have had to wait years if not decades to get a building if it had to come solely from local funds. They had buildings albeit smaller with new ones or expansions being built as circumstances changed. Also the overall income is far different for members living in Mozambique or Fiji compared to Los Angeles, or a well developed country in Europe. Yes, the cost of living in those areas are also going to be different. You'll spend less on utilities, and other things but, overall things end up being similar.
And that does not include all the buildings being used for religious instruction, or the Temples, and welfare related offices.
So you see there are load of expenses that the church has. There is a large amount of outlay just to keep things functioning.
Let alone the need to building new meeting houses and the continued construction of Temples world wide. Check out the churches list of statistics.
But, outside the use of tithing the bone of contention seems to be with the for-profit businesses the church runs. This was highlighted with the recent completion of the City Creek Shopping Complex in March of 2012. The estimated price tag for this redevelopment was 2 billion. That would be a ton of tithing money to spend if that is what they had done. They say all the money for the project came from non-tithing funds. And the article points out why they even decided to do a project like this. They mention urban blight as the main purpose. The number of jobs created were/are 1,700 for construction and 2,000 permanent per city creek's web site.
Take a week economy and the area around the famed Salt Lake Temple Square going to pot and you see why they would do a project like this. It might make some money but, mainly it was kind of a grand welfare project. They pumped 2 billion into the Utah economy. Sure beats having to fill food orders down the road. Win win in my opinion.
And think why would the church not want to run it own insurance company? There could be many advantages. Any profit would be rolled back into the operation and they could even offer it to other entities.
You have to see the reasoning behind some of the ventures. You have to see the logic, the need, and then you can see why they are in some businesses and not others.
Take the Polynesia Culture Center in Hawaii also mentioned in the article. It is run in conjunction with BYU Hawaii and the students that attend there. Many of the people employed at the center are student from the various areas of Polynesia. They work there to help pay for their schooling. Yes they charge for admission but, if there is any kind of profit it just allows them to improve things at the center or employ more people in the over all operation. Thus more members and in some cases non-members can gain employment and allow them to attend school and become able to be productive in their home cultures/countries when they return home. Another win win over all.
So in the end I'll stay pay my tithing as I need the spiritual blessing and other things that come from being obedient. Also I will not sweat the little things and what is exactly being done in the for-profit businesses of the Church. They provide way more things then one can imagine.
Because they are being wise stewards of the monies received we do the major portion of cleaning a building. However, we learn more respect for said building when we have to clean up that spill we just made.
Buaidh - NO - Bas
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