The claimed concern is that in a severe economic downturn, the church wants to be able to both continue operating and help people in need. They say it’s a rainy day fund, and I think in the leadership’s mind that’s exactly what it is.
The church’s yearly operating expenses are somewhere in the neighborhood of $7B. Add another $7B on top of that for feeding the membership in a Great Depression situation, and add a loss of 50% of your investments due to the stock market crash, and some loss of liquidity due to market turmoil, and a significant loss of tithing income due to that same downturn, and $100B isn’t that far off the right number.
The problem, of course, is that there are people who are hungry today. We don’t need to wait for an economic downturn to find people in need.
But I guess my overall point is this. The church makes a lot of mistakes, and it has some significant structural issues. But at core it isn’t malicious. Church leadership really isn’t getting rich off this. They’re true believers, and although they have a culture of secrecy you can usually take what they do say at face value.
They’re just... about forty years behind culturally, and very slow to change, and have a world view that was informed by many decades of teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. And they really do believe that Jesus is going to return sometime soon.
But, again: people are hungry right now. We should feed them.
And for secrecy, the church got screwed pretty hard early on (driven from place to place, leadership beaten and murdered, forced to move west, investigated by the military, etc). It makes complete sense to only give out as much information as you can, especially when there are so many looking to destroy the church and if you assume that the devil is literally behind people trying to destroy the church. It's a very different type of secrecy compared to other groups, like Scientologists, at least that's the way it feels to me.
And yes, I completely agree that the church should probably adjust its focus a bit. I think the church has plenty in the bank, so what's wrong with having most of the income used for feeding the poor and everything else Jesus recommended?
However, that's really not my call, and IMO it's not really my business. I give my tithing because I'm asked to, not because I think the church will use it optimally. It's a show of obedience to God and faith that the leadership is being a good steward of that money. It isn't my choice how the church leadership chooses to use that money, it's my choice whether to give, and it's my choice whether to give extra to causes I believe in. So I do. I give to the church as well as other causes I believe in. Jesus recommended to give everything, and I feel like I do pretty much the same thing as the church (most excess goes to investments, which I hope will allow me to dedicate my life to helping others once I retire, hopefully early).
The church’s yearly operating expenses are somewhere in the neighborhood of $7B. Add another $7B on top of that for feeding the membership in a Great Depression situation, and add a loss of 50% of your investments due to the stock market crash, and some loss of liquidity due to market turmoil, and a significant loss of tithing income due to that same downturn, and $100B isn’t that far off the right number.
The problem, of course, is that there are people who are hungry today. We don’t need to wait for an economic downturn to find people in need.
But I guess my overall point is this. The church makes a lot of mistakes, and it has some significant structural issues. But at core it isn’t malicious. Church leadership really isn’t getting rich off this. They’re true believers, and although they have a culture of secrecy you can usually take what they do say at face value.
They’re just... about forty years behind culturally, and very slow to change, and have a world view that was informed by many decades of teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. And they really do believe that Jesus is going to return sometime soon.
But, again: people are hungry right now. We should feed them.