Tithing
One of the ancient customs revived by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is tithing.
Tithing is the custom by which members give one-tenth of their annual income to the Church. It provides the main source of Church income.
Most of the money is spent on building and maintaining buildings for church activities, and on the Church Educational System.
The rest is spent on missionary and temple work, written materials in dozens of languages and the global administration of the Church.
The distribution of this money is governed by the Council on Disposition of the Tithes.
In the mid 1990s the Church was reported in the media to be receiving over $5 billion in tithes per year. Church assets were reported to be worth at least $30 billion. The Church issued a statement that this was an exaggerated and inaccurate amount.
The Rules
There are no elaborate rules about calculating what to pay; Mormons regard it as a matter of conscience - something between them and God.
It's not something that a Mormon will take lightly, since tithing is one of the basic standards of judgement to test whether a person is worthy to receive the higher ordinances of the gospel.
At year's end everyone can attend a tithing settlement to declare whether or not they are full-tithe payers. The bishop or branch president is a witness for the Lord, and he records the declaration for the Church records. The correctness of the declaration is known only to the individual and God.
Tithes are paid by Mormons of all ages, including children. There's a children's verse about tithing to help them understand what it's about:
I want to give the Lord my tenth,
For ev'ry time I do
It makes me think of all the gifts
He gives to me and you.
He gives us life, this lovely world.
And though my tenth seems small,
It shows my faith and gratitude
To him, the Lord of all.
Benefits
Mormons regard the main purpose of tithing as helping to develop the soul of the tithe-payer, rather than generating church income.
A major spiritual benefit for the Church is that the money it uses to carry out its work has already been sanctified by the faith of the giver.
Equality
Because each person gives 10% of their income, Mormons regard everyone's contribution as of equal merit, because the cost to each person is the same. And so each giver is equally blessed by God for their gift, regardless of its actual size.
History
In the pioneer days, tithes were often paid in kind - by giving 10% of the goods that a person had produced. A farmer might give an egg for every ten eggs his hens laid. Pioneer settlements often built Tithing Houses to store the produce. Some people worked on church projects for one day out of ten because they didn't produce anything suitable for a tithe.
Tithing was introduced very early in the life of the Church (1838) but by the end of the 19th century it was much neglected and the Church was in serious money trouble.
In 1899 President Lorenzo Snow was inspired by God to proclaim that Church members should pay their tithes in full.
In the next year the income from tithing doubled, and within eight years the Church had paid all its debts.
Since then tithing has continued to provide the money needed by the Church.
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