Reader comments
Times are tough, but Utahns are still giving

Time's are NOT tough in Utah. You have no perspective.

this is consistent with a book published in the fall of 2006, I believe, that says that conservatives (Utah is often described as the reddest of states) actually give more than liberals, more of their own time and money.

So despite the liberal charges of heartless, "Rush O'Hannity" clones, or "people haters who adore a people-hater", when the rubber actually meets the road, we are not as the liberals would have you believe.

I contribute generously to the school lunch program with my alcohol purchases!

We don't contribute to charities any more at all. We don't have any faith in the honesty of charities due to things that went on during the 911 and other events.

We especially have bad feeling for the Red Cross because of so many bad things that we heard about.

The six figure salary for the Boy scout leader killed our desire to help boy scouts.

The billions of dollars spent by various charities on TV tell us they don't need our money.

It's too bad that people give to the Crossroads Urban Center. It's a leftist front group that is interested in raising your taxes to increase state spending on Medicaid and other big government welfare programs.

These clowns receives funding from George Soros and other "progressives."

Give a can of food to Crossroads, that's another buck they can divert into their socialist agenda.

No offense, but Crossroads Urban Center is one of the worst "charities" I've ever dealt with. I wouldn't give them a dime of my money.

Please be careful when giving food or money to the Crossroads Urban Center aka the "CUC." They are more concerned with wasting community resources than feeding the poor. This whole feeding the poor stuff is a bunch of junk. They are tearing our beloved community apart, not bringing us together. They will never get a can of Spam from me.

Don't forget that 'charitable' giving figures in Utah ALSO includes tithes and offerings it's residents give to their church, which in fact skews the records so that Utah is artificially listed as the 3rd highest contributor to charities, when in fact if the Mormon-church donations was removed from the list it would be one of the lowest in America.

The figures should not include giving to 'religious' organizations, but to non-religious charities if one wants to get an accurate reading of charitable contributions.

This does not mean in any sense of the meaning I'm opposed to giving to one's own church, but I am opposed to skewing records with church figures when the figures are conveying something that's different as far as the context of the discussion is concerned.

That's all.

I don't know if you can attribute the giving to conservatives, at least not in Utah. People give here because of a religious belief in doing so. They could be liberal or conservative and they would still give to the LDS church. I wanted to take this opportunity to urge everyone to pay tithing on the net instead of the gross and give the difference to the food banks, Salvation Army, etc. Tithing does not go for support of the poor, like fast offerings. In these tough times I think the LDS church can "double bunk" wards (shorten the block to 2 hours, put four wards in every building) in fewer buildings with less tithing. We can help people more by giving to real charities that really help the poor. Obviously the LDS church has "enough" money since they can't find ways to use it other than build a billion dollar mall in SLC. I know they have humanitarian funds, but they are a small percentage of the dollars they take in. Give until it "hurts" to charities that really do help the poor, the naked, the afflicted. You'll be following the Saviour by doing this.

I have cut back my driving, and think twice before making unnecessary purchases, but I also am inclined to give more because of the economy.

We will have plenty of food for our family, but others will not, that's why I believe donations are up.

You hit the nail right on the head.my beliefs exactly. too many charity officials are getting rich,rich,rich from donations.check their records.

I love all those haters in Utah who take time out of there day to continue to knock the LDS church and there faithful members who pay an honest tithe.

Seriously, the "Billion-Dollar" mall will do more for this state's economy than any policy and no TITHING DOLLARS are being used for it. The LDS church has done more with there charitable donations than any other organization.

Show respect for organizations who are actually doing it right!

It looks like we still have uninformed commenters. No tithing money or any other donated funds are being used in the construction of the city creek center.

Our anonymous friend who posted at 9:49 does not seem to realize that many religious contributions do go to the support of the poor. LDS fast offerings are specifically used to support the poor, while donations to the church's humanitarian aid fund goes for the relief of victims of natural disasters and other calamaties all over the world, often in conjunction with aid organizations organized by other faiths. The perpetual education fund is designed to help the poor raise themselves and their decendents from the ravages of poverty perpetuated by lack of educational opportunity.

