A serving elder's take on the new "tithing" arrangement (page 4)

Laika

Te, are the slips anonymous or do they know how much you pledged?

hoser

I Agree. The only ones that will get audited are appointed men and regular pioneers.

TTATTelder

Laika... the slips will be anonymous. We haven't met on how it will go down yet.

I assume everyone gets a slip and then drops it in the "time" box or something.

Our hall is paid for so we will be going down this road.

Our hall is paid off, and I think they tried to do something like this anonymous survey a couple months back for some other reason, so I suspect that's what they'll do again. At that time I was pretty disgusted by the whole thing (and that was another 'straw' in my final awakening) and refused to fill one out. I'm not sure how they'll keep it anonymous, but if I'm satisfied that it actually will be, I'm thinking about printing (not hand-writing) a slip that simply has "Matthew 5:33,34" written on it.

For reference:

Matt. 5:33,34:

33 Again you heard that it was said to those of ancient times: 'You must not swear without performing, but you must pay your vows to Jehovah.'

34 However, I say to you: Do not swear at all [...]

Mum

I don't think it's good to have anything like a pledge to donate money in writing. I don't know if they would resort to a lawsuit, but they're FULL iof surprises. Even if they didn't file a lawsuit, they could call you into their kangaroo court and brand you a liar, say you breached your contract, or something similar. They're covering their butts somehow or other, or they wouldn't ask for a WRITTEN pledge. More oppresseive changes to come, I'm sure!

The Searcher

@ MUM - You're on my wavelength; this "donation arrangement" is going to be enforced in several months time by means of "bank account transfusion" - from personal bank account to Branch bank account!

Island Man

Here's an idea: What if you got 10 pieces of paper and wrote a different but substantial sum on each one of them - 100.00, 75.00, 150.00, 50.00, etc - making sure to use a different handwriting on each one and with different pens? That would really inflate the figure and start a ruckus when the cong. can't match it in their monthly donations. LOL.

DJS

I just think its cool that a currenlty serving elder told the Dark Lords in the Death Star to kiss his ass. Now that's cool. Come on other currently serving elders. Hope aboard the "the GB can kiss my ass" train!! Let's hear it!

LisaRose

I think they are using simple psychology to shake out more funds. If you ask people if what they will plan to eat for lunch next week, they will usually say a healthy sandwich and an ice tea. But if you ask them what they ate for lunch today, they will say a big Mac, fries and a coke. People have good intentions when it comes to the future, but day to day reality is usually different. So if you ask people what they plan to contribute, it will probably more than what they actually usually contribute, because unexpected expenses cropped up, or they just didn't feel as generous when the time came. Then, down the road they will be able to shame people for not following through. They just make an announcement that contributions were not as promised and everyone feels guilty and will probably cough up a few bucks more.

There is nothing inherently evil in that, but it's coming close to what they used to condemn churches for, passing the plate and pledging. What happened to "God loves a cheerful giver"?

losingit

Or they could claim that theyre falling short month after month when in fact theyve met their cong's pledge.

Either way-- sohappy lm out!

A serving elder's take on the new "tithing" arrangement