Tithing the Poor

While it is quite repugnant that the church withholds assistance to the poor who have no opportunity to work in the name of self reliance while giving salaries to General Authorities and Mission Presidents, it would be well if that were the only problem in the matter. What is more egregious still is that the doctrine of tithing has been modified to enable the extraction of money from the poor.

As detailed earlier, God states in D&C 119 and JST Gen 14 that tithing consists of 1) a one-time donation of all surplus property to God’s representative, and 2) an annual payment of one tenth of net income.

In today’s church, there is no mechanism for or instruction to give a one-time donation of all surplus property. There is instruction, however, to pay one tenth of one’s gross annual income, instead of one tenth of one’s net income.

As God said in D&C 119, and as is confirmed by the consistency of the law given to Abraham and that given through Joseph Smith, tithing as revealed in D&C 119 is to be a standing law forever. God himself said that it would not change. So how did modern Mormons come to practice a different law?

It is apparent that during Joseph’s life, the law was lived as written. The church newspaper featured an article that said:

The celestial law requires one-tenth part of all a man's substance which he possesses at the time he comes into the church (See D&C 119:1), and one-tenth part of his annual increase ever after (See D&C 119:4). If it requires all man can earn to support himself and his family, he is not tithed at all. The celestial law does not take the mother's and children's bread, neither ought else which they really need for their comfort. The poor that have not of this world's good to spare, but serve and honor God according to the best of their abilities in every other way, shall have a celestial crown in the Eternal Kingdom of our Father. (The Millenial Star, 1847.)

Another contemporary source reads:

If a man gives for the benefit of the Church, it is considered a voluntary offering. Yet the law requires or enjoins a consecration of the overplus, after reserving for himself and family to carry on his business. (John Corrill, A Brief History of the Church of Latter Day Saints, p. 45.)

Less than two months after Joseph’s death, the brethren issued a proclamation demanding a one time payment of 1/10th of members’ property to the church, without exemptions for those who had already done so per D&C 119. That started an incessant shift to tithing as it is practiced today. In 1873, Orson Hyde preached that tithing was 1/10 of your income, instead of 1/10 of your surplus. In 1874, Orson Pratt preached that tithing was separate from the initial consecration commanded in D&C 119. In 1892, Joseph F. Smith publicly taught that tithing ought to be paid before the necessities of life. In 1899, Lorenzo Snow ended the practice of an initial consecration. In 1910, tithing on one’s income became a requirement to enter the temple.

As the Lord said through Ezekiel:

There is a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst thereof, like a roaring lion ravening the prey; they have devoured souls; they have taken the treasure and precious things; they have made her many widows in the midst thereof. Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned mine holy things...Her princes in the midst thereof are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain. And her prophets have daubed them with untempered mortar, seeing vanity, and divining lies unto them, saying, Thus saith the Lord God, when the Lord hath not spoken. The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised robbery, and have vexed the poor and needy: yea, they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully. (Ezekiel 22:25-29.)

Today, the church constantly preaches that individuals must pay 10% of their gross income in order to consider themselves full tithe payers, and that this payment should come even if it means one cannot pay their bills.¹

This policy is obviously much more difficult for the poor than for the rich. The rich are no longer required to make a one-time consecration of their surplus. The church commands the poor to give what little they have to finance expenditures not authorized by God and for which the poor receive nothing on the one hand, and then refuses to support the poor on the other. All the while, the Brethren themselves do not work. Is it any question what Jesus would say about this, when he said the following about the rulers in his day?

...The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat...they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers....Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation. (Matthew 23:2,4,14.)

Is it any wonder whether the church today is a fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy?

...O my people, your leaders mislead you, abolishing your traditional ways. Jehovah will...bring to trial the elders of his people and their rulers, and say to them, It is you who have devoured the vineyard; you fill your houses by depriving the needy. What do you mean by oppressing my people, humbling the faces of the poor? says Jehovah of Hosts. (Isaiah 3:12-15, Gileadi Translation.)

The leaders of ancient Israel treated the poor the same as the church does today.² God called their actions “manifold transgressions” and “mighty sins.” He promised their destruction as a result. In Micah, God promises that leaders who neglect the poor will not have visions, prophecies, or answers to prayers, causing one to wonder whether the church’s neglect of the poor today might have something to do with the lack of prophecy, visions, and revelations from those who are sustained as prophets, seers, and revelators.

