Back to the Real Salt Lake Newsfeed

Jana Riess: I just paid my LDS tithing. Why don’t I feel better about it?

’Tis the season, people! It’s Giving Tuesday, when we take stock of the needs around us and open our wallets to help. Giving Tuesday is a kickoff to the holiday month, when many charities and nonprofits will receive the bulk of the funds they need to do their work during the rest of the year.

For Latter-day Saints, December is also the season of tithing settlement, when members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are expected to sit down with their bishops and “declare” ourselves.

While that old-fashioned phrase sounds like it’s straight out of a 19th-century romance, in Mormon lingo it simply means: Are you a full tithe-payer (10%), a partial tithe-payer (something less than 10%), or a non-tithe-payer?