Evolution of a miracle

 TikToker El_Urim_Tumim posted this video which outlines how President Nelson has evolved his story about an attack when he was in Mozambique into a miracle story. My thoughts are based on the points made in the video.

May 30 2009 - Elder and Sister Nelson were visiting a mission and while having dinner the mission home was robbed, the Mission President's wife had her arm broken, others got some cuts and bruises. Former missionaries said this is common and people usually use machetes for these types of robberies. link

June 1 2009 - Blair Packard, mission president, says Elder and Sister Nelson were not specifically targeted and it wasn't an act against the church, their guards were not involved. Said they were robbed by armed gunmen. link

November 21 2009 - Only intention was to harm Elder Nelson and kidnap Wendy. Mission President's wife gets outside and shouts for help, breaks her arm, others get cuts and bruises. Wendy felt peace right before the bad guy came in. link

March 27 2017 - Accomplishing the Impossible: What god does, what we can do page 25 (excerpt) - Elder Nelson says he was dining with a member family, bad men stormed in and announced they wanted to kidnap Wendy and kill Elder Nelson. A gun next to Elder Nelson's head failed to fire, Sister Nelson was miraculously released from their grip, they disappeared as quickly as they appeared. He knows angels saved them. No mention of the mission president's wife making it outside to get help, no mention of other things from the house being stolen.

Seems to me at this point either the mission president lied about what happened or Elder Nelson lied about what happened. Can both of them be telling the truth here? Why would one say Elder Nelson wasn't a target but then Elder Nelson says he was the sole target? Why would the Mission President say his wife got outside and got help and the other say angels saved them? 

One clear reason for Elder Nelson to improve the story is that it makes him look more important. God saved him from a gun, armed evil men attacked him with the purpose of hurting him but then were miraculously foiled. This take makes it seem like Elder Nelson is someone special that God is watching over. The first account makes it seem like Elder Nelson just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The (not so) secret SCMC

 SCMC stands for Strengthening Church Members Committee. The Wikipedia article says that this committee is for monitoring members who are critical of the church or the leaders, other members may report critical members to the committee and the committee will forward the information to local leaders for discipline. In this video a church employee tries to lie about the existence of the committee and then when cornered admits it exists but has to pass the interviewer on to someone else. It also shows where the interviewer continues with Jeffrey Holland and discusses the existence and purpose of the committee but if you watch the whole clip, which FAIR recognizes as legitimate, you can see how uncomfortable Holland is to be discussing it. Now Holland's reasoning for the existence of the committee is primarily to guard against polygamy. This seems strange when you think about it. The church no longer practices polygamy and ended it over 100 years ago. So why would the church, currently, need a committee to protect the church against polygamy? The Wikipedia article's claims about monitoring members for criticisms seems much more likely. This reddit post outlines and provides sources for several instances of the SCMC passing information on to a Stake president for discipline. The podcaster RFM discusses when he called the church office building and confirmed they had a file about him. 

It seems especially strange that a church, with a book, which discusses in depth the evils of secret combinations, would then create committee's that it tries to keep secret from members or the world.

If God is running the church and if the church has revelations and the spirit of discernment then why is this committee needed? Couldn't a bishop receive inspiration that a member in the ward needs correction?

If the church is God's church, and if God doesn't like secret combinations, and if God is willing to cast out 1/3 of the hosts of heaven so that we can have our agency, then why would he allow a mostly secret committee like this, which seems to have the sole purpose of denying people their agency to speak critically of leaders, operate? Can God not defend himself and his leaders from criticism?

How I used to believe the church was true and why that doesn't work anymore

When a scientist wants to understand something, they use the scientific method to work towards finding truth. The scientific method follows a few basic steps: observe something, ask a question, make a hypothesis, create an experiment to test the hypothesis, and then analyze the results. If the findings confirm the hypothesis, then the experimenter may want to do more tests or report the results if they are confident in them. If the findings do not support the hypothesis, then they will analyze what was wrong with the question or the experiment and repeat the process until they find truth.

In the church we like to think we use a similar process to find out if the Book of Mormon, and consequently the Church, is true. You should read the Book of Mormon and then pray about it to ask God if it is true. If you get a confirmation (a good feeling), then that means the book is true. If your answer is that the Book of Mormon is not true or if you do not get an answer, then you are told to redo the process because you did something wrong—perhaps you weren’t worthy of an answer or you weren’t listening properly. Instead of figuring out what is wrong with your test or what is wrong with your question, you are supposed to assume the answer is, “Yes, it’s true,” and that you messed up the experiment.

