Bull Crap Mormon Spending
This topic is something that will mostly come from my observations on the way the Mormon church spends money at the local level. I won’t go into the specific callings I have held; however, outside of official church callings, I have volunteered to work with the scouting program because I love camping and anything to do with the outdoors. I was never called as a Scout Master, but it was not uncommon for the Scout Master to announce a campout coming up or some activity such as a 10 or 15 mile hike the scouts were going on and needed additional adults to go and help with providing a car or just to make sure enough adults were part of the group in case an emergency happened. I had been approached to become a Scout Master, but with my line of work I was unable to commit to a specific night during the week to do scout stuff; and my frequent changing schedule did not allow me to schedule anything beyond a week out. My schedule was not conducive to scheduling campouts or activities. Like I said at the beginning, what I have seen regarding church spending comes from personal observations from my various church callings, and my time volunteering with the scouts. If I talk about anything I did not personally observe and came from a 3rd party, I will specifically say I got that part of information from another source other than my personal knowledge.
As far as church spending goes at the local church congregation level goes, it is very peculiar. Singles wards, which are Mormon church congregations that consist entirely of every member in that congregation that is not married. (Except for the clergy.) Then you have normal wards which consists of mostly families and any singles that would prefer to be part of that style of congregation.
The money that is funneled to the two different types of congregations, singles vs family, varies considerably. A typical singles ward where I grew was fun. You were surrounded by singles that believe in the same things, and it was a place to meet new friends and possibly meet a person to date with the same values and belief system. These singles wards constantly had activities every week as well as a light meal after church was over. The weekly activities would consist of anything from a bar-b-que at a park, to miniature golf or bowling. The after church light meal which carried nicknames like “Munch and Mingle”, or my favorite…. “The Flirt and Feed”. All of these activities cost money. Feeding 70-100 or sometimes even more people at a bar-b-que, or the weekly flirt and feed costs a lot of money. I never gave any thought to the money being spent at a singles ward, until I was sitting in a family ward and in Elder’s Quorum (this is a age group 18 and above who have been ordained as Elders) and we were discussing an activity to do all together. I was completely dumbfounded when the President of the Elders Quorum informed us that we only have $20 in out budget for the ENTIRE year for any type of activities. So the discussion turned to who can donate more money for an activity.
Well, that all sounds like a bunch of bull shit to me. Singles wards get what seems like an absurd amount of money to have activities in their ward, but once you get married, the family wards get a small fraction of money for the congregation to enjoy time together and get to know each other better. My friends dad was a bishop of a Singles ward, and he told me that the number one pressure from the leaders of the Mormon church was to get kids married in their perspective wards they presided over. After hearing that information from a Bishop, it makes sense as to what kind of money is channeled to a Singles ward. The Mormon church is constantly spending money to keep these single adults together with food an activities, so they can find someone to date and eventually get married.
Now in a family ward, they still have the weekly activities for the younger kids, age 17 and younger. The weekly activity is either called scouts, or young mens & young womens. The young men would do an activity together, usually basketball with the occasional scout merit badge that would be worked on. And the young women would get together and do their own activity with their church leaders. Then once a month they would do what is called a combined activity where the young men and young women would do something together. Some activities were good and meaningful, such as going to the widows house and taking care of her yard. As far as the spending of church money in a family ward, we were always having “fund raisers” to get money so we could go on a campout or some other activity such as bowling or purchasing items to work on a scouting merit badge. This all seemed normal to me growing up, constantly having fund raisers or just telling out parents we needed to bring s certain amount of money to the activity that week. Then when I got into the singles ward, I gave no thought to the amount of money that was being spent on a weekly basis in out own ward to keep activities going to push us singles to meet, date, and then get married. It was not until I was in a family ward as I got older and different callings I have had, and volunteering with the scouts that I really saw more and more waste of tithing dollars. I know the Mormon church does humanitarian aid, but I feel the leaders of the church could do A LOT more in helping those in need. Instead, you have the Prophets and Apostles telling every member, including the extremely poor and those in 3rd world countries to donate money in the form of tithing to the church. Every member is instructed to give 10% of all money gains to the church, even if you can’t afford it, or you go to hell. (Read my Tithing blog to learn more on that topic.) All the while, the church leaders are being paid 6 figure living allowances, and given cars and large sums of money for a house.
