Where Does All the Tithing Go?

The annual budget for the Elder's Quorum in my ward is only $150.00. It's been almost enough to buy dessert for one activity and breakfast for another. So we end up doing our activities on the cheap, if at all.

In a middle-class ward like mine, I would guess that the average family income is probably about $50,000 a year. If we have about 40 families paying a full tithe, that means the ward would be grossing around $200,000.00 per year. This would be plenty of money to pay for maintaining the building and have a ton left over for some flippin' awesome ward activities, even if we only kept 10% of it for local uses.

Of course, the ward sees very little of that. I would guess that most of it goes to buying and developing real estate, running the Church Education System, and to the missionary program.

Those are all worthy things, but are they the absolute best use of the Lord's funds? Maybe they are, and maybe they are not. It's a discussion which average, paying members of the Church are not invited to participate in. The Church doesn't even publish vague financial reports of how much money that collect and what it basically gets spent on.

There is a retired couple in my stake who went on a mission to New York a couple years ago. For their mission, they met with ambassadors from the United Nations in order to increase the Church's influence abroad. They gave a talk in my ward a few months back and discussed their experiences. They would frequently take ambassadors out to fancy dinners, Broadway plays, etc., all using the Lord's sacred funds. It must have cost a fortune. And yet we can't even get the noisy men's room fan fixed in our ward house. Seriously, it's like listening to a sick jet engine every time I go in there.

I have always paid a full tithing, which is fine with me. I can spare 10% of my income for a good cause. But I would feel better about paying tithing if I knew there was some accountability in how it gets spent. For all I know, the brethren could be spending it on hookers and blow.