LDS church wants MORE of my $$

[RedHeadGal]

As I have indicated before, I am a federal employee. Federal employees may participate in what's known as the CFC, which means we pledge $ to be withheld from our pay to go to designated CFC charities.

Yesterday, I received the following e-mail:

Dear RHG,

Our records indicate that you are a employee of the Federal Government. As such, we are pleased to announce that Latter-day Saint Charities (LDSC) has been accepted into the 2009 CFC campaign. Latter-day Saint Charities is an NGO the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints set up in order to provide humanitarian aid internationally. The humanitarian assistance provided by LDSC is administered in an efficient and timely manner without regard to religious affiliations.

WEBINARS:
With our entry we would like to invite you to attend a webinar about the program. We have several time slots available so please register for the one that best fits your schedule. If all the webinars fill up we will make more time slots available. Register HERE for a webinar.

Feel free to forward this email on to other colleagues, LDS or not, who you think might be interested in contributing to the work of LDSC.

Thanks,
Barett Christensen
CFC Manager
Latter-day Saint Charities
801-422-1940
800-525-8074

First, I pay my full tithe, which I assume goes in part to pay for efforts like this, so I'm not sure why I would want to do this separately.

Secondly, and more importantly, who put my name on this list? The church is keeping track of people's employers? I feel like my privacy has been invaded.

[MikeWaters]

You don't have to be a genius to figure this out.

1) as a church member, they have your name and location.

2) they get accepted as a charity and they get a mailing list as a result.

They check the mailing list of federal employees against membership records. Bingo.

[NorCal Cat]

Originally Posted by RedHeadGal

First, I pay my full tithe, which I assume goes in part to pay for efforts like this, so I'm not sure why I would want to do this separately.

Yeah, what nerve?! How dare they think someone who is supposed to be a Christian might actually donate more than the bare minimum asked for.

[Zulu451]

RedHead -

I am also a federal employee and frankly I am pretty excited to hear that LDSC is now part of the CFC. I am very skeptical about many charities and how they use the money that I donate. It is nice to know that there is a charity to which I can donate that I know that the money will be spent responsibly.

I fail to see the justification for your indignation, unless you are the kind of person who is always looking for something to be indignant about.

[RedHeadGal]

As I said, the LDS church gets a substantial charitable contribution from me, and whether or how much over the "bare minimum" that amount is was unstated and will remain so.

The fact that some would like to donate to the LDS charity is also beside the point: pledge all you want. I was saying I didn't know my employer was monitored by my church. When replying to the fellow who sent the e-mail to ask how my name came to be on his list the response was. . . silence. No reply. That the LDS church could match public records with its own records doesn't make it right. And I still don't know how that gets them to my personal e-mail address, which as far as I know is not part of the lds.org world.

[RedHeadGal]

Originally Posted by Zulu451

RedHead -

I fail to see the justification for your indignation, unless you are the kind of person who is always looking for something to be indignant about.

yeah, I guess it's as simple as that. If you don't see it, must be my own urge for (un)righteous indignation.

[Zulu451]

Just watch out for black helicopters with little angle Moroni's on them.

Working for the federal government, your information is all over the place. It is likely that the church simply asked the CFC for donor information who fit the demographic of who would be most likely to be donating to them. The federal government knows what church you go to.

It is simple marketing. In a contracting economy non-profits are suffering and they want to get the word out about their participation in CFC, simple as that.

[SeattleUte]

RHG has been unfailrly dealt with here. Normal people like to spread their donations around. The LDS want your mind, your children, all your free time, and all your donations. It's asinine. Why shouldn't someone imagine black helicopters in reference to the LDS Church? It's nothing if not totalitarian. Some people get the creeps when Amazon starts suggesting purchases based on their buying habits. I can understand why RHG feels violated. There's no way that the LDS Church's "charities" aren't politically skewed. LDS charities would be the last place I'd give to, personally. Tell them to go to hell, RHG.

[SoonerCoug]

I'm with SU.