Posted on 12/17/2019 10:46:06 AM PST by C19fan
A former investment manager alleges in a whistleblower complaint to the Internal Revenue Service that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has amassed about $100 billion in accounts intended for charitable purposes, according to a copy of the complaint obtained by 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. It also accuses church leaders of using the tax- exempt donations to prop up a pair of businesses.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Oh; please.
I do not want to talk about ME; for I am a flawed individual.
I'm happy to keep the attention focused on the new kid on the block:
Ah, an atheist then.
I assumed you were a Christian since true followers of Christ are not ashamed to identify themselves properly.
Unless you are honest in who you are, then why should anyone take you seriously? Sure, you can copy and paste like the devil himself, SO WHAT?
Show a little bit of class and integrity to make our exchange at least halfway decent. You know very well that my response will need to align with your worldview and if tailored towards a different faith tradition will just waste everyone’s time.
Just sell what's in your sample case to whomever shows up at the door.
I assumed you were a Christian since true followers of Christ are not ashamed to identify themselves properly.
Your first assumption has now led you to this second one?
Perhaps you should stick to the prepared text if these unknowns trip you up so much.
I DO??
Quit mindreading and instead; read my homepage.
They can’t attack the message, so they attack the messenger...
Why should I read your homepage? I don’t even know where it is.
Why is it so hard for you to answer a simple question concerning who you are?
And yet, mindreading is what you’ve consistently done with your cutting and pasting.
“homepage? I don’t even know where it is.”
Click on his name in the tag line and it takes you to it.
Hit your own name and you can set one up if you want to.
Why do you care?
It is YOUR chosen religion that has a leader who made some really fantastic claims.
I need no defense of something I've not said.
Good advice!
Inspiration and News
How the Church of Jesus Christ Uses Tithes and Donations
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints uses the sacred tithes and generous donations of its members in worldwide efforts to love God and neighbor. In light of recent media stories that have misrepresented the Church’s approach, the Church provides the following summary.
Why the Church of Jesus Christ Manages Its Finances So Carefully
The Church is committed to helping the poor and needy. Latter-day Saint Charities is a global program that primarily benefits those who are not Latter-day Saints. In times of need and during other emergencies, we partner with many global organizations like the Red Cross to provide assistance. President Russell M. Nelson spoke recently about some of these efforts. And this represents only a small portion of what the Church spends to care for those in need. The most recent annual report shows that the Church’s humanitarian arm has given more than $2.2 billion in aid in 197 countries since it was created in 1985. In addition, through the Church’s welfare program, leaders of the faith’s 30,000-plus congregations regularly help men, women and children with food, housing and other temporal needs, totaling billions more dollars in assistance.
The Church builds temples and connects families through family history. The Church is heavily focused on the doctrinal principle of connecting families across generations. This spiritual work is done in 217 announced or operating temples, an effort supported by the faith’s nonprofit family history organization, FamilySearch, which also freely offers its genealogical resources to anyone.
The Church provides worship and gathering space for its members. The Church must fund facilities, education and activity programs for its 30,500 congregations. Meetinghouses also serve as spaces for community education, family history research and emergency response.
The Church supports a global missionary program. Currently, more than 65,000 Latter-day Saint missionaries around the world are preaching the good news of Jesus Christ—an effort that requires significant financial support from the Church beyond the missionaries’ personal or family contributions. The faith’s approximately 400 missions include mission homes, apartments, offices and automobiles—all funded by the Church.
The Church invests in education. The Church believes that both secular and spiritual learning are eternal, and it invests significant financial resources in education. The Church’s Seminaries and Institutes program provides daily religious instruction to some 400,000 high school students and 300,000 university students each year. The Church provides higher education opportunities globally through its expansive PathwayConnect program, which paves the way to a university degree for those with limited opportunities or resources. And the Church operates several universities and a business college serving a combined 93,000 students.
The Six Main Ways the Church of Jesus Christ Uses Its Finances
“The fact that the Church of Jesus Christ has been able to fund the operation of meetinghouses, temples, educational institutions and missionary work—while also building up reservoirs of resources for the difficult days that eventually come—is a model that should be celebrated and emulated by governments and other institutions around the world,” one opinion editor writes.
The Church follows the same sound financial principles it teaches its membership. It avoids debt, lives within its budget and prepares for the future. Little wonder the pages of the Wall Street Journal recently praised Utah’s strong economy, in part because of the state’s “predominant [Latter-day Saint] culture that encourages out-of-fashion virtues such as thrift, delayed gratification and stable families.”
D. Michael Quinn, a scholar who published a 600-page history of Church finances in 2017, summed up his findings as “an enormously faith-promoting story.” He told a newspaper reporter that if Latter-day Saints could see “the larger picture,” they would “breathe a sigh of relief and see the Church is not a profit-making business.”
Decisions on How to Use Church Finances are Made in a Spirit of Prayer
“Yes, the church saves and invests its surplus pennies,” a Deseret News op-ed concludes, “but it also helps vastly reduce the debt of college students, gives to the poor regardless of background and supports one of the largest non-governmental welfare programs in the country. Most importantly, it does all this without enriching those at the top.”
The sacred funds donated by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are an expression of faith, devotion and obedience to the biblical law of tithing and a desire to build Christ’s Church through living the two great commandments to love God and neighbor.
View this article on ChurchofJesusChrist.org
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2 Corinthians 9:7 KJV
Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.
You still waiting for me?
And what does this have to do with obedience to God’s command to give tithes?
My church does not force me to give - I do it willingly because I desire to obey God.
If you do not want to obey God and emulate Abraham in giving tithes, that’s your prerogative.
Before anything else, I just want to wish you a Merry Christmas!
We celebrate this day in remembrance of the Incarnation - when our God and Creator of the universe became human and merged within himself the God and Human natures.
While we disagree on many things, one thing I’m sure we can agree on is the need to express our gratitude for the condescension of God and for his grace.
Then your church seems mighty lax about ENFORCING 'gods command'.
Well; other than harassing it's members with the question:
Do you pay a full tithe? on the TR questionnaire.
If you do not want to obey God...
I already posted SCRIPTURE about the cheerful giver.
If you want to pay a FULL TITHE to insure getting into the highest level of Mormon heaven; go right ahead; but I daresay the scripture I've posted is listed in your QUAD at least once; and also in your not-quite-scripture(yet) Inspired Version as well.
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