Quarantine [Tag Book]

Being a Member of TCOJCOLDS in my Tiny Town (1)

A/N     

I'm starting to think my username would be a bad wrap for this chapter... considering I go by DeceitfulAngel now; and the definition of deceitful is lying... and angel is something you usually look up to... haha, but let's look past that, shall we?

There are so many different guidelines in my religion that I am going to set this up into different chapters on different topics in the religion that pop up at random throughout my book just so you guys get to know about TCOJCOLDS (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints).

Tithings and fast offerings

     For those of you who don't know what tithes are, tithing in our church is exactly 10% of any income given to the church to support other members of the church (or others in need) with financial and/or food problems. It is actually 'frowned upon' to pay over 10% intentionally.

     "Got $20 for your birthday? Give 2 dollars to the Lord"- is basically how it goes, or "found a dime on the ground? Give a penny to the Lord"- I'm kidding I don't think we're really that strict- oh crap what if we are? If we are then dang I am screwed...

     Fast offerings are similar, but also not similar at all. Every fifth Sunday we are encouraged to fast- only eating one meal for that day, and then the boys in our ward go around town accepting whatever money people are willing to give that they did not spend on food and drinks that day.

     What happens to that money besides donating to members of our church? 

     We save up that money to build our temples around the world, 161 currently operating. due to renovations and others are still under construction- and most recently 42 have been announced, so they're not built yet, so once those are all built, we will have 225 temples around the world.

     There's also these things called Bishop Storehouses, where people can get the food they need if they can't afford it at the time.

     What I don't like about tithing (in my ward)

     Like every religion- that I've heard of- there's always something that people don't like, whether it's one teeny tiny thing or something dramatic- and I've actually got a few. None of these would ever make me leave, though. But this one story did make me question my faith to the church for a while...

     Our bishop at the time was a great guy, he still is. He's a funny old man who likes to crack jokes and make people smile- but, he was also one of the more 'pushy' people in our church, and if you're not going to church and you're not a member of our church, you don't have to pay tithing unless you yourself makes the choice to come back to the church.

    Well, one day, this bishop decided he would go around town to the people who were both less active and completely done with our religion- and start telling them how much they owed in tithes.

     And... I'm pretty sure that's not how it works. Now, if you're exploring this religion and want to know more, don't get discouraged by this- this isn't everyone. 

     I live in such a small community that is about 92% LDS, and everyone's so pushy on keeping people in the church that shortly after one family went inactive they had to leave- I mean they legit packed up and disappeared, changing their numbers and all of their social media so that no one from our town would try and hunt them down again...

     At least I hope that's why they did that... 

     Don't think it's always bad for someone to go to your door and annoy the crap out of you to go to church, we were supposed to go to church at 8 in the morning and we had a very hard time getting up, so they thought we were going inactive. We got so many brownies and cup cakes I thought that there was a bakery somewhere that I didn't know about. 

      Now, don't tell anyone about this secret I gave you, but if you want free sweets just kinda go inactive for a bit. Holy shoot I'm going to Hell.

    Anyways, back to that family that moved away, they'd probably do fine anywhere else- but I've questioned my faith a lot from the people around me- even my own stake president, but I know I should 'doubt my doubts before I doubt my faith'- and what also needs to be understood is that it's not the religion being pushy, it's just the people. I know a ton of great people who are in the church and aren't pushy- but they don't live here, in my town. 

A/N 2:

If you guys think of anything you want to know about my religion or there was something I stated in the chapter you didn't fully comprehend, I am up for requests =)