Exiled wrote:My issue with DCP is that he is just citing platitudes about prudent finance. So what. We don't know if the church is or isn't being prudent or smart with their money or just average. They won't tell us. In the late 50's/60's it over-built and got caught as some real estate investors do being property rich but cash poor and not having enough to pay the mortgage. Then, Beneficial Life was bailed out during the last recession. Why? The mall was built but at what cost? What is the current return on the investment? Is it above average, average, or below? We don't know because LDS, Inc. doesn't deign itself to show the little people what it is actually doing with the widow's mite.
No doubt you have a good point. and part III is perhaps lamer, or more mind numbing than the first II parts. It feels a little like a child who barely learns something new nervously trying to explain that something.
He keeps beating the drum, though, by saying the Church invests. Yes, it surely does. It wouldn't operate at all if it didn't build buildings. Funny he uses the example of a 4 million dollar Lamborghini that loses value. The Church builds those Lamborghini's but calls them temples all the time. "Yes" says Dr. P, "but those are just GIFTS, they aren't investments". So he wants to make the point that the Church is being wise stewards with the money they have, but then says they are just throwing money away by building buildings, because the Church loves people. It's been the biggest reveal as yet--he doesn't really understand the very topic he's wishing to explain. The temples may lose in terms of land value investments, even though I doubt that overall, but the investment is moreso in the people who will turn around and donate money to the Church.
Possible scenario:
A temple gets built in an area and "serves" 10,0000 active families. How much time might it take for those families to contribute enough to pay for the cost of the temple? Well we don't know exactly, because as you say, the Church isn't transparent about these things. But let's imagine.
Let's say these 10,000 families average $50,000/year. In tithing that is 50,000,000 dollars a year.
that means in 3 years after the temple gets built the members in the area might have given the Church $150,000,000.
The temple might have costed the Church $25,000,000 and an operating cost--maybe $10,000 a month (I mean it's all free labor), and perhaps property taxes--maybe another $10,000 a month. So what does the Church profit in 3 years? That's still maybe an +$120,000,000 profit in three years.
The older the temple gets the better the profit. In this sense building a temple and a ward building, for that matter, is actually a way for the Church to make money. The more buildings the more the members benefit. The more the members benefit the more likely they'll donate to the Church. And the more influence the members provide, the more members the Church will bring in.
The problem (risk), it seems, the Church runs into is it overbuilds sometimes. An area gets excitable for the Church and the Church over-reacts by over building, thinking it'll benefit in the long run. Only the area's excitement runs out, people grow bored of the show and move on. THen the Church has ward buildings and a temple that it can't financially justify. Oops.
But since the land is investment the Church can sale (which it doesn't want to do lest it look bad), or it can just hold on to it and let the profit of others justify it. Also, after it's built and paid for, the maintenance, operation doesn't take many members to pay for it anyway. And if it's not used much, it just sits there empty and turned out most of the time. Even if the operation costs $50,000/month it'd only take $5/month each from 1,000 active families. And let's face it, no temples are in that situation. Every one of them makes the Church money.
I'm predicting he's going to go on for about 4 more parts saying essentially nothing, by repeating himself and trying to explain simple concepts everyone knows and then say, "see....the Church is doing great and is doing exactly what I would do."