The tithes (should be) are used within the church, to assist financially-struggling members, to help support the canning and preservation centers they have to process and preserve harvests. Members (and others) can bring their harvest to the center for processing. I don’t believe they use much of it for helping poor people in general, however. Their charity pretty much stays at home.
...Allow me to finish this sentence below...and thereby explain why its relevant where Romney's private $ went.
When the Dallas Cowboys and Seattle Seahawks support Planned Parenthood financially, thereby earning a place on Life Decisions Intl's boycott list, that giving is relevant to its fan base. Informed decision-making...if those fans want their $ to trickle into Planned Parenthood's coffers, so be it.
Likewise, voters need to have informed decision-making as well...Is Mitt's wallet militating against the most important convictions in their life?
So...among other things the Lds church does with these tithes...
...(1) run its Web site, which bashes all Christian sects as "apostates"...plus do a Google search on "Joseph Smith - History" @ Lds.org...vv. 18-19...the First Vision of Mormonism -- now shrouded in Mormon "scripture" -- claims that ALL of Christianity's creeds are an "abomination" and ALL of its professing believers are "corrupt"...
...(2) publishes curricula & magazines -- again touting Christianity as infidels (like Islam does)...
...(3) publishes its "competitors" to the bible -- the Pearl of Great Price, Book of Mormon & Doctrines & Covenants...
...(4) and translates these into HUNDREDS of languages...spreading the slander of Christians and Christianity world-wide...
...and...(5) & (6) supplements two programs paid for (mostly) by families -- its higher ed campuses as well as its overall missionary program...(yes, families pay higher ed tuition & families pay missionaries' way...but Lds have many tucked-away higher ed expenses as part of their propaganda machine + have mission presidents & many other related mission expenses not covered by families)
These 52,000 missionaries out & about have several "main messages." One of the top four ingrained in them since the 1950s was the so-called "universal apostasy"...so they go around the world slandering world-wide Christians as "apostates."
By this reasoning, even ALL of the Christian founding fathers of this land are slandered by Lds as both "apostate" and "corrupt."
And what? So-called "conservative" FREEPERS don't give a flip about a candidate who pays his "fair share" for the founding fathers to be regarded as spiritual "apostates" en masse?