Someone once asked if there is a seasonal anti-Mormon calendar. Sometimes it seems that way because annual holidays and observances provide opportunities for enemies of the restored gospel to attack or air their grievances.
For example, in the weeks before April and October Conference every year, the Salt Lake Tribune would frequently run a story about the Church baptizing dead Jews or Adolph Hitler. Of course, these stories get picked up by media wire services or the Associated Press and thus, they go global. On Mother's day, they would run stories about polygamy. On Father's Day, the topic would be ordaining women. After 9/11 happened, anti-Mormons discovered that this was the historical anniversary of the Mountain Meadows Massacre, the most tragic event in Church history; therefore, every year some anti-Mormon in a newsroom or social media forum brings it up. When the holidays come around, some antis accuse us of celebrating "Smithmus" because Joseph Smith's birthday falls in December.
This Christmas, we got a double dose of Christmas cheer from our detractors. One of them has become an annual story for the past few years. A bitter Seattle ex-Mormon named Lexi Magnusson hates the Church because she sees it as homophobic. Of course, the Church doesn't hate homosexuals, but it teaches chastity for unmarried people and fidelity for married couples. The Church affirms traditional marriage and it doesn't recognize "gay marriage" as a thing.
A few years ago, Magnusson had a conversation with a Latter-day Saint neighbor who mentioned that she had moved to their particular neighborhood to get her kids out of a school system with a progressive political agenda, to indoctrinate kids into acceptance of LGBTQ lifestyles. This infuriated Magnusson and, like most ex-Momons, she could not let go of her obsession. Every Christmas since, Magnusson has decorated her house with 10,000 rainbow colored lights to protest her "bigoted" Mormon neighbor.
The curious thing about this is the press attention it gets every year. Neighborly squabbles are nothing new. Neighbors argue over crabgrass encroachment, noise, or someone's dog going poop in their garden. It doesn't make headlines--unless its an opportunity to attack structural Mormonism. Thus Pink News ran the story this year and it has been echoed by liberal media across the planet. Happy anti-Mormon Christmas!
This year's Christmas offered a "bonus" article. Soon-to-be ex-Mormon Jana Riess's Salt Lake Tribune column was on "Why I Stopped Paying Tithing to the LDS Church." December is the month in which Latter-day Saints attend tithing settlement. I don't know if other denominations have anything similar to this. It is a meeting where you review your donations to the Church with the bishop to check their accounting. In the meeting, the donor declares himself as a full, partial tithe-payer. Paying a full tithing is important because only members in good standing may attend the Church's temples. Members who attend Church universities also receive a discounted tuition rate if they are tithe-payers. (It's like the difference between resident and nonresident tuition in a state.)
This year, Riess said she declared herself a "full tithe-payer," but that she donated zero to the Church. Her grievance about tithing goes back to an article a few years ago where someone in an accounting firm violated terms of confidentiality and revealed that the Church had some $100 million tucked away as a rainy-day fund. Critics claim that the Church lacks transparency about its finances. Riess doesn't accuse the Church or its leaders of malfeasance, but she just thinks that a church having money collecting interest is a bad thing.
I discussed this in a previous article, explaining that the corpus of money enables the Church to be independent and help people all over the world without the fear of running out of assets during a financial downturn. Certainly this year, during the Covid-related financial slump, the Church has gone above and beyond in sending hundreds of thousands of pounds (maybe millions) of food supplies to charities all over the world. The confidence an clout to be able to do this comes from the financial hedge that the Church has slowly built over decades.
Our leaders know history, and they know our people faced times of near-starvation in the past. In our case, there was no one to help and no one would have helped anyway. The Church follows the Lord's admonition to be independent of the wicked world around it. When the non-Mormon world is friendly toward us, it is barely so. When it is hostile, it is murderously so. The survival of the Church depends on independence.
Riess' decision was to protest with her wallet by donating an equivalent of her tithing to other organizations and charities instead of giving money to the Church. That's fine. It's her money. Nevertheless, she has climbed to a position of notoriety in the world and her voice is becoming increasingly negative toward the Church and its teachings. In her article, she wrote, "I don't know what fallout there will be from this decision, if any. Frankly, it's not important whether I continue to hold a temple recommend or not. What's important to me is that at least a few kids who didn't have food or access to education will have meals, school, and the basics. I should have done this a long time ago." You can feel the self-righteousness in those words.
The Church spends millions on helping the needy. I myself was once a recipient of thousands of dollars of Church assistance when I was out of work. The Church paid my house payment for months so my family didn't become homeless. It stocked my kitchen shelves so my children didn't go hungry. The tithes that members donate pay for Church farms where that food is grown. It pays for warehouses and bishop's storehouses that distribute the food. It pays for transportation of these goods around the world. When there are disasters and financial needs, the Church is there to help. When I was a branch president, I signed many checks to help members pay an electric bill or gas bill or with orders of food from the bishop's storehouse. We were just a small branch, but the same goes on weekly in tens of thousands of congregations around the planet.
Riess is admittedly disaffected. She no longer cares about participating in temple worship. She expects some kind of backlash from the Church. With her articles, she is seeking to provoke a response. These kinds of vocal miscreants only have power while they are in the Church. Once they are on the outside, the press and the world no longer give them much attention. (Just ask Sonja Johnson, Helen Radkey, or Katie Kelly.) These disaffected members want to stay in the Church even while they criticize it. One way or another, Riess will make her stand, issue a manifesto (they always do) and then leave in a huff. Then she will sink into obscurity and the Church will move on to its destiny to build Zion without her.
To conclude, isn't it noteworthy that, on Christmas day, we get a double-whammy from the liberal media. The liberal progressives hate Christ and they hate anyone who bears witness of him. Especially, they hate his kingdom, which is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We take it all in stride.
Thanks to all my readers as 2020 draws to a close. Wishing you a happy new year!
Comments