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I am thankful for

family

wife and children

freedom

economic security

vaccinations

awesome cool phones

wonderful spiritual experiences.

While I am going through a transition in regards to how I view the church’s past, today I feel thankful for polygamy.

Without it, me, my brothers, my father, his father, etc. don’t exist (at least not in our current states). We

are all the product of a third wife. How many of all of us mormons have at least one ancestor who is a product

of a polygamous marriage? So while the practice seems weird/deplorable, if we were to wave a wand and prevent from happening,

how many of us would go Michael J. Fox in back to the future.

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Hello, I’m the newbie that caused the bumping.

Here’s my story/take. About a year ago a high councilman visited and said if you weren’t paying on gross it wasn’t a full tithe (and talked about gross vs. net blessings and all of that. I was surprised because I had alway paid on net. So I began an investigation trying to find an official position on tithing because I didn’t want my salvation to be screwed up. That led me to read some posts on tithing, some which were somewhat scathing of the church. Here are my thoughts, and I have read some of your posts but would be interested to know your take.

1. Gross tithing – What the high councilman talked about of course. Problems I see with this is of course the issue with taxes. Also it ignores home production. If I work an extra couple of days and make a 1000 dollars, I would pay 100 under gross tithing. But if I fix stuff at my house and save 1,000 dollars (which is actually more than 1,000 gross) I would pay know tithing?? Both are an increase to me. Similarly my wife trades off pre-school with other moms. This saves everyone thousands of dollars a year. If they paid each in cash, they would feel compelled to pay tithing. But because its a barter trade, not so much.

2. Net tithing – All of the same stuff of home production still applies. Also, how much you would pay would depend upon the governance of your state. If the raise money through a state income tax, you pay less tithing. If you have no income tax but a high sales tax, you pay more tithing. Same tax burden. Same public amenities, but one generates a differing obligation to God? Doesn’t sit right with me.

3. Increase – If I look at the change in my net worth (equity in house/cars/durable goods/savings) in a given year this would correspond with interest definition. This also is immune to the issue of sales vs. income tax and home production. Get a 1,000 surplus by working, titheable. Get a 1,000 dollar surplus by home production or barter, titheable. This would also require everyone to do an annual accounting of your finances and likely set goals to work towards setting up a surplus. This could encourage individuals to overconsume and hence have no surplus, but I think the parable of the talents might apply. Similarly if disaster hits and you lose your job or have high health costs, and lose all of your surplus, one would owe no tithing. This definition seems right in my heart, and immune to the other more common definitions I have heard amongst individuals in the church.

Thoughts??

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