bhive Posted January 31, 2013 Posted January 31, 2013 ...and I know who I gave those three envelopes to... but how do you prove anything?Especially when the bishopric essentially ignores the issue and said they don't know what happened -- they certainly weren't going to investigate any further.In the end, I did what I was asked to do, and paid my tithing. I felt I received the blessings promised despite what 'could' have happened with the money -- the stories my mind wanted to make up.The donations office was very accommodating, I filled out a couple forms, did a test deposit, and things are now all automatic. I'm a normal joe unwealthy member, and they allowed me to do this.
ScoutMom Posted February 6, 2013 Posted February 6, 2013 I also pay online and it goes directly to the church - not through my ward. The ward does not receive a copy of what I donate electronically and I receive monthly email statements for my contributions. I absolutely love the monthly statements, love the ease of payment, love the fact that it comes out the next day from my account (so it's gone), I love the anonymity as well, BUT I don't love the fact that nothing is recorded at my ward. And not because I want anyone to see my contributions. No, it's because this method of paying tithes and offerings is so obscure that you get this bewildered look fro your Bishop, ward clerks &/or counselors when they see that zero on your end of year donation receipt. I don't like them wondering if I really pay or not. (Which would be purely human nature - not because they are judgmental.) To the person who said this was for rich people. That isn't the case - they set this up as a trial for a certain number of wards to analyze the effects and function and decided they didn't want to set this up church wide. I don't know all the reasons, but I am certain they were good ones. However, if you want to pay your tithes and offerings directly to SL you can arrange to do by calling the number someone posted in an earlier post.As for the poor soul that had his cash tithing donation lost - I can almost guarantee it was accidentally placed under someone else's records. I had that happen more than once and my parents have had the same thing happen but in our case it was a payment with a check. It took a bit for the financial clerk to track down the mistake (it was the mistake of someone else who had been released) but it was eventually found in another category and another record. I can only imagine that a cash donation would make tracking it down even more difficult.
Stargazer Posted February 6, 2013 Author Posted February 6, 2013 (edited) I pay this way every two weeks. My tithing funds are transferred automatically to another account, from which I have an automatic bill pay set up every 2 weeks that sends to church HQ. I get an e-mail on a monthly basis that shows my donations for the month, and then at the end of the year, I receive an end-of-year statement.I had three large cash donations (between 4 and 600 dollars cash) I gave to bishopric members go missing in a single year, so I contacted the church about it. The bishopric and clerks could not account for it, they are supposed to keep all the white slips and had none of the three in question. (I showed them the yellow slips to show the three donations.) This was uncovered in a tithing settlement, but nothing was ever resolved, with a "well that could just happen, I suppose." I was not satisfied, so pay directly to church HQ now.As a finance clerk I can tell you that it is indeed possible to mess up, even with a check. But with the white originals of just those donation slips missing? That's just a bit too much for me to swallow whole.If it happened to me the way you describe, I would be quietly taking it to the stake president, so he could address it via the usual means of the semi-annual audit. Regardless of whether you feel that you did your part, if there is a possibility that someone is being untrustworthy with donations, it is NOT a brush-off situation. If it happened to you, it could happen to others.The integrity of the donation system is paramount. Messing with donated funds is dealt with by mandatory EXCOMMUNICATION. I knew a guy once who spent years as a non-member paying back money to the church that he had embezzled. All of it had to be paid back before he could be baptized back into the church. Interestingly, the Church did not take him to the law; it was handled internally. If you're worried that somebody might get in trouble and lose their membership, don't, because if they are dirty with this they definitely need to be placed where they can have an opportunity to repent. Edited February 6, 2013 by Stargazer 1
jana at jade house Posted February 6, 2013 Posted February 6, 2013 huh. Here in the Netherlands we are more than encouraged to pay by cyberbank. and we do. The tithing settlement has the deposit list from the church internet banking account and we say yes or no to full tithe. period. the Bishop expresses his gratitude for our continued faithful contribution. That's it Why all this flapddoodle about judgments and not wanting people to know? Netherlands trends to cashless, so no one here thinks twice. 1
AaronKlapheck Posted June 13, 2013 Posted June 13, 2013 You can do it through headquarters. Here is the form that you need to fill out:http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&ved=0CFMQFjAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mormonlifehacker.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2FLDS-BILLPAY-FORM.doc&ei=CBu6UdXtJpKtqwHC64GADw&usg=AFQjCNFlKrgKvuGDFD3Gor6p600dIzmgMw&sig2=TUS8Jkv9Es1KZz8VcMcbWA
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