LDS Ethics and Lottery Scholarships


guitarwizard
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Do you support smoking?

Probably not. But I'm betting your enjoying some benefits from the use of tobacco .

Here is a few.

* Dump trucks, golf carts and a course irrigation system, and a new county jail in New York

* Broadband-cable networks in Virginia

* Psychiatric care for prisoners in New Jersey

* Boot camps for juvenile delinquents, alternative schools, and metal detectors and surveillance cameras for schools in Alabama

* Upgrading public television stations with DVD technology in Nevada

* Harbor renovation and museum expansion in Alaska

* Water and sewer improvements in South Carolina

* Pasture and weather monitoring for a thoroughbred association in Kentucky College scholarships in Michigan

* New schools in Alaska and Ohio

* City parks and the purchase of undeveloped land in California

* A senior citizen prescription-drug program and property-tax rebates in Illinois

* Medicaid dental services in Maine

* Water Resources Trust Fund and flood-control projects in North Dakota

* Operating expenses for the Carolina Horse Park, truck-driver training, pine-straw farming research and equipment upgrades at a knitting plant in North Carolina

* A People's Trust Fund, which will generate interest income that can be spent at the legislature's discretion, in South Dakota

* Help in balancing the budget, which used four years of MSA money, in Tennessee

* Rural economic development in Georgia

* Tax rebates in several states

* Offsetting a revenue shortfall in Wisconsin by selling municipal bonds backed by future MSA payments

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Dunno. In the parable the master basically says "nice job of C.Y.A." But he doesn't hire the steward back.

If you look at the parable from the servant's perspective, he takes advantage of the resources around him to benefit himself. We call him unjust, but the master calls him wise for using the circumstances to his benefit.

In this case, yes, the scholarship money has come from a regrettable source, but the money is there and it isn't going back. You may as well put it to good use.

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Clearly, this is something that really concerns you. So, I would tell you to make an appointment with your bishop and discuss this with him. He is the best person able to counsel you on this.

Really, I just want to get all sides of the argument from all different sorts of members of the church. My opinion is that I was a recipient of the scholarship before it was lottery funded. So, even without the new state lottery, i would still be receiving the money. I also don't see the exchanging of hands from dumb citizen->subcontracted lottery company->state government->department of higher ed->me as constituting me taking part in the lottery.

Another part of this is that I want to see different arguments to maybe understand what others would do in this situation. It does seem to play part in a large ethical dilemma, which is obvious by the varied responses garnered in the thread.

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I personally would be fine with a scholarship derived from lottery funds. I think the Church would be as well. The church does not knowingly accept tithes or donations from the proceeds of gambling or lottery winnings. The difference between an education system funded by lottery losers and a person winning the lottery is that the person had to purchase a ticket to win. A scholarship recipient does not have to buy a lottery ticket to win a scholarship. You are not gambling to get the scholarship, the lottery winner is gambling that they will get the winning ticket.

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One very valid question is what should the Church do with money tithed from fraud schemes? I doubt the Church would ever accept such money knowingly, but what's the policy on fraud money that was accepted in tithes unknowingly?

Living in Utah, you should know the answer. In cases where it is proven the money came as a result of illegal activity, the Church returns the money to the proper authorities. There have been a few cases of this happening in the past, some of them being in the hundreds of thousands.

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I doubt it. I'm not saying the church is dirty-handed, I'm just saying that everybody's attitude changes when the money is pouring IN instead of out. Or if the money is going toward a good cause.

And yet, you weren't even hesitant to toss the bomb out there, were you? I'll say it again: the LDS Church does not knowingly accept tithes on gambling or lottery winnings.

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Really, I just want to get all sides of the argument from all different sorts of members of the church. My opinion is that I was a recipient of the scholarship before it was lottery funded. So, even without the new state lottery, i would still be receiving the money. I also don't see the exchanging of hands from dumb citizen->subcontracted lottery company->state government->department of higher ed->me as constituting me taking part in the lottery.

Another part of this is that I want to see different arguments to maybe understand what others would do in this situation. It does seem to play part in a large ethical dilemma, which is obvious by the varied responses garnered in the thread.

Sounds like you're okay with it but your fiance is giving you grief. I say, pay for your education out of pocket and spend the scholarship on her. See if she's still opposed to your "ill-gotten gain".

Edited by mordorbund
Looks like she's been promoted from girlfriend to fiance
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Neither have I.

Add another one to the list of those who pay tithing on scholarship/grant money. I don't pay on loans though. I find that variability in what we consider increase and that, unless one is being silly about it, we're all full tithe payers to be actually pretty neat.

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Hmmm....should a person tithe on the financial assistance given them by the church? If their rent or utilities are paid by the church should they tithe on that amount?

I asked an old Bishop of mine when I needed assistance for these things once. He said no because it's not actually an increase to me. The check was never made out to me. It was made out to my landlord and the utility companies. He said if he had given me a check for spending money then yes. But of course they rarely do that.

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This is nitpicking a little, but just wanted to point out that a home teacher does not have the keys that would permit him to receive revelation on behalf of his home teachee. A person may certainly consult and discuss with their home teachers, but the home teachers don't exactly hold "Thus saith the Lord" authority

President David O. McKay stated: "Home teaching is one of our most urgent and most rewarding opportunities to nurture and inspire, to counsel and direct our Father's children. ... It is a divine service, a divine call. It is our duty as Home Teachers to carry the divine spirit into every home and heart. To love the work and do our best will bring unbounded peace, joy, and satisfaction to a noble, dedicated teacher of God's children" (quoted by Marion G. Romney, in address at general conference home teaching meeting, 8 Apr. 1966, p. 7).

"There is no greater Church calling than that of a home teacher. There is no greater Church service rendered to our Father in Heaven's children than the service rendered by a humble, dedicated, committed home teacher.

To perform fully our duty as a Home Teacher we should be continually aware of the attitudes, the activities and interests, the problems, the employment, the health, the happiness, the plans and purposes, the physical, temporal, and spiritual needs and circumstances of everyone—of every child, every youth, and every adult in the homes and families who have been placed in our trust and care as a bearer of the priesthood, and as a representative of the bishop" (priesthood home teaching seminar, 9 Aug. 1963, pp. 3, 4).

President Ezra Taft Benson, "To the Home Teachers of the Church"

"Third, the preparation of a home teacher. Elder Matthias F. Cowley reported in the general conference of April 1902 that “the teachers who go out to visit the saints from family to family ought to be men endowed with the spirit of revelation from God." LDS.org - Ensign Article - Home Teaching—A Sacred Calling

"Faith would increase in the earth and God’s everlasting covenant would be established if the Master’s desire could be fulfilled. For He expressed the hope “that every man might speak in the name of God the Lord, even the Savior of the world” (D&C 1:20). Every priesthood holder could do this while serving as a home teacher. "Russell M. Nelson in Shepherds, Lambs and Home Teachers LDS.org - Liahona Article - Shepherds, Lambs, and Home Teachers

"Surely we want to avoid priestcraft. But the Apostle Paul warned us of another danger. He warned that in our day there will be those “having a form of godliness; but denying the power thereof” (2 Timothy 3:5).

"How can we as priesthood holders have a form of godliness but deny the power thereof? Could it be that we hold the priesthood but do not exercise it? visit our families rather than home teach them?"

LDS.org - Liahona Article - He Trusts Us!

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