NOM

I know this is splitting hairs, but it's something that always bugged me. I also know it's been discussed here before.

Paying tithing vs charitable donations.

In church it's always preached to "pay" your tithing. You "owe" it to God. Etc. But the tithing slip says it's a "donation".

They can't have it both ways. If it's a payment, then the church should be classified as a business (which it is). If it's a donation, they can't preach the gospel of debts and payments to god.

Nothing will change by my complaining, I just hate this discrepancy.

Having listened to a number of other churches and Christian individuals regarding this, they almost always say, "We give" a tenth or a tithe to our church. They never say "pay".

Which reminds me of an old humorous story I once heard.
A Catholic priest, protestant minister and a rabbi all happen upon a pile of gold coins at the same time. They decide to split the money but question if they should give a tithe on it. The priest says let's draw a circle and throw the money up in the air. Whatever falls outside the circle we give to the Lord. Whatever falls inside is ours.

The minister says, "No, let's throw the money up and whatever falls inside is the Lord's and whatever falls outside is ours, eh?"

The rabbi says, "No, we throw the money up and whatever STAYS up is the Lord's and whatever comes down is ours......

Does the wording have something to do with tax write-offs, at least in the past?

As an adult male I see it as a donation thus I decide how much I give !!!!!! Anything else or any church that tells you how much to give either in percent or dollar amount is guilty of Extortion .

Huh...never thought of it like that before.
As i post this, I'm awaiting the start of a 5k funrun raising money for a charity. They take donations, but i paid for the 5k.
The donations they take and use for their cause, as will some if the money i did--the diffrence is the donations get/expect nothing but i do--i get a shirt, a bib, a time. I expect a safe, organized, fun group event.
Compare that with the church--they straight up admit you received nothing of temporal, measurable benieft. Literally, you sign saying you gave it and got nothing but "enternal blessings"...but its not called a donation--you paid it.
That really does make it sound like a layaway or payment plan for the afterlife. Looking at it like this, payment is what matters right? Layaway payments dont matter if your a good person, chase, or anything. They dont care if your honest, just that they got their cut.
Doesnt really sound like Christ, and they picked the word. Some might argue im twisting what they say, but its their words not mine. Words have meaning and matter!

The doctrine was approved by church leaders, but the tithing slip was approved by lawyers. Arcane legal points are barely behind the scenes in the LDS church in ways that definitely surprised me.

For example, from a legal standpoint you are not a member of "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints". Because, legally, TCOOCoLDS is not a church. It's a trademark owned by Intellectual Reserve. Your membership number was/is a database entry that links to a record of your ordinances along with the usual demographic data. This database is owned by Intellectual Reserve and Intellectual Reserve is owned by the "Corporation of the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints". This is a legal structure like an S corp, C corp, or LLC. But corporation sole is an older style which is almost never used any longer. By "sole" it means their is, legally, only one official member in that organization. That man is Thomas Monson. The articles of incorporation of CoPoTCoJCoLDS do indicate the 14 men who succeed him in order after Monson's passing.

The legal entity that owns all church real estate property is CoPoTCoJCoLDS. All printed material including music is held by Intellectual Reserve.

This rabbit hole goes deeper in the silliest of ways. Note that it is a lower case "d" in "Latter-day Saints". Why not "Latter Day Saints"? It's because the registered trademark would not be granted for "Latter Day Saints" since it was all commonly used words and not being used as an adjective to modify the noun, "Church" or "Jesus Christ". "LDS Church" fits the guidelines much like "Apple Computers" or "MIcrosoft Windows OS". But TCOOCoLDS does not fit the grammatical form specified with the U.S. Trademark office so they lowered the case of "day" and hyphenated it into a word that is not found in any dictionary. It is legal to trademark made up words or an adjective-noun combination that has common words.