This article claims Mitt Romney “underpaid” his tithing because he came close but didn’t quite pay the full 10 percent.

This article was actually pretty fair and generously quotes Church members.

This article says Romney gave the Church part of his “most lucrative business deals.”

I have spent some time explaining to non-members that saying the church “requires” 10 percent tithing is a bit inaccurate. There are people who tithe on gross, there are others who tithe on net. All of us have had times when we haven’t been able to pay any tithing — or have paid very little — but still consider ourselves in good standing. In my case, I usually don’t tithe for the first few months of the calendar year (this is when I am paying off Christmas bills) but make it up later in the year.

Should you deduct any alimony payments you make from your 10 percent? I asked a bishop once and he shrugged and asked me to pray about it. So, in reality, the “requirement” is a matter of my own conscience and personal revelation, not some strict standard determined by a harsh paymaster.

On a positive note, several non-member friends have made positive comments about Mitt’s tithing being generous and a sign of true Christian charity. So, perhaps this media obsession with his tithing has some positive aspects in that it shows that Mitt truly is who he pretends to be, at least when it comes to his personal money and his Church activity.

Amazing absolute proof of human evolution.

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Let me make this clear from the start: Mitt Romney is not my favorite candidate. As I state in this post, his Iranian policy is seriously misguided. And as I write here, I think he will make a disappointing president in many ways. He will be weak on civil liberties, he will compromise all of the time on important issues and he will engage in needless sabre-rattling and perhaps war. So, please do not think I am not aware of Romney’s many short-comings.

But all of the criticism coming from Democrats and Republicans about Romney’s years at Bain is completely lame. If you criticize what Romney did, or criticize his performance at Bain, you simply have no clue about how the modern-day world works. Or to put it a bit more charitably, perhaps you have not thought about it carefully enough. Perhaps this post will help you understand things a lot better.

Let’s start with some basics. Everybody reading this thinks iphones and other gadgets like ipads and ipods are good, right? How does the iphone get invented? Well, it turns out that there is a company called Apple that made them. So, all corporations cannot be bad because this particular corporation turns out a pretty good product that a lot of people like. Apple sells stuff and it also does research for new products and improvements on existing products. A large part of the money that Apple makes is plowed back into the company for research purposes so Apple can make cooler and cooler products. This is called private investment capital.

Can we agree that investment capital is not a bad thing if it is used to build iphones? I hope so. Keep on reading for more.
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Tim Tebow wears face paint with a reference to John 3:16.

He threw for 316 yards on Sunday in his OT win against the Steelers. The average was 31.6 yards a pass. The TV ratings for the last quarter of the game was 31.6.

It’s a miracle!

Having watched the game, I can tell you the miracle was the chess match played by the offensive coordinator of the Broncos, who ran on first down on nearly every play except the crucial overtime first down, when Tebow pulled out a perfect play-action fake and threw to Damaryius Thomas for an 80-yard touchdown to end the game.

The other miracle is the number of people looking up John 3:16 on the internet to see what it says. Regardless of what you think of the Broncos and Tebow, that’s a good thing.

In addition to Rameumpton’s great work on Book of Mormon scripture study, I am enjoying Prof. William Hamblin’s new blog Mormon Scripture Explorations. We newly called Gospel Doctrine teachers can never get too much information on the subject.

Prof. Hamblin puts his notes on-line as well as offering youtube videos and podcasts. Take a look.