Are temples and humanitarian aid a sort of bribe to protect religious freedom?

[IHAQ]

Elder Crook recently visited Madagascar (all expenses paid and first class travel for him and his wife) and met with the country's President. Here are some snippets from the report of that visit.

At the conclusion of a four-day ministering visit to Madagascar, Elder Quentin L. Cook of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles met with the country’s leader, President Andry Rajoelina, to discuss the island nation, its people and the Church’s growth.

“We are grateful for the welcome we received and the treatment of the government to the Church,” Elder Cook told Rajoelina.

During the meeting Tuesday, Feb. 21, Elder Cook also thanked Rajoelina for his country’s commitment to religious freedom.

https://www.thechurchnews.com/leaders/2 ... ony-savior

The president thanked Elder Cook for the service given by Latter-day Saints following recent cyclones in the country and recalled visiting some of the Church’s chapels where aid was administered to those in need.

“You help the most vulnerable,” he said. “In hard times, you know who your friends are. The Church are true friends.”

There's a potential sub text going on here, a diplomatic nod and a wink to each other that's basically saying "you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours."

During the meeting, Elder Cook presented Rajoelina with a Book of Mormon that was embossed with his name on it. He also gave the president a statue of the Christus, which Rajoelina said would go on his desk. Elder Cook testified of the Savior and His appearance to the Nephites after His death and Resurrection. Elder Cook showed Rajoelina where he could read that story in 3 Nephi and marked it in the Book of Mormon before leaving it with the president.

Little trinkets to ingratiate Crook with the President, and a visual reminder of where the money comes from.

Rajoelina talked with Elder Cook about the challenges people in his country face, including food scarcity, lack of access to clean water, weather disasters and educational opportunities. Elder Cook said he believes the Church can provide some assistance in each of those areas. The two committed to working out the details of future joint efforts.

As the group prepared to leave, Rajoelina asked Elder Cook and the others to pray for the country and its people.

Rajoelina told Elder Cook that the Church would receive recognition for its help, but Elder Cook replied that was not something the Church seeks.

Translation: Keep the money coming and we're all good on religious freedom.

“We’re not as concerned about being recognized as we are about taking care of people,” Elder Cook said.

LMAO. That's why you've got a reporter and photographer capturing all the key moments of the trip, as well as an eye watering hoard of cash doing no good whatsoever (except for gaining compound interest) secreted away from prying eyes in multiple shell companies. It's ALL about being recognised.

There are currently 14,000 members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and three stakes in Madagascar, where the Church was officially recognized in 1993.

President Russell M. Nelson announced a temple for Madagascar in the October 2021 general conference. The temple’s location has not yet been announced, but Rajoelina said he is happy to know the Church will build one in his country.

“I fully encourage this,” he said.

Yep, that'll bring a nice slug of cash into the coffers, some of which might find its way (indirectly?) into the Presidents pocket.

[drumdude]

After the old FARMS had come in under the aegis of Brigham Young University, when I was still actively involved with it and its successor organization, the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, I learned something about the way the University manages funds. We could count on a 5% annual return from the FARMS/Maxwell endowment. In some years, the endowment would actually do better than 5%, but in some years it would do worse. So 5% was the annual return that we were told to expect on average. If we had a million dollars in our endowment, which sounded like a stratospheric sum to a bunch of academics in relatively modest personal financial circumstances, we could count on $50K per annum as a return, which is a heck of a lot less. We could, of course, spend down the principal, but that seemed unwise and imprudent for an organization that was trying to function for the long haul. Being otherwise unaccustomed to big numbers in high finance, I apply that rule to other such endowments when I want to understand them. Accordingly, when I see that the Church was able to give five million dollars to earthquake victims in Syria and Türkiye, my mind immediately jumps to the fact that this amount represents an annual interest of five percent on an endowment of one hundred million (100,000,000.00) dollars. It takes a lot of principal to generate a relatively small amount. So, if one wishes to preserve the principal so as to be ready to help again next year, one must live within one’s means. And if one wishes to be able to help even more next year, one must grow one’s principal.

By DCP’s standards, the church should be giving at least 1 percent of its principal away a year.

It seems like they have been doing that with regards to the Ensign Peak fund. The fund being worth 100 billion and their yearly donations totaling around 1 billion.

That is assuming that the church only earns a paltry 5 percent interest on the fund a year and leaves the other 4 percent in to continue growing.