There are more problems with this process than just the presupposition that the Book of Mormon is true. This method ignores the fact that the church split into multiple sects after Joseph Smith died. Therefore, a confirmation that the Book of Mormon is true is not a confirmation that the LDS church is God's only church, but rather it would be a confirmation of the truthfulness of the book itself. If all of these different sects teach that the Book of Mormon will let you know that their church is true, then really we must ask if any of them are true. Another flaw in this method is that it is based on circular logic. The Book of Mormon gives the instruction to pray about the Book of Mormon, and the Book of Mormon tells you what you will feel to know that the Book of Mormon is true. Again, for this to work, you are required to assume beforehand that the book is teaching truth in order to determine whether or not it is teaching truth.

Let's expound on this: I believed that President Nelson was a prophet because Brigham Young was a prophet, and he was one because Joseph Smith was one, and he was one because he translated the Book of Mormon, and I knew the Book of Mormon was true because it says the spirit will tell me it's true if I pray and feel good, and I know that the feeling when I pray comes from the spirit because the Book of Mormon tells me that the feeling is from the spirit, and I know that feeling is from the spirit because the Book of Mormon is true, and I know the Book of Mormon is true because I feel something, and that something I feel is spirit and I know that the feeling is the spirit because the Book of Mormon is true and because I felt something that tells me it is true... Can you see the circle in this logic?  Instead of having a clear test that anyone can do to find out if the Church is true, the only way to find out if Mormonism is true is to already believe some aspect of Mormonism is true before you test anything.

Once I looked into the history of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, I started to question whether or not they were actually prophets. They both did things which don't align with the commandments taught in the Bible or the Book of Mormon, which makes it hard for me to believe they were actually prophets. When that belief crumbled I could then see that assuming the Book of Mormon is true so that I could use 'Moroni's test for determining truth' was circular logic, I had to believe Joseph was a prophet to determine whether or not he was a prophet. I wanted another way to evaluate the truthfulness of the Church, so I decided to heed the scripture in Matthew that teaches, “Wherefore by their fruits, ye shall know them.” Through my study of church history, I could see that the fruits of the newly restored church were mixed at best with some good parts and some bad. Even the fruits of the modern church are mixed. They do some good around the world—feeding people, digging wells, providing education—but there are also bad fruits—hoarding money, gaslighting the members, discriminating against minorities, covering up sex scandals

Because of the many hypocrisies committed by the leaders past and present and the problems with how the current church operates, I am no longer willing to assume that the Book of Mormon is true and therefore cannot trust in the promise written in Moroni to give me answers. Looking at the fruits of the church as the Bible teaches has also left me with doubts. I now feel I can only rely on the scientific method in my search for truth.

When members or investigators still have doubts after following Moroni’s challenge and looking at the fruits of the Church, they are directed to live a principle in order to gain a testimony of its truth. General Conference is filled with stories of people who, despite their skepticism, decided to follow the Word of Wisdom or the Law of Tithing and received blessings as a result. These blessings became a confirmation that the principle was true.

I have tried to live the gospel my whole life, but I have always felt miserable at church, never felt secure financially and struggled to be happy. So, last year I decided to do my own experiment. My hypothesis was that if I stopped living the principles the church taught, then surely I would notice that my life was worse. I started drinking coffee, and I have felt better and more focused. I see that the Word of Wisdom as taught by the church is not true. I haven't given tithing to the church in almost 18 months, and I've gotten a raise, a promotion, my stocks have increased in value, and my 401k is booming. I have more money to do fun things with my family, and I have less stress in my life worrying about how I'm going to pay bills. I am saving more, and I have even paid off my mortgage. Giving tithing to the church is not a true principal. I have been giving what I was giving to the church to my local food bank and a few other charities I believe in, and I am happier about the money that I give. Finally, I stopped going to church. I'm in a mixed faith marriage so Sundays are still incredibly difficult, but I no longer feel constant shame and guilt about every little thing in my life. I am happier, less stressed, and richer even though I'm not living the commandments.

Based on my tests, I can only conclude that my life is better without the LDS church controlling it.

