New Project Shows Church Finance Corruption

[Marcus]

It’s a strange position they’re in.

They’ve never been more wealthy than they are now, but they’re also set to possibly lose a larger share of subsequent generations of members than perhaps ever before as well.

In our area, despite the promise of a new-and-improved post-scouting youth program, the young men's activities are required to be low cost. They've been essentially limited to firesides, "gaming nights," and random lame activities such as the "grocery store scavenger hunt." Then, expressing their desires to do something more enjoyable last week, the young men voted to do an activity at Top Golf, which would cost about $20 per boy for 8-10 young men for 2 hours. They were thrilled. The activity was approved (by the bishopric counselor in charge), then scheduled and communicated to parents. Everyone was excited about it. A few inactive youth planned to attend. But then, the bishop, acting out of hand, made them cancel the activity, stating that it was too expensive and the ward budget did not have room to cover the cost. Ouch! So much for an improved youth program post scouting. Instead, all of the youth get to be babysat by members of the bishopric every week. It's truly lame.

I'm hearing other instances of crimped budgets. As communicated from area authorities, the church is tightening its belt in order to build more temples. How interesting, as page 14 of the document shows, several budget cuts have already become evident, conveniently offsetting Nelson's temple building binge. It may be that the nickle and diming of ward budgets ultimately closes whatever gap may remain.

And then what's really disheartening is to see page 12. Such a disproportionate amount of church growth from lower-income regions, for like a generation or more. Has the church ever spent its money to support growth in those poorer regions? No, it doesn't. The church crimps every region's budgets to the lowest common denominator, in order to bank a cool $billion or so every year. There is no reason to believe that it ever will change. Arguably, leaders are flat lying about the notion that the church will one day break with tradition and just begin to run deficit spending in order to continue growing in poor countries like Africa. Newsflash: it won't. Evidence? Oh just a few decades of track record.

One has to wonder, what is the end game? A smaller church with more temples? That might be Nelson's greatest wish. The Q15 have been leaning in lately on the notion that Nephi saw a church that would be "small, because of wickedness." In other words, let's sift out the tares and get to a lighter-weight church that's more wheat-filled. In which case, what is the point of so many new temples then? They won't be utilized. It feels like just a big bet on marketing to the wheat.

Is it for the land around the temples? There seems to be some sort of planned community emphasis.

[MG 2.0]

Here is an opportunity for you to put your money where your mouth is:

https://www.wateraid.org/us/

Got its start right here in good ol’ Utah, if I’m not mistaken.

You are mistaken. Again and interminably. If you actually donated to the charity, you would know.

And you're off topic.

You’re right. The Utah connection is the church allocating humanitarian funds to WaterAid. My mistake.

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/chu ... s?lang=eng

Checks from Latter-day Saint Charities, the humanitarian arm of the Church, were also presented to WaterAid and UNICEF USA in New York.

My wife and I have been giving monthly donations to WaterAid for a few years. We love this charity and the good that it does throughout the world.

Why would you falsely accuse me of not donating to this charity? Does it not meet either your expectations or contrived M.O.?

Your continued dissing of the church and its humanitarian efforts and ‘hoarding’ are getting old.

Even sickening.

Find something better to do.

But you won’t.

Regards,
MG

[MG 2.0]

This is a known and documented event. Do your own homework.

I couldn’t find any other source than Dehlin’s MS’s site. I’m asking for the primary source with context. Reason? Lots of stuff around here is taken out of context or cherry picked.

This may be one more example.

Regards,
MG

[Morley]

My wife and I have been giving monthly donations to WaterAid for a few years. We love this charity and the good that it does throughout the world.

Why would you falsely accuse me of not donating to this charity? Does it not meet either your expectations or contrived M.O.?

Even a cursory look at the website you linked to shows it was started in the UK and had Prince Charles as its first president. You've been making monthly donations for years. I dunno. It seems that just once, in all of those months and years, you'd get curious and click on the link you provided to spend five minutes to learn where you're sending your money. But I guess not.

