Is there ever a situation where the church you tithe money to should refund your tithe if you do not agree what it is used for? See my response for more information.

So I have been reading about the amount of legal fees the Catholic church paid to defend itself when lawsuits were brought against it by the victims of Child abuse. Shouldn't there be a reparations paid out to the Church followers who tithed not knowing their money would go to defend against such a heinous crime? A percentage of all money coming to Catholic affiliates (Smaller churches associated) go to the main church in Rome.

How would you feel knowing your money for missions and feeding the poor also goes to defending possible child molesters? 

Simple dont give any money to the church

(Sorry so long but I have a story about that)

I never thought of that before BUT I do have a story about my best girlfriend and the trouble she is having with her husband and his tithing. He tithes ALL  AT ONE TIME per year, at the end of the year, based on his gross income, and sometimes it comes to A LOT OF MONEY and I mean a lot. ( he is a very successful realtor here)

So this wonderful quaint little church they went to, in the middle of our town, one of the first churches here-so beautiful, surrounded by trees- it looked like it was from England with the stone it was built from and the design of the pitched roof, it even had vines growing up the sides, it was their church and sure enough what happens? Well, what always happens ...they decided they needed a BIGGER CHURCH!!

So they do this big fund raiser and ask everyone to tithe towards the "building fund", HOWEVER, you could mark on the donation envelope how you wanted your money to go to, but how is anyone really supposed to know if they at the church are doing what you ask?

So they built this monstrosity of a new church out in the middle of nowhere on this farmland, a HUGE church made of gray stone, and that was 15 years ago AND IT IS STILL NOT PAID OFF. How crazy is that? Think of all what they could be doing with that money helping third world countries,  but HEY HOW  ABOJT HELPING IN OUR OWN TOWN?  The new church's price came to about 15 MILLION DOLLARS!!

Not only that, I feel they have so many brainwashed, and so does my friend, that in my best friend's husband will, he had it put in his will that if he dies, a pretty big portion of his estate is supposed to go to this crazy BUILDING FUND of a church that never seems to get done!

So anyway, end of the year comes needless to say her and her husband  get IN A HUGE ARGUMENT EVERYYEAR because he wants to donate this huge amount to a building that never gets done because he feels it's what god wants him to do.

So YES, there should be a way to get your money back because I think his wife would have a really good case for that VERY thing. As long as people keep donating to that ugly huge building, they will keep adding on to it. They are trying to create an empire when they should have left it at this pretty little quaint church in the middle of the trees in the middle of the neighborhood they lived in.

And here folks is another example of what religion "can" do-makes people lose sight of their original purpose.

After thinking about your question, my thought was why haven't more people brought that up? You are aware how people went after the Wounded Warrior Project. I know one is church and one is a charity, but it's the same general idea. Why don't more people question what their money is going to?

In my personal opinion and I might be biased, is that I think that people tithe for a penance, or as a way of buying their way to heaven. I'm not saying everyone, but some. If you are using it for either reason you will not care what happened to it, because once the money is paid its not your problem anymore. With a stroke of a pen or a weekly  cash payment you can be forgiven ALL of your horrible sins AND you get a free one way ticket to heaven. With ALL of that why should you care what your money is being spent on?

Well their Tithes paid off the victims and never held the priests accountable, they were just moved to separate areas of the churches. They were protected, where as the victims between the ages of 3 and 17 were not.  I certainly wouldn't want to support an organisation that defends paedophilia. Let's not forget the abuse inflicted by Nuns aswell, and the abuse the young child nuns suffered at the hands of church elders, the history of child abuse within the church is pretty grotesque to say the least. 

Slightly away from the exact topic matter, I have a family member who works in child protective services and she often speaks to the police, who said paedophilia is rife and they get the easiest sentences, they are protected both inside prison and outside, and the number of them living near you in any one area is huge. The figures show that paedophillia within the family has the highest percent.  They said if the people knew the truth they'd be a public outcry. They said it is extremely difficult to make a case when children are involved because of the reliability of the witness ie a child, so most never make it to court. That is what we are dealing with whether a church is involved or not. Look at the BBC and Jimmy Savile. Paedophiles protect eachother, and if there's enough money they'll try and pay off the victim which amounts to "How much is the rape of your childs innocence worth?"

Having belonged to many different denominations ... They ALL had governing boards of some sort, and regular meetings to go over things including the budget.  If a member doesn't like how their money is being spent, they could either attend those meetings and give their input - or leave and go where they agree on how the money is spent - or not tithe.