Leaders of the church are liars. Would God actually call liars to be leaders?

A note, as you read this if you believe in the church you will feel dark not because the spirit is warning you it's bad, rather because you will experience cognitive dissonance. When you believe something strongly, like for example that the earth is flat, if someone presents you evidence that contradicts that belief, like a picture of a globe earth, your brain naturally will fight against that information by making you feel sick, sad, dark, angry or other negative emotions. Read more here

What do the leaders of the church and the scriptures teach us about lying?

• Proverbs 6:16-19 - These six things doth the Lord hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.

• John 8:44 - Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

• Revelation 21:8 - But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.

• Proverbs 12:22 - Lying lips are abomination to the Lord: but they that deal truly are his delight.

• 2 Nephi 9:34 - Wo unto the liar, for he shall be thrust down to hell

• Spencer Kimbal - conference "I would say: Never lie and never cheat. A liar is a weakling. A cheat is both a weakling and a thief."

Those are just a few examples from the scriptures of how God feels about liars. These are people that are an abomination to him, children of Satan, a weakling, numbered among adulterers, murders and sorcerers, and will be thrust down to hell.

In D&C 20, Joseph said that God told him how the church should be organized. Anyone who holds the office of Teacher, has the following command: 54 - And see that there is no iniquity in the church, neither hardness with each other, neither lying, backbiting, nor evil speaking;

God specifically says in D&C 68:19 "as a high priest of the Melchizedek Priesthood has authority to officiate in all the lesser offices" so people called to the higher priesthoods still can act in the lower levels. So an apostle still has the duty to make sure lying isn't happening in the church.

So by the above we know that God thinks liars are an abomination and Apostles still have the duty to make sure no one in the church is lying. 

Finally, how does the church define lying?  "Lying is intentionally deceiving others." (among many other things described here)

So lets look at some examples of Prophets and apostles that are liars.

Gordon Hinckley - 

• In this video he claims that members have access to budgets and financial information and that the church feels only the people who make contributions should have access to that information. There is no where that any member can see the budgets or financial information of the church. I've looked and can't find anything, many others have looked and only find information from public companies owned by the church, no financial information can be found for the church.
  

Jeffery Holland - 

• In this video Holland is deceptive about what used to happen in the temple. He could have led with "we used to have penalties" but instead led with "we don't have penalties"
  

Russel Nelson - 

• Has told the story about being on an airplane that was going down for 20+ years now, here's a recent video where he relates the story. In the book "Russell M. Nelson: Father, Surgeon, Apostle" he relates the following details, it was November 12th, 1976 on a flight between SLC and St. George for a Inauguration at Dixie College. It is federal law that pilots report problems with their flights. So with the details provided in the book it's possible to verify this story. On page 1090 of the Civil Aeronautics Board reports it says "Second incidence occurred Nov. 11, 1976 involving Piper PA 31 N74985. Pilot experienced rough engine on scheduled flight between Salt Lake City and St. George. 3 passengers on board. Engine was feathered and precautionary landing made at Delta, Utah, per instructions in company manual. Investigation revealed cylinder base studs sheered. As result of occurrence Sky West change maintenance procedures by checking torque studs at each 100 hour inspection. No damage to aircraft. No injuries to crew or passengers." (the day is one day off but nothing was reported for the 12th or for a few weeks after, so maybe Nelson just forgot the day by one day) a "rough engine" is not an exploded engine or a death dive. Also the report indicates that a "precautionary landing" was made, if you have a failed engine you don't make a "precautionary" landing you make an "emergency" landing.

• This article tells of a time Elder Nelson was attacked, he says the bad guys broke in and tried to kill him but the gun failed to fire, and were going to kidnap Wendy Nelson, but then disappeared as quickly as they came. But then in this article it says someone called for help and help came, also it says it was a robbery and abduction, nothing about a gun or killing Elder Nelson. Finally this article simply says it was a robbery

• This tells of how President Nelson fabricated details to a "miracle" story he's shared a few times. The family of the woman in the story contacted the publisher and told them most of it was made up. They removed the story from the online article they published and may or may not have removed it from the book.
  

