The LDS church teaches its members from the time they are children that God has commanded them to pay 10% of their income to the church. The church often quotes Malachi 3:8, which according to the church’s interpretation, ominously declares that anyone who does not pay tithing to the LDS church is robbing God. The use of an Old Testament scripture gives tithing historical context, continuity, and legitimacy. However, other Christians have pointed out that when Malachi 3:8 talks about people robbing God, it is not referring to people who fail to pay tithing. Instead, it is referring to priests who were literally stealing tithes and offerings from the storehouse. Regardless, it is a convenient scripture for fundraising, so that context is often dropped.
Tithing is an Old Testament law which to my knowledge is never commanded in the New Testament. Joseph Smith claimed to receive a revelation that restored the law of tithing in 1838 (when the church needed funds to build a temple in Missouri), commanding saints to pay “one-tenth of all their interest annually". While today this is interpreted by church leaders as a requirement to pay 10% of annual pre-tax income, that was not the original meaning of the revelation. According to LDS historian Steven Harper, the phrase “one tenth of all their interest” was understood at the time to mean 10% of what someone would earn in interest if they invested their net worth for a year. Edward Partridge, who was present when Joseph Smith received the revelation, explained in a letter that “If a man is worth $1000, the interest on that would be $60 [since 6% was a common interest rate at the time], and one/10. of the interest will be of course $6. thus you see the plan.”
The church is of course not bound to follow any previous interpretation of tithing, but that’s exactly the point. Tithing in its current form is not an eternal principle. It has existed at various times in the history of the LDS church and in ancient Israel in different forms. It is not, as the church would have us believe, a law going back to the beginning of time. It’s certainly not a requirement of Christianity that tithing be linked to “worthiness” or your ability to attend a family member’s wedding, as it is in the LDS church today.
It’s not clear exactly how the church uses tithing. We know that over the last couple decades, the church has received tithing in excess of what is needed to fund its operations, which is how the church ended up with $100+ billion in Ensign Peak (yes, some of that money is from returns on investment, but the original principal came from excess tithing). The church does not publish any form of internal annual report or independent audit, like some other Christian churches do (e.g. here’s an annual report and audit from a local church in my town). And until a whistleblower revealed the amount of Ensign Peak’s assets under management in 2019, most members had no idea how much wealth the church had.
But none of this appears to be relevant to faithful members who pay tithing not because they agree with how it will be used, but because they are honoring their commitment to what they believe is a commandment from God. I just wish the church would honor the generosity of its members by using less coercion in its fundraising and having more accountability and transparency with respect to how tithing funds are used.
In full disclosure, I stopped paying tithing to the LDS church in 2022.
P.S. the LDS church is removing past tithing records from its website, so if you want your donation records, you need to download them now.
P.P.S. Apparently the issue with the website is a tech issue and records are not actually being removed. So nothing nefarious here.
Thanks for writing this up and for the heads up about removing records.