Adidam Tithing:  Response to Lake County News Article

Posted by Raymond on Tue Dec 23, 2008 to lightmind.com

Re: Tithing

Dear Mr. Dunkelberger (editor note: Dunkelberger is an Adi Da devotee quoted in the Lake Co. News article),

Well, I have another question for you in regard to your comments to Elizabeth Larson and the letter posted in the Lake County News.

First of all, let me remind you that I am very well versed in the Adidam tithing system (and much more than you are) since I did financial workups on devotees and collected tithes for years and have been around Adidam for over 30 years (26 years very actively involved).

You mentioned that the tithe is 10%. Isn't this another example of deceitfulness and misrepresentation. Everyone (who is or has been in Adidam and who has tithed) knows that it is much more than that.

"Everyone" knows that on a monthly basis that the actual amount required from each and every formal devotee not working for the institution is somewhere between 20 and 25% of their monthly income (if they are not trying to get away with less).

C.M., (an old timer and your longest devotee in Adidam since 1972) has expressed countless number of times to me (face to face) and to others that the "real amount" of monthly tithe/fees is closer to 25% (which has been my experience also as a cultural server in Adidam for years).

This includes the following:
1)10% tithe to Love-Ananda Samraja Foundation(Franklin);
2) 5% tithe/fee to cover all the sanctuary expenses (excluding Fiji)/Sacred Treasures;
3) endless fundraisers (even weekly fund raisers several years ago);
4) the monthly Dawn Horse Press book fee @ $30.;
5) monthly celebration fees;
6) gifting;
7) occasional guruvara (Sunday) fees;
8) incidental fees;
9) other- pledges Yajna per month( but not including trips and travel expenses to Fiji)
10) Lake Co. Regional fee @ $37.
11) Sacred Dev. (Avadhoot fund)


Altogether, this comes close to 25%

The 10% plus the 5% mentioned above (totaling the 15% tithe) is the amount before taxes; i.e, on your gross income.

Furthermore it was a requirement that all devotee show their tax returns to confirm that they were tithing from their gross income --an amount before taxes. Of course, the ones making these rules did not pay tithe because they worked for the institution. Not much love or trust here requiring devotees to show their tax returns?? This lack of trust with extremely high tithes and fees led to fudging, cheating, and lying since no one could really afford it and this mental state bounded a lot of energy (with long term consequences). My experience is that over 90% of the people that I did financial work ups on cheated or lied or tried to get out of it (and this is fairly recent history in Adidam). And most of the old timers of Adidam always paid minimally and sometimes never paid anything. They always seemed to find a way out of paying their fair share of required tithe and fees and most of the time they seemed to get away with it. The new devotees never got away with it and always had to pay.

I dare you to challenge me on this and if so, I'll pull out documentation to prove it. And by the way, what to do you think this does to the morality of a community. Put the whole picture together and this financial game playing does not lead to growth or maturity. Don't delude yourself in thinking otherwise.

So, the guru got a clear 10% (of the 15%). Your guru (who claims that he is god and that god reserves the right to do whatever he so pleases with the 10% tithe) had the 10% tithe go "directly" to him or directly to banks and funds of his choosing (treasury bills and Swiss banks).

And yes, approximately $17,000. of the monthly 10% tithe that went to 'god" was used for the expenses in Fiji. However, that wasn't always the case. It used to be that "god" (Franklin) kept the entire 10%. He had to be talked into giving $17,000. or so for the Fiji expenses and he reluctantly approved it (if I remember correctly) in the late 90s.

(And 10% of "2,000 formal devotees" with an average income of $_____ results in a monthly total tithe to "god" of $______ x 12 m./year = $______. That's quite a few dollars with 5% cumulative interest rates for let's say 28 years -since 1980- just to be fair.)

The other 5% tithe(of the 15% tithe ---call it tithe or fee or whatever you like but it was still interpreted as tithe by myself and all the devotees of Adidam -so let's not play games with words here) was to be used for the monthly expenses for the remaining sanctuaries (excluding Fiji).

Now, there may have been a few changes in Adidam since the death of Franklin (or since I left Adidam fairly recently -although I haven't heard of any changes so far) and I haven't heard that anything has gone into effect as of the letter published in the Lake County News. (But feel free to correct me if I'm wrong on any detail.) And recently, I have heard that devotees on fixed income were having a difficult time (and almost in tears) keeping up with it.

However you cut it , Mr. Dunkelberger, this is a gross misrepresentation. Again I urge you for the 3rd time to make the corrections to the Lake County News and apologies for your errors to Elizabeth Larson who accepted your statements as fact.

Thank you,

Raymond

p.s., Not that I care, --but with all your gross misrepresentations in the letter published in the Lake County News, you are doing Elizabeth Larson a disservice, the citizens of Lake County (and world wide readers) a disservice, but more important than that, you are doing all the members of Adidam a disservice because now they have to rationalize the deceitfulness and the misrepresentations (to themselves and to each other). And then, they have to justify it to the public; therefore, they fall further into the mode of denial and illusions. The latest rounds of misrepresentations since Franklin's death including the Mahasamadhi myth adds up. ---But with 38 years of this, it really adds up resulting in zero growth in Adidam, brainwashing, conditioning. and lots of illusions.

Mr. Dunkelberger ---you are doing no one a favor with these misrepresentations--- And the citizens of Lake County and around the world are not stupid. They have heard of Franklin before and they see right through it.