Joseph F Smith - 

• Some portion of a letter book that contained the description of the first vision that was written in 1832, was cut out of the book. It was later stored in the vault of the first president who was Joseph F Smith. Whether or not he cut it out, he eventually became the president and would have had access to the vault and likely would have looked at everything in there, since he was the church historian prior to becoming an apostle. Keeping the first vision account hidden was dishonest, if he was the one that cut it out so that he could hide it, that's even more dishonest. FAIR is the churches apologetics group, so finding an answer on that site is like finding it on LDS.org. Here's an answer that corroborates my above statements.

Joseph Smith - 

• Polygamy - Was married to Eliza and Emily Patridge without telling his wife. When Emma finally agreed to practice polygamy she picked them as plural wives. Instead of confessing his lies to Emma, Eliza and Emily were married to Joseph a second time. (bottom of the 6th section here) (this website is run by faithful members and even they have found evidence of polygamy teachings going back to 1831)
  
• Is a failed prophecy the same as a lie? If God told him to say it then it should have happened, if it didn't happen then I think it's fair to think he lied about the fact God told him to say something. This wikipedia page has a list of fulfilled and failed prophecies, the fact there are any failed prophecies means he must have lied at least about some of them if not all of them.
• There are 4 distinctly different versions of the first vision. Either Joseph saw God and Jesus or he saw an angel. One of these is a lie otherwise the most important details of why he went into the grove and who he saw in the grove would be consistent.
• He was a known conman in his area practicing something called glass looking. This confirms he was known as a glass looker and was tried for it, it says it's not conclusive whether he was convicted or not. The fact he was known for glass looking though tells you that he was known for telling people where to find treasure using the same seer stone he used to translate the book of mormon, which seems deceptive to me. Here (Isaac Hale testimony, should be the first one on the page) he told his father in law he would stop, why stop if it was honest work, why not convince his father in law it wasn't something he needed to stop?
• Joseph started a bank and was deceptive about the funding they had. When the bank failed lots of people left the church. Here and here are more info, at the end of the second one it asks the question why people didn't disclose the fraud before the bank failed, while that is an interesting question it ignores the possibility that they were in on the fraud and were going to make money until the bank failed and once it failed they no longer were going to gain anything so their best option was to make sure Joseph also didn't gain anything.

In the temple recommend questions it asks if you are honest with your fellow men and clearly these men haven't been honest about these things. None of them have ever issued apologies which means they also haven't repented. 

This website and this website have dozens more examples of leaders of the church lying or at least being deceptive.

Wilford Woodruff and President Nelson (around 1:58) have said that God wouldn't allow the prophet to lead the church into error. Is setting an example of lying or deceiving not leading the church into error?

If God doesn't like liars, which I think we established, then why would he tolerate prophets and apostles who are dishonest? Wouldn't God be holding the leader of his church to a higher standard than the members of his church? We are told that as members of the church we have to live a higher standard than people who aren't members (just one example), so it seems reasonable that God would hold someone like a prophet or apostle to an even higher standard than a member. If I answer the temple question about honesty in the negative then I don't get a temple recommend. How can a prophet or apostle get revelation for the church if they aren't completely honest or at least repenting when they do lie? Reason would suggest they can't. President Nelson has been lying about the various miracle stories for 20+ years. That means his message last Thanksgiving, which he said was revelation, wasn't. God wouldn't have woken him up in the night to tell him to give that message since he's been dishonest and hasn't repented. This also means that dropping the use of the word Mormon wasn't revelation from God. This also means that Come Follow Me wasn't revelation from God. Shorter church wasn't revelation. It means the policy banning children of Gays wasn't a revelation. It means the church has been in apostasy since shortly after it was formed or it means the church never was God's church.

Jesus said that by your fruits will you know them. Lying is not a good fruit so how can LDS leaders be God's chosen leaders when their fruits are bitter?

Counter arguments:

Some might want to argue that apostles and prophets have had the second anointing, like this former stake president, and thus the apostles can lie all they want and God will still communicate with them. Based on my own study I don't believe God would give someone the second anointing if he wasn't sure they would live a Christ like life despite having no further consequence for sin.

Some also might want to argue that Judas was deceptive but Christ called him as an apostle. While I agree that is a potential hole in my argument, there is this which discusses old documents found that suggest Judas was commanded by Christ to betray him. There is also  the fact that the gospels weren't written until 50 to 100 years after Christ died, the stories were likely embellished and changed, so perhaps Judas either wasn't real or what actually happened morphed. It's almost impossible to know at this point.

