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In the latest issue of Sunstone magazine, ... "The Moniteering of BYU Faculty Tithing Payments, 1957-1963," ... Wilkinson, upon assuming the presidency of BYU in the 1950s, was outraged that some BYU professors paid only a partial tithing, and some paid none at all...
At one point, Wilkinson told LDS Church President David O. McKay that 27 percent of BYU faculty were either part tithing payers or paid no tithing at all.
Wilkinson's efforts, though, to get detailed reports of faculty tithing records descended into J. Edgar Hoover spoof when he encountered opposition from local bishoprics and stake presidencies. They understood better than Wilkinson the ethical aspects of the Law of Tithing, that taught that it was a private matter between a church member and his ecclesiastical leader. Eventually, Wilkinson was able to get the names of partial and non-tithe payers, but was stymied in his efforts to get specific details....
...Wilkinson also received considerable opposition from faculty at BYU, who balked at having their academic credentials be determined by how much tithing they paid. Many faculty members, including department heads, resigned over the rule. ...
One faculty member who found himself in Wilkinson's aim was Kent Fielding, a BYU instructor who had admitted he no longer had "a testimony of the Gospel." When asked how he been approved to teach at BYU, Fielding replied that in his interview, apostle (and future LDS President) Harold B. Lee had asked only two questions: "Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?; and, "Have you ever been unfaithful to your wife?" ...
Wilkinson wrote, "… I had told Brother Lee about this at the time, and Brother Lee, whose main weakness as far as I can see is that he cannot accept criticism, had interpreted it as serious criticism on my part of him…" Lee, according to Wilkinson's recollections, sneered that the BYU president was "naive" if he was unaware that many BYU faculty did not have testimonies of the Gospel. ....
... if Wilkinson determined that a professor had robbed the Lord of $600 in his tithing payments, a $1,000 raise for said professor would be decreased to $400. Professors not paying any tithing would be in danger of losing their employment at BYU. Wilkinson insisted more than once that no one was "forced" to pay tithing, while also insisting that any BYU professor who wanted to teach there would pay his tithing.
... Bergera estimates that over eight years, at least "two dozen (probably more) teachers were dismissed or resigned" due to church problems that had their genesis with Wilkinson's tithing crackdown.
The BYU leader left the university in 1963 to run a failed U.S. Senate campaign. When he returned, he discovered a church leadership more resistant to the tactics he had advocated during his first term at BYU. As Bergera notes, "current BYU policy strictly prohibits the release of faculty tithing information to university administrators." ....
