Why do mormons insist that no one in mormonism gets paid?

Question

Gordon B. Hinckley lives in a million dollar penthouse condo. He has a private chaufer, riding in a lexus. He has 24 hr bodyguards. His travel expenses are paid for.
Although this may not be getting paid directly, what else do you need after being compensated with all these things?
It's not like he needs the compensation. He already has income from his business ventures.

Answer 1

The Bodyguards I can understand considering some people probably want to kill him.

His travel expenses paid for I can understand seeing as he's doing the Lords work and not on vacation.

But as far as all the luxury goes, I can not understand. It seems like a prophet of God would rather have the money spent on his luxuries be spent on more productive causes, such as preserving the Rain Forests, helping orphans etc.

Remember the rich man that said Jesus what shall I do to gain eternal life? And Jesus said give all you have and follow me?

Well president Hinckley is using part of the church money for his own luxuries rather than helping the poor or other worthy causes. He isn’t giving all he has to follow Christ

Answer 2

To get this straight here it goes.
Of course he has a body guard. There are to many wackos in this world. So that is a given.
The penthouse he lives in is owned by the LDS church not given to him but there for his use. Also becuase it is right by the LDS Church headquarters it is conviently located for him. It is a very secure building and makes it less likely to need more body guards then he would need if he still lived in his own home.
His travel expenses are paid by John Huntsman. This includes airplane, pilot and other expenses as a personal favor that he wanted to provide for a Prophet of God that he believes in the cares for.
The car and driver also like the penthouse and body guard to keep him protected and also most people in their 90's have had to stop driving so also a sane act.

The LDS church does not own Coke or even stock in Coke. They never have and never will. While Coke is a publicly traded company on the stock market the LDS church does not invest in the stock market. You also do not need to pay tithing to be a member of the LDS church. Yes, you do to be considered worthy to go the the Temple. Most churches ask for their members to pay tithing, and the Bible does state this. 10% seems to be the amount most churches ask for. But not being in debt, why is that not a great thing? I would think that not being in debt would mean that the LDS church is able to do so much more charity in this world because they don't have interest and loan payments to make.

Answer 3

What idaho gal said is correct.

I'd just like to add that Mormons do not insist that no one in Mormonism gets paid. That is a ridiculous statement. There are hundreds of Church employees. A living allowance is given to those who devote 100% of their time to church service and cannot otherwise support themselves. There is nothing unreasonable or evil in this. No one is living in luxury from tithing funds.

Our bishops or ministers, our stake presidents, and millions of others who serve in the Church do so without any earthly compensation.

Answer 4

He is provided a private plane by some private donations, from what I understand. Many LDS prophets have flown commercial airlines in the past.

He lives in a condo close to the temple and church office tower, and I don't begrudge him that, no matter who pays for it, because the man IS almost 100 years old. How much it is worth, I have no clue, but I doubt seriously that it is overly luxurious since I doubt he spends all that much time in it. Especially now that he is a widower. He does do a lot of traveling. Same with the chauffer, like I said, he's, what, 97 years old, I doubt seriously that he COULD drive even if he wanted to.

Actually, what we claim is that we have no paid CLERGY. Our general authorities are not paid, but stipends for living expenses are not unreasonable.

Answer 5

The body guards are just like the ones for the Pope. There are always wackos out there who would wish the man harm. The penthouse is owned by the Church specifically for the President to live in (kinda like the White House or the Vatican or Buckingham Palace is specifically for someone to live in who holds a high ranking position). That penthouse also has bullet proof glass on ALL the windows just like the "limo". He actually does not travel as much now that he is in the position he is in, but when he does, he travels by private jet, kinda like the President of the United States or the Pope or the Queen of England. His basic living expenses are paid for by himself. He has a retirement fund from his job and he has Social Security benefits from when he held a job and other income from other private business ventures as you pointed out. He pays his own medical bills which are actually minimal after living such a clean life for nearly 93 years. He pays for his own food and clothing. Our clergy are NOT compensated but are "lay men".

The bishop of my ward spends anywhere from 10 to 50 hours a week at the church taking care of his "calling" in the work of God. He also works 40+ hours a week at his paying job where he sells medical equipment. I know another bishop who owns his own heating and a/c business. These men also have families to care for and spend time with.

And one more thing you should know. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints does not dedicate any of its buildings to God until they are 100% paid for. Because how can you dedicate something to God when the bank owns part of it? I am happy to say that my religion is one of the largest in the Christian world and it has NO debt. Catholics can't say that and neither can most other faiths. Can your church say that it has NO debt?

Answer 6

As far as I knew (from living in Utah) he never left the church office building, he lived there on the top floor overlooking the Utah valley with all his servants.
By the way he has MIB or CIA looking (moffia guiys in suits) guys who have ear pieces who followed his when he was in a parade. They were looking for snipers while the president waved at people in his car at a UTAH parade.
The mormons also have the miliatry perform concerts in their tabernacle and asked me to open my purse looking for weapons I guess, now why I would want to kill our military soldiers when I am ex-military I don't know, maybe its mormon parinoa or since the gangs moved into IT, they are paranoid, who knows.

Answer 7

There are "evil" religious leaders in every faith. I personally don't believe in the Mormon faith, but I am convinced there are a lot of Mormons out there believing they are in the right faith. But you are right Mr. Hinckley does get income from own all these businesses, I believe a lot of Mormons are in self-denial, I'm just a third party looking from the outside.

Answer 8

I meant to give the girl above me a thumbs down. The one who posted about her church not being in debt. It's easy to not be in debt when the LDS church is all about conformity and you can't be part of the LDS church if you aren't attending the temple (if elgible), and the cost of admission to the temple is 10% of your earnings....no wonder the LDS church isn't in debt. Not to mention it's stock holdings in the Coke a Cola company. The other Christian churches don't spiritually blackmail their members into supporting it.

Answer 9

A lot of Mormons get paid. They just do not get paid for doing their Sundays services at church.

Answer 10

Those aren't "payments" --- they're honorariums or some such.