Give to the Poor, Not to the Church (Pt. 1)

A year ago, I sat in a dark-suited man's office, my two kids crawling around and playing, impatient to leave. My wife was not there. She had decided our family was over. I was heartbroken, and had no idea how to deal with the sledge-hammer of devastating events which followed in the wake of her decision.

The man spoke. He asked why his counselor had not allowed me to pass the temple recommend interview.

"I'm in the middle of divorce. I have no money left. I am losing my home because I cannot pay rent. I have been hungry all summer because I cannot afford food."

The balding man looked at me. His face was stone.

"Do you pay your tithing?" he said.

"I don't have any money. If I pay tithing, not only will I lose my apartment as I already am, but I will get further behind on payments and accrue additional debt. I already can't pay my lawyer anymore."

"So you don't pay tithing?" The man continues to look at me from behind his heavy wooden desk.

"No, I do not pay tithing anymore. I can't."

"Then you don't have faith. Tithing is an official policy."

I don't know what to say. Eventually, I respond with, "How can I pay tithing with nothing?"

"If you had faith, you'd pay tithing before you worried about rent or food or divorce costs."

I was baffled. I paid tithing before all this happened, despite being in poverty even then. The promise that paying tithing before anything else is a force which manufactures financial miracles certainly didn't come to fruition when I was suddenly slapped with a horrible divorce initiated by a vindictive wife who wanted everything she could possibly take from me. Besides, this supposed "promise" was to be found nowhere in scripture, and no where in the revelations.

"You can no longer go to the temple," the man continued. "And you won't be going to your brother's wedding."

At a loss for words, I simply nodded. The meeting ended.

I have never given my money to the church again. There are people who need it more than those old men who are so obsessed with building their castles of marble and gold. Never again will I be duped into believing salvation is bought with money. 

Clearly, the prophets of the Book of Mormon truly saw our day. The leaders of the church do turn the poor out of their places of worship and grind their faces by demanding money for the sake of fine sanctuaries (2 Nephi 28:13), and for building churches up unto themselves to get gain (4 Nephi 1:26).