- members are encouraged to pay tithing before all other expenses. People are out there deciding whether to pay bills or tithing, while the church sits on this hoard. That’s hard to swallow.
- the church preaches against materialism. Any Mormon can tell you about the “great and spacious building.” It’s a story from the Book of Mormon about materialism or worldliness distracting you from finding the love of God. So what does the church do with tithing? They build an expensive shopping mall right next to their sacred temple and headquarters. What? I don’t have a problem with the mall on its own, but the irony is overwhelming.
- they own, or at least during the leak they owned, tons of stock in Facebook and other big tech. They’ve earned so much against the dangers of social media, it feels really hypocritical.
- they claim to be saving money for the Second Coming. I think this is nonsensical. There are two phases to the Second Coming, calamities/Armageddon, then Jesus comes to fix everything. You don’t need money for those. By all means, hoard emergency supplies, but what are you going to do with your Facebook stock when governments have collapsed?
- obviously, hiding behind shell companies. I expect this from businesses, not from the church who asks their members if they are “honest in their dealings with their fellow man” regularly.
- there are different ways to interpret the original revelation about tithing in the church. They have chosen the maximal version. In the Doctrine and Covenants, it says “one tenth of their interest annually.” Interest is not the same as income. It’s been alternatively interpreted as 10% of any investments, or 10% after all other expenses are paid. At one point a prophet also said that the law is only for those who have means to pay. The conveniently don’t use that quote anymore.
Anyways, this is all very fresh in my mind so these are my rantings.