Comments on: $8 per member per year on humanitarian aid

Comment by: Sunday in Outer Blogness: Family Edition! | Main Street Plaza

2010-06-13T09:23:40Z

[...] on from families to general Mormon topics, Jonathan did a bit of number crunching, and found that tithing to the CoJCoL-dS is not a terribly efficient way of giving humanitarian [...]

Comment by: Craig

2010-06-13T12:51:37Z

I’ve been pretty horrified by this since I found about it after I left the church. Any and all humanitarian effort on the church’s part is nothing but lip service. They could probably single-handedly bail out the entirety of Haiti if they wanted. But they’d rather spend their money on pretty buildings and malls.

No doubt Jesus would be proud. At least their (ruthless capitalist) version of him.

Comment by: Jonathan

2010-06-13T15:24:17Z

Have you seen Supply Side Jesus?

Comment by: chanson

2010-06-13T19:56:20Z

I’ve seen that one before, but it’s always funny!

Comment by: Anonymous

2010-07-08T01:18:50Z

You hoped (?) you were missing something and you might have missed that half the members are not working adults, some are children, so it would not be half. How about the recent news that Utah has the most volunteer hours of any state 4 years running, followed by Indiana, where I lived before.

Comment by: Anonymous

2010-07-08T01:23:09Z

A polygamist tried to convert me by saying my mission should have been without purse…. But I countered with:

Luke 22: 35-36
35 And he said unto them, When I sent you without purse, and scrip, and shoes, lacked ye any thing? And they said, Nothing.
36 Then said he unto them, But now, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip: and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one.

There are times and seasons and changing circumstances.

Comment by: Anonymous

2010-07-08T01:30:23Z

A lot of what is given from handmade quilts to purchased toothbrushes may not be in the numbers, not to mentioned donated time. Meaning scout projects and the like where members give directly without going through the Church. Like my neighbor who works serving lunch at the Provo soup kitchen very regularly, but no money is exchanged.

With the cost of children, which we tend to have more of than the average, some of us are not so rich in the net after expenses. After bills I find I have less discretionary spending than many of my South American friends (which is just bizarre when you compare our salaries). Perhaps society or communities are just set up wrongly here.

Comment by: Jonathan

2010-07-08T08:05:45Z

I’m not concerned about volunteer work done by Mormons. I’m concerned with how the Corporation of the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints uses all of that money that LDS folks send them.

In adjusting the numbers down, I was quite generous to the LDS church.

My hope is that I’ve got it all wrong and the money I donated wasn’t wasted on more and fancier church buildings, church for-profit ventures, etc. Is my hope naïve?

Comment by: Kari

2010-09-21T12:45:39Z

Jonathan,

Just a quick correction. The fact sheet is for 1985-2009, inclusive, meaning it’s 25 years worth of data. Not that it changes the numbers much.

And for anonymous, the value of those handmade quilts are accounted for in “value of material assistance.” It wouldn’t surprise me if the church counted the value of man-hours in this number as well.

Comment by: Jonathan

2010-09-21T14:01:05Z

Thanks, Kari. I’ll correct the number of years in a moment, though it only decreases the numbers to 96% of their current value. That’s not much of a change given that we’re guesstimating.

Comment by: NT

2011-01-10T20:31:24Z

Great Blog, gonna vote for it! Former Bishop and SP member. The HA fund is counted in the following manner by the lds org. Time, donation by the members in kind (if the member is donating something for the kid the church takes the benefit of the donation), a administration amount is added depending on the effort, shipping cost paid by the LDS church is also included. In other words, if a RS organization makes hygeine kits and donates them, then entire cost of the kit and labor is donated by the RS group, but counted in the actual dollar value of the donation.

The agreement is that the church will pay the shipping, and the unit will cover the cost of the kit and labor but the church counts the dollar value of both.

More number crunching…25 years of HA service by the church 1.2 Billion (their numbers including free labor and materials)
http://beta-newsroom.lds.org/facts-and-stats

The big shopping mall in SLC somewhere in the $3-5 Billion range.

Sad, shameful, and twisting the numbers to their advantage.

And we all keep paying more and more and more and more and more

Comment by: Jonathan

2011-01-11T08:01:10Z

Interesting. It’s worse than I though. Thanks, NT.