Would the Spirit lead you down the "wrong road"?

In 2013, the church published a video of Jeffrey Holland telling a story of when he and his son were driving home from a hike and came to a fork in the road. Holland and his son prayed separately and each felt prompted by the Spirit to take the right fork. They drove down the road until it soon ended. Holland quickly turned around to get on the correct road. Confused, his son asked why the Spirit told them to go down the wrong road. Holland replied that sometimes we are lead the wrong way so that when we correct it, we can know for sure that we are on the right path.

In other words, sometimes God will purposefully give us a false answer through the Spirit just so we can know for sure that it is actually the wrong answer when it doesn't work out.  I mean thankfully the wrong path in the story did not endanger them, but sometimes we feel guided to "wrong paths" that do cause us harm. Were those orchestrated by the Spirit too?

Also, aren't we supposed to doubt our doubts and have faith? The Spirit clearly indicated to Holland and his son the way they should go. Why didn't they have faith enough to continue forward on the path?  If the Spirit told them to go that way, isn't it likely that there was a reason?  Maybe a person who needed help was just ahead, and they missed it in their haste to turn around.  If the Spirit really told them to go the wrong way, does this mean we are not only allowed to, but should question promptings of the Spirit when we are presented with new information?

How does this work if God is not the "author of confusion, but of peace"?(1 Cor 14:33) 

Both Holland and his son were certain that they were inspired by the Spirit which path was the right one.  To me the explanations as to why they were inspired to go down the wrong road are limited to this: either Holland missed something, or God intentionally confused him.  Either there was a poor soul a little further down the road whom Holland could have helped, but missed, or God used confusion to try and teach a lesson.  

I think the real answer, Ladies and Gentlemen, is that often the things we attribute to a holy, whispering being are really just our own thoughts and feelings.

Radio Free Mormon's podcast #13 shares many more incites on this video.

-J.

Why do we lie?

The church teaches the following in the Gospel Principles manual. Gospel Principles: chapter 31: Honesty

"There are many other forms of lying. When we speak untruths, we are guilty of lying. We can also intentionally deceive others by a gesture or a look, by silence, or by telling only part of the truth"

Why do people lie? why do you lie? why do any of us lie? In every example I can think of, when a lie is told there is something to be gained by the liar. There is something that gets avoided, perhaps a punishment is avoided, there is a consequence that is avoided. The result of a lie is something positive for the one that told the lie. 

As my shelf broke and I read the CES Letter and investigated its sources and dug in and learned disturbing fact after disturbing fact I started to ask myself. "The church says teaches that anti-mormon material is made up of lies and that ex-mormons are bitter angry people, so if these people are lying, what are they getting from the lie? what reason do they have to lie?" It seems to me that the only party that gains something here is the church. if they are able to make their members believe that all anti-mormon material is just lies or that ex-mormons are angry bitter people they keep their members from finding the truth. 

The typcial ex-mormon experience is this. 1. you find out some disturbing truth about the church. 2. you go and corroborate from church resources that it is in actuality true. 3. you share it with your family and friends. 4. you get told that you are a liar or that you're being deceived by Satan and that you need to forget the fact and just believe the church is true. 5. You are either persuaded for a time to "stay in the boat" or you have the courage to stand up and say "enough is enough".

There are people who have left the church or don't believe and have lied to get stuff out of the church, a name that comes to mind is Mark Hoffman, I'm not saying that there aren't bad people out there. what i am saying is that Jeremy Runnells doesn't seem like he is lying, he does allow his emotions and frustration leak into the CES Letter but you can corroborate everything that he points out.  

I ask myself, why did I have to go outside the church to learn the churches history? The church teaches a whitewashed version of its history. The only reason I can think of as to why they would teach a whitewashed version is because the church fears something in their history. Something that they want to hide because they know that if members learned about it they would leave. Which is exactly what is happening. people are leaving the church in droves and its pretty consistently because they grew up believing one thing and then discovered that its actually not the truth. For me I grew up believing the church was a certain way and then I woke up from the stupor that they had lulled me into and I walked away.

For me, it was a particular struggle, to discover that the leaders of the church had lied, probably because I felt like the church had turned me into a liar, because I defended their lies on my mission or in conversations with people. 