How did you start this sending of money to folks you don't even know? Did someone give you a name and say, "Hey Bud, if you know what's good for you, you'll send $50 a month to this address"?

I'm serious. How did it happen?

Your continued dissing of the church and its humanitarian efforts and ‘hoarding’ are getting old.

Even sickening.

Find something better to do.

But you won’t.

Regards,
MG

MG: Show me where I'm continuously dissing the humanitarian efforts of the church. Quotes and links, if you would.

[Dr Moore]

Now that’s funny. MG pitches a 40yr old charity, one of the best in the world, and incorrectly claims it was founded in Utah? Doesn’t that just sum it up. The root of all good things is Mormonism because Mormonism is the root of all good things. LOL!!

MG should read the report linked in the OP before “spouting” off any further.

[Moksha]

Here is an opportunity for you to put your money where your mouth is:

https://www.wateraid.org/us/

Got its start right here in good ol’ Utah, if I’m not mistaken.

LDS Recreation Properties LLC started in good ol' Utah.

[Marcus]

This is a known and documented event. Do your own homework.

I couldn’t find any other source than Dehlin’s MS’s site. I’m asking for the primary source with context. Reason? Lots of stuff around here is taken out of context or cherry picked.

This may be one more example.

Regards,
MG

from mormonnewsroom,who took it down when people started noticing how completely inappropriate the comment was, but its archived.

Elder Andersen said the significance of the meeting with Vice President Mohadi was to “express to him our desire to help improve Zimbabwe.” He noted that Vice President Mohadi had made a specific request for support with the development of clean-water wells in more remote areas of Zimbabwe.

“We want to help in every way we can,” said Elder Andersen. “We are not a wealthy people but we are good people, and we share what we have,” he added.
https://web.archive.org/web/20190429193 ... es-support

[Marcus]

Now that’s funny. MG pitches a 40yr old charity, one of the best in the world, and incorrectly claims it was founded in Utah? Doesn’t that just sum it up. The root of all good things is Mormonism because Mormonism is the root of all good things. LOL!!

MG should read the report linked in the opening post before “spouting” off any further.

They should.

[Analytics]

One has to wonder, what is the end game?

There is no planned end game. The real direction of the Church is driven by groupthink and religious deference to nonagenarian prophets who are more interested in tradition and nostalgia than in strategic planning for the future.

The bottom-line truth of the matter is that the brethren have been conditioned to believe the Church should live within its means on a year-to-year basis and save 10%-20% of its annual revenue "for a rainy day." The machine of the Church has deep habits engraved in its culture to operate this way--every year they forecast the next year's tithing revenue. Then they develop detailed budgets that only spend 85% of the forecasted tithing revenue. The various departments throughout the church then take great pride in spending less than what the budget allocated to them. So when the rainy day comes, they'll never dip into the rainy day fund--at best they'll reduce their contributions to the rainy day fund and cut spending as much as necessary.

That's it. The prophets don't have the vision and foresight to change the system, and any underlings who might know better don't think it's their place to recommend changes.

[Dr Moore]

One has to wonder, what is the end game?

There is no planned end game. The real direction of the Church is driven by groupthink and religious deference to nonagenarian prophets who are more interested in tradition and nostalgia than in strategic planning for the future.

The bottom-line truth of the matter is that the brethren have been conditioned to believe the Church should live within its means on a year-to-year basis and save 10%-20% of its annual revenue "for a rainy day." The machine of the Church has deep habits engraved in its culture to operate this way--every year they forecast the next year's tithing revenue. Then they develop detailed budgets that only spend 85% of the forecasted tithing revenue. The various departments throughout the church then take great pride in spending less than what the budget allocated to them. So when the rainy day comes, they'll never dip into the rainy day fund--at best they'll reduce their contributions to the rainy day fund and cut spending as much as necessary.

That's it. The prophets don't have the vision and foresight to change the system, and any underlings who might know better don't think it's their place to recommend changes.

Excellent summary. I have been told a version of this series of events by two very well informed insiders.