Just because it goes through a religious organization that funnels nothing off for overhead expense rather than a non-religious organization that funnels millions off for overhead does not mean it should not be counted when considering charitable giving. If anything, it should be counted for more as more of the funds actually go for the relief of the poor.

To Anonymous 9:49 and "Giving and conservatives": Are you assuming that giving money to churches doesn't help people? It sounds like you might be. If so, you're welcome to that opinion, but just know that many people believe differently. Obviously, helping people with eternal needs doesn't always meet their temporal needs. But (1) many people can attest that financial miracles happened when they decided to near themselves to God, (2) eternal needs are at least as important as temporal needs (so no need to discount donations to religions), and (3) happily, the article's main point was that many Utah charities (not just the Mormon Church) are experiencing an increase in donations.

Besides paying a full tithing, I am more than happy to give a generous fast offering which does go to help people. I also like to give to the Perpetual Education Fund which does much good in third-world countries. The LDS Church does so much good all over the world. Some of the dumb remarks above about the Church show a woeful lack of information on what the Church does with its money.

Very often the Church is the first organization to show up with aid and help after a disaster. The LDS people were there very quickly after the 2005 tsunami in Indonesia. In your typical neighborhood there are weekly acts of service given by Church members to members and non-members alike. I see it in my own ward all of the time.

To add a ps to my above comments, I also give liberally to the Salvation Army and give to many other worthy causes what I can.

One more thing. A careful reading of my comment ("Giving and Conservatives") DOES indicate that I KNOW fast offering monies and humanitarian monies DO help the poor. My only point (a valid one I believe...but we don't really know because the "books" are secred) is that tithing monies, the VAST bulk of the collected funds, do NOT go to help the poor. It builds chapels, temples (very ornate buildings), funds educational institutions (I think, although apparently BYU is "self funding"...again we don't know for sure), pays for executive salaries for GAs -- but nothing goes for hospitals, no low income housing, no donations to the food bank, etc. Think about it...I am right. I am not trying to be mean spirited, really. I'm just saying there are alot of very generous, giving people here in Utah, who are LDS mostly, who could divert a small amount (the delta between net and gross) of their tithing to charities that DIRECTLY aid the poor and downtrodden. Heck, the church may actually agree with this idea, you never know. They are pretty pragmatic people (sometimes). We really are in tough times now, alot of people's incomes are not keeping up with expenses.

The money being used to build the mall in downtown SLC was originally derived from tithing funds that were then invested by the LDS Church in various for profit business entities. All money that the LDS Church has can ultimately be traced back to tithing contributions. It is disingenuous to say that no tithing money is being used to build this mall, it all was originally tithing money.

Saying that most of the money collected (over 95%) by the LDS Church goes to fund the ongoing operations of the Church is correct. Very little of the money donated to the LDS Church actually goes to help the poor. That is true.

I am not saying that either thing (the Mall or % of donated money going to the poor) is somehow wrong. People will have to decide that for themselves. Many people are hurting now because of the poor economy, let's help them out as much as we can. Give to the fast offering & humanitarian funds. Give to the Salvation Army & food banks. We can and should do this if we are to call ourselves Christians.

To Clarification: Are you aware that the LDS Church owns the Deseret News, Deseret Book, and other businesses? Do you think the profits from those businesses are "tithing"?

Tithing does support the officially Church owned and operated educational institutions.

Very sad to see the jealous greed manifested manifested in some of the comments above--it is so similar to the New Testament record of when Judas Iscariot complained about the lovely container of ointment used on Jesus Christ which he said could have been sold and the proceeds given to the poor... watch yourselves folks--there are so many petty ways to start your own fall.
For the record we have given a 10% gross tithe to The Church, significant percentage to fast offering, money specific to temple construction, Perpetual Education fund and the other line items, including the "Other" line which isn't "deductible". Then the help and gifts for home and visiting teaching assigned people who are our stewardships, help for relatives, help for neighbors, thousands in cash dollars to ward members and friends from previous wards who needed work and so we thought up jobs we could have them do (all of which we could have done ourselves) and are raising 6 children always on the husbands income. This has totalled 30-35% outlay for 14 years. To God be the glory. Try it, pay up.