Here is just one example: Holland lied in a BBC interview about the penalties that used to be part of the temple covenants. Jeffrey R Holland Lying On Camera I have saved the timestamp in the link so you don't have to watch the whole thing. He very clearly tries to get away with "telling only part of the truth".

Why would he lie? because he knows that the church is weird and he's trying to protect some public image of the church. one of the biggest tells of a cult is that it has secret teachings that you don't learn about until you're already in the cult. the temples serve that purpose. its a "sacred" place that you're told you have to go if you want to gain salvation and you can't go there unless you get your "worthiness" permit. You can't learn about it in detail before going because what you learn there you promise never to talk about with anyone. all hallmarks of a cult.

 

To sum up, the church stands to gain a lot by painting anything negative or not faith promoting as a lie or as untrustworthy.

Kill, don't kill, who knows?

In 1 Nephi 3:7 it says "And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said unto my father: I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them."  

In Exodus 20:13 it says "Thou shalt not kill" which is pretty straightforward. There are no conditions placed on it. If you interpret the bible literally then you shouldn't even fight in a war. But even if you interpret that loosely to mean you shouldn't kill someone unless they are trying to kill you or someone you are protecting that's still pretty clear that killing should be avoided. 

In 1 Nephi 4:10-11 it says "And it came to pass that I was constrained by the Spirit that I should kill Laban; but I said in my heart: Never at any time have I shed the blood of man. And I shrunk and would that I might not slay him. And the Spirit said unto me again: Behold the Lord hath delivered him into thy hands. Yea, and I also knew that he had sought to take away mine own life; yea, and he would not hearken unto the commandments of the Lord; and he also had taken away our property." 

Once again we have a changing, inconsistent, confusing Mormon God. First Nephi says that God always provides a way to keep his commandments. A few hundred years earlier, God said don't kill and didn't give any conditions. Then God changes his mind and says "go ahead and chop that guy's head off, he tried and failed to kill you and stole your stuff, and who cares it's only one guy, it's better that he dies than your kids dwindle in unbelief." 

Just think about that logically for a second. God could have provided all kinds of other ways to preserve the scriptures for the Nephites. He could have had Laban stay passed out drunk for a day or two while Nephi got the plates and left. He could have provided copies of the plates, certainly some scribe somewhere was copying the plates if they were important. Nephi already knew how to write. Lehi knew how to write. God could have made it possible for them to copy the plates as a scribe or something. Heck, God doesn't have a problem sending angels down with flaming swords to make people keep commandments, why couldn't he send an angel to make Laban give Nephi the plates? Why was his only option breaking one of his own commandments?  

Get out of the Boat!

Matthew 14:22

Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear. But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.” “Come,” he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!” Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?” And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.” 

Jesus wasn't afraid of getting out of the boat. He charted his own course and only got back in the boat if it was convenient for him. When Peter wanted to get out of the boat, Jesus said "come." He didn't care that Peter was in or out of the boat, only that he was learning and growing. When Peter started to sink into the depths, Jesus didn't say "I warned you it was dangerous out here; you should have stayed in the boat." Instead, Jesus took him by the hand and helped him navigate the rough seas. If anything, he reprimanded him for not having the faith to navigate life outside the boat on his own. They only got back into the boat when it was convenient. Peter left the boat and learned how to rely on the Lord in ways his companions never did because they stayed in the boat.  

The Jesus of the bible wanted us to love God and love our neighbors. He encourages us to leave what is comfortable, when we are ready, and try something new, so we can grow. If we sit in the boat our whole lives, then we miss out on things that could bring us greater joy, deeper connections and a more authentic relationship with God. Some might think that staying in the boat is what God commanded, or that things people do outside of the boat are going against God's will. Jesus said that the great commandments are to love God with all your heart, might and mind and love your neighbor as yourself (Mark 12:30-31). 

If you really love someone, and if they really love you, is that relationship based on conditions? Do you really feel love for someone that gives you a list of things you have to do or things you can't do? Do you have real relationships with someone like that, or is that just a relationship that causes constant fear? Fear of not being good enough or doing enough or fear of doing the wrong things? A relationship like that stunts your growth because you don't try new things because you are afraid. 

You develop your strongest relationships with the people who love you unconditionally and who encourage you to be your best self. God loves us unconditionally, he wants us to be our best selves, and we can only find out who we really are and become our best selves by getting out of the boat and walking through the rough seas while reaching for Jesus' hand only when our faith starts to fail us. 

