LDS church brings in 7 billion a year

[_beastie]

http://openchannel.nbcnews.com/_news/20 ... cates?lite

If the Mormon church were a business, wealthy adherents like Mitt Romney would count as its dominant revenue stream.
Its investment strategy would be viewed as risk-averse.

It would also likely attract corporate gadflies protesting a lack of transparency. They would call for less spending on real estate and more on charitable causes to improve membership growth -- the Mormons' return on investment.

Those are a few of the conclusions that can be drawn from an analysis of the church's finances by Reuters and University of Tampa sociologist Ryan Cragun.

Relying heavily on church records in countries that require far more disclosure than the United States, Cragun and Reuters estimate that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints brings in some $7 billion annually in tithes and other donations.

[_DarkHelmet]

From the article:

Romney, the Republican presidential candidate, gave $4.1 million to the church over the past two years (amounting to 9.7 percent of his gross adjusted income, according to the two years' worth of tax returns he has released).

I've known some hardass bishops that would not consider that a full tithe. If my calculations are correct 4.1 million /.097 = $42,268,040. His tithing bill is $4,226,804. Would a man rob God? Mitt Romney has stolen over $100,000 from God. So the answer is YES.

[_beastie]

I've known some hardass bishops that would not consider that a full tithe. If my calculations are correct 4.1 million /.097 = $42,268,040. His tithing bill is $4,226,804. Would a man rob God? Mitt Romney has stolen over $100,000 from God. So the answer is YES.

Imagine the bishop who would deny him a recommend. LOL

[_Fence Sitter]

I've known some hardass bishops that would not consider that a full tithe. If my calculations are correct 4.1 million /.097 = $42,268,040. His tithing bill is $4,226,804. Would a man rob God? Mitt Romney has stolen over $100,000 from God. So the answer is YES.

Imagine the bishop who would deny him a recommend. LOL

I imagine that bishop would be a Democrat.

[_bcspace]

Okay modern day Pharisees, I imagine some of you are forgetting the gross vs. net factor which is undefined in the Church. Perhaps Romney has paid a bit more than 10%.......

[_DarkHelmet]

Okay modern day Pharisees, I imagine some of you are forgetting the gross vs. net factor which is undefined in the Church. Perhaps Romney has paid a bit more than 10%.......

My hypothetical hardass bishop believes you must pay tithing on gross.

[_zeezrom]

Compared to Exxon Mobile, the LDS Church is a fairly humble enterprise.

LDS income is about equal to the GDP of Haiti.

[_Equality]

Okay modern day Pharisees, I imagine some of you are forgetting the gross vs. net factor which is undefined in the Church. Perhaps Romney has paid a bit more than 10%.......

Wow, bcspace, you sound like Bob McCue. And that's probably the nicest thing I have ever said about you.
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/27461628/Tithing---The-Mormon-Tax-System

[_Kevin Graham]

Only $7 billion? It was said to be more than $6 billion back when I was fresh off my mission in the early 90's, in a Time article about the Church. You'd think that a Church that had supposedly grown substantially over twenty years would see its income grow as well. What does this say about its real growth?

[_Doctor Scratch]

Only $7 billion? It was said to be more than $6 billion back when I was fresh off my mission in the early 90's, in a Time article about the Church. You'd think that a Church that had supposedly grown substantially over twenty years would see its income grow as well. What does this say about its real growth?

I thought that Dean Robbers had some really trenchant and insightful posts about this, where he compared the Church's growth to "peak oil," and suggested that they would have to shift their operations away from missionary work, revelation, and doctrine-building, and towards more commercially-oriented projects, like City Creek.