LDS Church Will Soon Become A Trillion-Dollar Faith

[BeNotDeceived]

This is why they're hoarding so much money (but you'll never hear a peep about it from any high-ranking 'church' official because most members would likely stop paying tithing if they knew this)...

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017 ... in-florida

Let alone $32 billion in the stock market, $124 billion Ensign Peak fund, six-figure salaries for the GA's, etc., etc., etc.

[2bizE]

How much will be enough?

If the First Presidency hasn’t stipulated a target figure at which point, once reached, all other funds become fully disposable for charity, then the rainy day excuse simply nonsense. If they have got a number, what is it? Don’t members have a right to transparency on something which bears all the hallmarks of people amassing money for amassing moneys sake? The church could, and would, operate on zero income. As a pure volunteer organisation. Members would build and maintain chapels, online resources would be produced on a volunteer basis etc. so what does the church really need money for? That’s right, stipends and ridiculously ornate virtue signals that have no real purpose other than self aggrandisement of whichever Prophet builds or announces to build, the most.

The church should be able to operate without money. If it can’t, then it’s corrupted. The Church becomes less Christlike with every additional dollar grubbed away.

I am quite certain a Trillion dollars in savings would not be enough. The church is based on greed.

[bill4long]

So what are we to think? The Mormon Jesus has been waiting so long to come back, that when he does he'll be richer than Elon Musk?

[Philo Sofee]

So what are we to think? The Mormon Jesus has been waiting so long to come back, that when he does he'll be richer than Elon Musk?

No, he will be rich enough to clean up the mess he makes when he shows up all huffy and bent out of shape.

[Kishkumen]

The Widow's Mite Report is to be congratulated for a job well done. This is an examination of an aspect of the LDS Church that I can really get behind. I love that it seeks to be factual and illuminating while avoiding all of the noise of either proselyting or slagging. Wherever these folks are, whoever they are, I commend them for their efforts. It is an approach to the relevant questions that is sober, responsible, full of integrity, and informative.

[Dr Moore]

Trillion?

Drevil_million_dollars.jpg (9.27 KiB) Viewed 379 times

However, in this case, the math checks out. Jesus walking around with so much money unfortunately loses his moral authority.

[Dr Exiled]

#Trillions for Jesus

[Bond]

When I was a kid I remember a few churches services that were almost entirely guilt trips because the church needed a new roof or the parsonage needed appliances. All religions are the same I suppose.

[bill4long]

The Widow's Mite Report is to be congratulated for a job well done. This is an examination of an aspect of the LDS Church that I can really get behind. I love that it seeks to be factual and illuminating while avoiding all of the noise of either proselyting or slagging. Wherever these folks are, whoever they are, I commend them for their efforts. It is an approach to the relevant questions that is sober, responsible, full of integrity, and informative.

Many churches are fully transparent with their finances. What do the Mormon pretenders in SLC have to hide? We got a taste of it recently.

Liars and fakes. (As if we didn't already know.)

[malkie]

This is why they're hoarding so much money (but you'll never hear a peep about it from any high-ranking 'church' official because most members would likely stop paying tithing if they knew this)...

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017 ... in-florida

Let alone $32 billion in the stock market, $124 billion Ensign Peak fund, six-figure salaries for the GA's, etc., etc., etc.

Here is a comment on that 2017 story (my bolding):

I'm LDS, in local leadership (which is all unpaid, volunteer), and in my late 40s. Every 4 - 5 years or so some reporter trots out how rich the church is. And then they tell a biased, one sided story.

So here's some additional facts.
The church is indeed rich, but aside from the land investments, the overwhelming majority of the church's assets are money consuming, not money generating. The church has to build a chapel a day to keep up with its membership. Chapels are used throughout the week, not just for Sunday services, and are often shared between congregations. Three congregations meet in my local chapel. Chapels all have gyms for sports and large casual gatherings. Many chapels are used for educational purposes. Temples are indeed expensive, but they are for all of the membership that is willing to live the basics of being a Mormon. I married in a temple. The cost was free. Not bad for such an expensive structure. Temples are used night and day. They are not for normal church services. Some temples, like the Wash DC temple, have or have had 24 hour open times during the weekends to accommodate membership needs. We believe we are under God given command to do the family history work associated with temples. Who cares if you don't believe that? Is our religion bad because we want to practice it?

The investment the church holds largely arrived from donations of stock and property from LDS members, and acquisitions coming from judicious use of those investments. No tithing funds go into those investments. I know of a few exceptions, for example the NYC LDS Temple created a situation where to avoid a potential lien or conflict on the structure, the church decided to buy the adjacent high-rise, to the tune of a huge cost. This is rare, and only occurred because the church pays for all buildings in cash, and a possibility of a temple having a lien on it is untenable. Every year the church audit committee reviews and confirms these investments..they are accountable to the church at large as well as its leadership. The investments in general are used to provide living allowances for the handful of full-time ecclesiastical officers who do not have sufficient wealth to pay for their own expenses. These payments are meager: virtually all live in small houses or modest apartments. The malls and whatnot are an outgrowth of self-sufficiency and people having and running businesses. Remember, in colonial Utah, the Mormons had to build their economy from scratch.

The remainder of the money is poured into the church's welfare system.

The church's welfare system is the largest and most complex I'm aware of outside of governments. It includes farm to table vertical integration. The farm in Florida is a part of this. The church grows, processes, and stockpiles tremendous amounts of food for (a) members to purchase at cost (who are also encouraged to store food where safe and legal), (b) local congregational welfare needs (feeding local families when they fall on hard times), (c) occasional community needs and regional emergencies (the church owns and rolls its own trucks with food for FEMA type responses), and yes, the presumed apocalypse. Maybe you think storing food for the apocalypse is nutty, but it doesn't take too much imagination to think of a whole lot of non-religious events that can interrupt a food supply. So you judge whether God, people, or nature is the cause of it, but isn't it better to have that than to not have it?

The church operates a large fund to do what? To send money to members of the church outside the US and developed countries to get college education. The church operates funds to provide low cost educational options to those IN the US and soon all developed countries. The church donates to humanitarian causes around the world.

AND whenever people get wind of the church wanting to build a temple or get an ROI on its investments, people lose their minds. No one seemed too concerned when Disney virtually obliterated central Florida with their development, but now they are upset that the church wants to develop a portion of land. No one has stopped the Florida sugar industry from all but blocking any plan to restore the Everglades. MAYBE the church shouldn't build on this land... but how about engaging them like you would ANY OTHER DEVELOPER, instead of insinuating that because it's the Mormons, there's some kind of sinister aspect to their plans. Because of tax reasons, the people running the for-profit investments only have a limited relationship ecclesiastical leadership. No LDS leader is calling the shots except for providing a general desire of long term goals and on the largest of initiatives. These companies operate to make money just like anybody else--except that there's no billionaire in the background. Now tell me what's more sinister?

We are just people you know, but with a history of getting killed for our beliefs.

I wonder if User470588 is still around, still active, and still of the same opinion about the wealth of the church.