Compare those thoughts with this, "Brothers and sisters, stay in the boat, use your life jackets, and hold on with both hands. Avoid distractions! And if any one of you have fallen out of the boat, we will seek you, find you, minister to you, and pull you safely back onto the Old Ship Zion" - Russel Ballard

Pay your tithing!

The few times I helped count tithing we counted somewhere between $5,000 and $8,000 in donations on average each week. If you do some googling you can find other financial secretaries who report similar numbers in average wards and much more in rich wards.[1]

The church reports there are 30,940 wards and branches in the world, 15,276 of those are in Canada, the UK and the USA. The wards in those areas are going to typically be able to average $5,000 a week. Wards in places like central Africa or South America probably much less. If we assumed that just those richer wards were doing $5,000 per week in tithing then that's still at least 4 billion a year in tithing, just from half of all the wards in the world. This is all just to set the stage for the next paragraph so that you can see the numbers below are reasonable.

The best estimates for how much tithing the church brings in each year, since the church isn't transparent, range from $7 billion a year [2] to $30 billion a year [3]. If we run some numbers that's either an average of $225,000 per ward or $969,000 per ward. According to church officials, the church spends about $5 billion per year running the church[4], so that includes things like maintenance, utilities, salaries for church employees, salaries for the prophet, apostles and seventy [5], costs for maintaining temples, paying mission presidents, paying for missions, printing materials, broadcasting stuff. All the things. $5 billion divided by the number of wards means each ward needs to supply at least $162,000 per year to keep running the church. That still should leave $50,000-$75,000 per ward for a budget, every ward in the world could have the same budget of $50,000-$75,000. That would cover all kinds of amazing activities for adults, youth, everyone, people would want to be a part of the church just because it was fun with budgets like that. So why do most wards get more like $8,000-$12,000? [1] Why do most wards have to do fund raisers so that kids can go to camp or a group movie or something?

Maybe this is why, instead of supporting members and making the church somewhere people want to spend their free time, the church takes all that extra money and buys land, hotels, and cattle:

$148 million beach front hotel in Maui (2021)

$210 million Washington Cattle Ranch (2021)

$50 million Texas Ranch (2020)

$76 million California industrial buildings (2019)

$129 million London Office building (2019)

$120 million Atlanta Apartments (2018)

 

Chicago apartment building (2018)

$100 million Dallas Raytheon campus (2017)

  
$120 million Apartments in Philly (2014)

$562 million Florida cattle ranch (2014)

 

Now, I wouldn't argue anything if the church was using all this land to grow crops and end world hunger, but they aren't doing that. The church already owns 2% of Florida [6], but we don't hear about how the church is solving hunger problems with that land. What are they doing? Why would God want land in downtown Chicago or beach front property in Maui?

So we pay our tithing, clean the buildings, donate to fund raisers, and our wards get minimal budgets with barely enough for a few youth activities and maybe a ward party around Christmas time while the church keeps the rest to buy up land, hotels, and apartment buildings. Is this really how God is building up his kingdom on earth?

[1] https://www.exmormon.org/mormon/mormon565.htm

[2] https://www.nbcnews.com/news/investigations/mormon-church-earns-7-billion-year-tithing-analysis-indicates-flna939844

[3] https://www.sltrib.com/religion/local/2017/10/14/historian-digs-into-the-hidden-world-of-mormon-finances-shows-how-church-went-from-losing-money-to-making-money-lots-of-it/

[4] https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-mormon-church-amassed-100-billion-it-was-the-best-kept-secret-in-the-investment-world-11581138011#:~:text=Clarke%20declined%20to%20disclose%20the,collectively%2C%20total%20about%20%245%20billion

[5] https://kutv.com/news/local/mormonleaks-web-page-posts-information-about-living-allowance-of-lds-general-authorities#:~:text=In%20accordance%20with%20approved%20procedures,increased%20from%20%24116%2C400%20to%20%24120%2C000

[6] https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-xpm-2014-03-06-os-mormon-florida-land-deal-sealed-20140306-story.html#:~:text=The%20Mormon%20church%20through%20its,was%20announced%20in%20November

If you really want to dive into all this take a look through this http://www.mormonthink.com/tithing.htm much more detail and much more analysis.