And I said, Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob, and ye princes of the house of Israel; Is it not for you to know judgment? Who hate the good, and love the evil; who pluck off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones; Who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them; and they break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron. Then shall they cry unto the Lord, but he will not hear them: he will even hide his face from them at that time, as they have behaved themselves ill in their doings. Thus saith the Lord concerning the prophets that make my people err, that bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace; and he that putteth not into their mouths, they even prepare war against him. Therefore night shall be unto you, that ye shall not have a vision; and it shall be dark unto you, that ye shall not divine; and the sun shall go down over the prophets, and the day shall be dark over them. Then shall the seers be ashamed, and the diviners confounded: yea, they shall all cover their lips; for there is no answer of God. But truly I am full of power by the spirit of the Lord, and of judgment, and of might, to declare unto Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin. Hear this, I pray you, ye heads of the house of Jacob, and princes of the house of Israel, that abhor judgment, and pervert all equity. They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity. The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon the Lord, and say, Is not the Lord among us? none evil can come upon us. Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest. (Micah 3:1-12.)

As God said through Micah, it is as if leaders think that they can build Zion with the blood of the poor extracted through wresting the law of tithing, all while teaching the gospel for money. And yet, the leaders do claim that the Lord is among them, and that no evil can come upon them.³ The following two passages of scriptures are necessary reading on the topic, though they will be presented without commentary.

And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God unto the shepherds; Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! should not the shepherds feed the flocks? Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill them that are fed: but ye feed not the flock. The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them. And they were scattered, because there is no shepherd: and they became meat to all the beasts of the field, when they were scattered. My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and upon every high hill: yea, my flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth, and none did search or seek after them. Therefore, ye shepherds, hear the word of the Lord; As I live, saith the Lord God, surely because my flock became a prey, and my flock became meat to every beast of the field, because there was no shepherd, neither did my shepherds search for my flock, but the shepherds fed themselves, and fed not my flock; Therefore, O ye shepherds, hear the word of the Lord; Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I am against the shepherds; and I will require my flock at their hand, and cause them to cease from feeding the flock; neither shall the shepherds feed themselves any more; for I will deliver my flock from their mouth, that they may not be meat for them. For thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out. As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day. And I will bring them out from the people, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land, and feed them upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers, and in all the inhabited places of the country. I will feed them in a good pasture, and upon the high mountains of Israel shall their fold be: there shall they lie in a good fold, and in a fat pasture shall they feed upon the mountains of Israel. I will feed my flock, and I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord God. I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick: but I will destroy the fat and the strong; I will feed them with judgment. And as for you, O my flock, thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I judge between cattle and cattle, between the rams and the he goats. Seemeth it a small thing unto you to have eaten up the good pasture, but ye must tread down with your feet the residue of your pastures? and to have drunk of the deep waters, but ye must foul the residue with your feet? And as for my flock, they eat that which ye have trodden with your feet; and they drink that which ye have fouled with your feet. Therefore thus saith the Lord God unto them; Behold, I, even I, will judge between the fat cattle and between the lean cattle. Because ye have thrust with side and with shoulder, and pushed all the diseased with your horns, till ye have scattered them abroad; Therefore will I save my flock, and they shall no more be a prey; and I will judge between cattle and cattle. And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd. And I the Lord will be their God, and my servant David a prince among them; I the Lord have spoken it. And I will make with them a covenant of peace, and will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land: and they shall dwell safely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods. And I will make them and the places round about my hill a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in his season; there shall be showers of blessing. And the tree of the field shall yield her fruit, and the earth shall yield her increase, and they shall be safe in their land, and shall know that I am the Lord, when I have broken the bands of their yoke, and delivered them out of the hand of those that served themselves of them. And they shall no more be a prey to the heathen, neither shall the beast of the land devour them; but they shall dwell safely, and none shall make them afraid. And I will raise up for them a plant of renown, and they shall be no more consumed with hunger in the land, neither bear the shame of the heathen any more. Thus shall they know that I the Lord their God am with them, and that they, even the house of Israel, are my people, saith the Lord God. And ye my flock, the flock of my pasture, are men, and I am your God, saith the Lord God. (Ezekiel 34:1-31)

There is a voice of the howling of the shepherds; for their glory is spoiled: a voice of the roaring of young lions; for the pride of Jordan is spoiled. Thus saith the Lord my God; Feed the flock of the slaughter; Whose possessors slay them, and hold themselves not guilty: and they that sell them say, Blessed be the Lord; for I am rich: and their own shepherds pity them not. For I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land, saith the Lord: but, lo, I will deliver the men every one into his neighbour’s hand, and into the hand of his king: and they shall smite the land, and out of their hand I will not deliver them. And I will feed the flock of slaughter, even you, O poor of the flock. (Zechariah 11:3-7.)