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(Taken from www.exmormon.org BBS -- January, 2001)
Subject: Temple recommends, tithing, and
consequences.. Date: Jan 10 09:21 Author: Lurkin' a bit About 5 years ago, my husband and I had been
attending church irregularly. We'd skip a week here
and there. We let our Temple recommends expire.
Then we decided we wanted to "get with it" and
shape up. I had an interview with the Bishop and he advised
us to begin paying a full tithing every time. Then
after 6 months or so, have our temple recommends
renewed. We hadn't done anything wrong, not even
break the W of W, but we did skip tithing or not
pay it in full occasionally. We informed the Bishop that in order for us to pay
a full tithing every paycheck, I would have to go to
work. We had 3 small children at the time. The
Bishop told us to trust the Lord, pay our full
tithing, and for me to stay at home with the
children. He said that Heavenly Father knew our
circumstances and we would be blessed for doing as
He wants. During the 6 months, we would talk with the Bishop
and Stake Pres., he was a friend, about our financial
situation. They kept telling us to stay on this path.
Well...we did. We kept having to pay for necessities
on credit cards. (i.e. food, necessary clothing,
toiletries) Then, I found out I was pregnant again.
We had even discussed not having more children w/
our Bishop and he gave us articles from the Prophet
about not waiting to have children or stopping them
from coming. Anyway, I ended up on bedrest, the credit cards
reached their limits, I couldn't go to work to help
pay them off, and we kept paying a full tithing. We
met with the Bishop and Stake Pres. and got our
Temple Recommends renewed. Four weeks later, we
had to file for bankruptcy. When we told the Bishop our situation. He said that
we had done what was expected of us, so not to
worry. We all go through trials. We should be happy
that our family pays a full tithing and is temple
worthy, which many are not, because they put too
much emphasis on the material things. If anyone can believe it, we just smiled and kept on
this track for another year. We then stopped
attending all together. Not attending had nothing to
do with this situation though. I didn't even think of
all this until yesterday when I received a copy of
my credit report. My husband and I grew up in the Church. We
absolutely, without question, trusted the leadership
in the Church and believed they were inspired. We
feel so foolish. We can't believe we left such
important decisions in the hands of others, and
untrained leaders at that. Anyone else go through
anything like this? Please, let us not be the only
ones that were so stupid.
Page Modified January 19, 2001