49. The Church perpetuates a perfectionist culture by demanding exacting obedience in the most mundane and trivial aspects of its members’ lives.
50. The Church should acknowledge this perfectionist culture as a contributor to high rates of depression, emotional breakdowns, and suicide among Church members and Church leaders and lesson materials should focus more on the inherent worth of individuals and less on demands for obedience to arbitrary rules.
51. The Church teaches that masturbation is a serious sin and Church leaders are instructed to interrogate young men about their personal habits with regard to this practice.
52. The Church should acknowledge the scientific evidence that demonstrates to a degree approaching certainty that masturbation is healthy, normal, and not at all harmful when undertaken in private and in moderation. The Church should apologize to the many young men who have been psychologically damaged by the Church’s harmful enforcement of its prohibition on masturbation and instruct its ecclesiastical leaders not to ask Church members about this personal matter.
53. The Church uses funeral services as proselyting opportunities by having local Church authorities plan and conduct funeral services and by focusing on church doctrines rather than the lives of the deceased and the deceased’s family.
54. The Church should cease to use funeral services as proselyting opportunities and allow families to plan and carry out funeral services according to the deceased’s and the family’s wishes.
55. The Church uses the tragic deaths of missionaries killed during their missions as public-relations opportunities.
56. General Authorities, unless related to or friends of the family, should not appear at funerals of fallen missionaries and should not compound the pain of grieving families with insensitive remarks at or after such funerals.
57. The Church teaches that members should pay a “full and honest tithe” but the Church does not define what constitutes a “full and hones tithe.”
58. The Church should clarify for its members that a “full and honest tithe” should be paid on one’s “surplus,” that is, on the amount of money one has left over after paying for taxes and necessary living expenses such as food, housing, clothing, utilities, and transportation.
59. The Church requires the payment of a “full and honest tithe” in order for a member to qualify to enter the temple and serve in Church leadership positions.
60. The Church should not use the payment of tithing as a requirement for entry to the temple. The temple should be open to all who seek fellowship with the saints and with the spirit of the Lord.
EqT good list, and I like the ones about tithing. I noticed on the RLDS site (now Community of Christ) they do define tithing just as you suggested here.
Posted by: Arizona Expositor | October 27, 2006 at 11:46 PM