Quote:
Originally Posted by Sleeping in EQ
The passage below from 1 Corinthians 9 might help us think about compensation for those who work "full time" in the Church. Paul draws on the OT practice of the Levitical priests living off the sacrifices brought to the temple. I don't think I've ever heard a fellow Mormon quote this passage, but if the Church is compelled to make such things public because of the lawsuit, it may become an instant favorite.
1 Cor. 9: 1-14 (NRSV)
1 Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord?
2 If I am not an apostle to others, at least I am to you; for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.
3 This is my defense to those who would examine me.
4 Do we not have the right to our food and drink?
5 Do we not have the right to be accompanied by a believing wife, as do the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas?
6 Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a living?
7 Who at any time pays the expenses for doing military service? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat any of its fruit? Or who tends a flock and does not get any of its milk?
8 Do I say this on human authority? Does not the law also say the same?
9 For it is written in the law of Moses, "You shall not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain." Is it for oxen that God is concerned?
10 Or does he not speak entirely for our sake? It was indeed written for our sake, for whoever plows should plow in hope and whoever threshes should thresh in hope of a share in the crop.
11 If we have sown spiritual good among you, is it too much if we reap your material benefits?
12 If others share this rightful claim on you, do not we still more? Nevertheless, we have not made use of this right, but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ.
13 Do you not know that those who are employed in the temple service get their food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in what is sacrificed on the altar?
14 In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel.
I'll add that one of the benefits of compensating GAs (and possibly, Mission Presidents) is that one should not have to be rich to be a GA. The fact that most of the GAs seem to be rather well off sends a message that riches = righteousness, and that's not consistent with the scriptures (and I'm not meaning to bash on the wealthy, they can be righteous too).
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Oh great. First I find out that NT wine
is alcoholic, now this. You mean to tell me I was perpetrating lies for two years by telling people that we didn't get paid because paid ministry is non-Biblical? "No where in the Bible can you find it!" was our defense. Thanks for letting me know how big a liar I was on my mission, EQ.