Other extremely wasteful spending the local congregations spend money on, is constant purchasing of camping equipment. When I was a young scout, you bought your own backpack, sleeping bag, and typical camping supplies such as a pocket knife and flashlight. Most scouts in my ward would buy a tent and you would share it with your friends. If there was something a fellow scout couldn’t afford, there were members of the ward that would let the scout borrow their camping equipment. Well, let me tell you, times have changed. The local wards spend absurd amounts of money on camping equipment that is not needed. I can understand the Mormon church not wanting to force members to spend money on camping equipment if they can’t afford it, (after all, if you can’t afford your tithing, you are supposed to still pay it and let your bills go into default), But the church spends a lot of money on large canvas tents that cost anywhere between $600 – $1800 per tent. The wards I have been apart of have had a minimum of 4 of these large expensive tens. I have been on campouts where I have seen wards with 8 or 12 of these tents. There is also money spent on backpacking tents, large camp stoves, lanterns, and everything else you could think of that you may need for camping. The problem with this spending is that the local wards constantly re-buy this stuff. Canvas tents and any other tent requires great care. If you pack a tent up that has wet or damp, it will grow mildew and mold and ruin the tent. After campouts, these tents were always just thrown into the scout trailer and never set up at someone’s home to dry out. Since no one owned them, no one really took care of the equipment. (I know there are individuals out there that are taking care of the equipment, but my observations in all of the family wards I have been in that buy the equipment, it was constantly being re purchased.) This comes out to a lot of money every year that is a waste of tithing that again could be used to help those in need. I don’t agree with spending money wastefully, especially when the Mormon church teaches their own members to be frugal and not wasteful. Thank you Mormon Church for the great example you show all of us members.
In my Tithing blog post, I spoke of a family that was not able to pay for their large house and its mortgage, as well as the children’s private schools. I also gave other examples of people that were living a lifestyle they could not afford, but the local Bishop has the discretion to help fellow ward members in need of hard times. I am not apposed to the local bishop helping out, but when the church is paying for a families lifestyle they want and cannot afford, that is Bull Shit. Now I have never been one kiss ass, but it seem like the more you kiss ass or are a good personal friend of the Bishop over your ward, he will keep the money coming your way and allow the church to pay for your lavish home and private schools. Instead the church should maybe give counsel and guidance on how to live within your means. Oh, wait, the Mormon church does talk about that. However, if you think you are of a higher class, the church appears that it will funnel some of the fortune your way. If you are poor or burdened by bills you weren’t expecting, such as medical bills, all you are told is to pay your tithing. So, you are going through difficult financial times, and the Mormon church is telling you and me to make the burden as burdensome as possible but keep filling the church bank account while draining yours, even if you are living on credit cards to make ends meet during your difficult time. Afterall, the church needs to feed and pay for activities to young unmarried adults, and buy more camping equipment to be neglected.
Now I don’t know what the Mormon church finances are, nor do I make any claim as to knowing how much tithing comes in or how much money the Mormon church makes on it’s for profit arm that it runs. But I have seen documents that 3rd party individuals claim to be accurate that puts the numbers into the billions that the Mormon church has. A friend of mine was sitting on a plane one day and discovered the individual sitting next to him in the First Class cabin of the aircraft was over the Mormon church finances. This friend of mine said he couldn’t help himself and asked the individual how much money the Mormon church has. My friend said this man smiled at him and said the church will never have to worry about money. Well, I sure has hell worry about money and making ends meet. But the Mormon seems to be so wealthy that it will never have to worry. I guess wasteful spending is okay for the church and helping a limited few members financially makes the church feel good about what they are doing.
The Judged Mormon 