Saturday, September 22, 2012
War worn
Some may have noted that it seems I cannot decide what the motive was for the disciplinary council scheduled for me. Was it because I wrote about Romney or because of my writings on the LDS church?
When I interviewed with Jamie Reno of TheDailyBeast.com, I felt in my gut that the Romney pieces were a part of why this happened. During the 45 minute interrogation on September 16, my local leaders never said "Romney" in my interrogation. These men are an accountant, a physician and other professionals. They know that to say that they are disciplining me over politics would be appear improper. (However, I am still confused why they would feel disciplining me over any speech is proper.) They indicated discomfort with my recent writings as a whole, which includes three blog entries and one MT article discussing Romney that were posted from Sept 11-15. The timing was suspicious. I told this to Jamie, and I told him that I felt this was a motive. The temple was a concern to them, and I had linked the Laws of Consecration & Sacrifice covenants language to my article on Romney on Sept 12. Such that, when they referred to the concerns about the temple, I inferred they meant the Romney piece. Additionally, while referring to my writings, the stake president did say about himself, "I'm not a political man..." It is unclear to me what he meant by this and why he interjected it. But it gave me a sense that there was something he was feeling regarding the politics involved, without ever saying it was a political move.
Friday, September 21 was a trying day--I had constant press contacts, calls, requests for interviews, video and audio recording. I was worn out. Late that morning, I was told by a media consultant that I should think about what I am saying, given that research monies and grants come from the government and that my career depends on some of these. That got me running scared. Perhaps that is unjustified, but it felt very real on Friday. When I was contacted by the New York Times that afternoon, I told Laurie Goodstein on our second call, that in fact I was now concerned and I didn't want the Romney connection emphasized because I was worried how that could affect my future. I told her that I could not be certain that it was my writings on Romney that formed the basis of the disciplinary council against me. I am still not 100% certain, as no one can be.
Later on Friday I was contacted by Peggy Stack of the Salt Lake Tribune (and emailed with another media outlet in UT). I made similar statements to Peggy that the timing was suspicious, but that I had no direct evidence it is about Romney. In my worn out state-of-mind, I said that I didn't want this to be about politics; that I don't feel happy that discussions of my pending discipline have taken on such a national political tone. I would prefer the topic remain on the Mormon Church's inability to defend its own position specifically & doctrinally on this matter. I also told her that I have no malice for the Romney campaign and don't mean to hurt it. Yes, I admit, I was running scared and very tired by late Friday. I was war worn.
However, after having some sleep, and now that the NY Times article came out, I read statements by Scott Gordon, a Mormon apologist, that indicated he was behind turning me into the church authorities. One of his statements has resolved me back to my original gut feeling--that this is probably in part about the LDS church squelching my political speech. The reason is a little complex. Let me start with his particular quote from the NY Times:
“ It has nothing to do with Romney,” Mr. Gordon said. “I know members very high up in the church who are voting for Obama.”
“ It’s about him posting on a blog that he was actively in there trying to subvert people’s beliefs in the L.D.S. church,” Mr. Gordon said... "
If you've read my "The Mysteries of the Gospel" blog, you will know that the only case Gordon had against me was that I wrote about emailing with "Pat" who I indicated was a questioning member. I wrote:
" I decided to send Pat two links: The first link to Mormon Info Graphics on the Book of Abraham, and a second one to FAIR’s explanation of one of the facsimiles. "
Links included in this were:
http://www.mormoninfographics.com/search/label/Facsimile
http://en.fairmormon.org/Book_of_Abraham/Joseph_Smith_Papyri/Facsimiles/Facsimile_3
The latter is directly from Scott Gordon's own group, FAIR. In other words, I gave someone information that FAIR wrote. I find it extremely unlikely that this is what got the LDS Salt Lake leaders' panties in a bunch. If that were true, Scott Gordon would also be called in for disciplinary court.
I feel in my gut, that these excuses only strengthen the case that it was likely political. Before this, I had begun to question the motive, but I again feel stronger that this is probably a considerable factor. I think TheDailyBeast probably reflects what I initially and again most recently believe.
Friday, September 21, 2012
The letter
Given me at the end of my 16 Sept "interview".
Yes,. they mispelled my last name. They tried correcting it with a pen.
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
The compromise
The editorial board of MormonThink want to take my story to the press. Something was posted about this on some forums, but I requested the moderators to remove them until I was sure what I would do. Having someone in the press is handy, and I will talk with them, but I won't let it get out until I'm ready.
What's keeping me?
I spoke with another LDS member (John Dehlin) yesterday who had a mellowing effect on me. He has walked a balanced line between critic and faithful member for a long while and his arguments are that it is useful to remain in the system and try to have dialogues with LDS church leaders. He believes they are coming around.
I would encourage them, if they talked with me, to post direct responses on LDS.ORG to the most troubling issues faithful members are having. I explained to the stake presidency in my "interview" that to hide information is to invite frustration and even anger on the part of members when they learn them through FAIR, MormonThink, or reading Richard Bushman. One way or the other, the studious member will find these facts. I don't believe the Mormon church intends its members to remain dolts or unlearned sheeple. It encourages gospel scholarship. However, many of us come unglued about what we learn when we follow that counsel and see what was hidden.
Open and honest dialogue will allow members to choose, according to their agency, whether these facts are too troubling or in the end, humanizing. What do I mean? If we learn that the prophets are just as human, just as weak as we are, perhaps we will not feel anxious about our imperfections. Perhaps we will be more at ease in the church and more tolerant. Yes, I believe an honest view of Joseph Smith's weaknesses and by opening the facts it will bring love and tolerance to the wider membership of the church because they will lose their need to feel inadequate about imperfections in themselves and others. The Mormon church needs to jettison Perfection Syndrome.
That is Christianity at its best, I think.
In this light, I will send a letter by email and paper to my stake president and bishop. I quote it below.
I hope to hear from them in the next couple of days. The media wants to talk, and I can't stall it if I feel threatened.
Dear President P___and Bishop D_____:
Since Sunday I have had time to think more about what we discussed together. In the blog I may have come off irreverent about my attendance at church, so I can understand that it seemed hurtful to the LDS church. Understand I have a different perspective today than I did years ago when I attended regularly. At times it is difficult for me to see from the eyes of active leadership.
By contacting you, my aim isn’t to defame or hurt the church irrevocably or incidentally. As managing editor of Mormonthink.com my goal, as it is for most of the board there, is to maintain a site of accurate, useful and objective information. However, some of what I wrote in my blog may have treated the church unfairly. For this reason I have decided to do the following in the interest of compromise and forestalling your disciplinary council:
1) I have removed the blog. I do not plan to continue writing about my attendance or representing what happens at the Hunters Creek Ward in public.
2) I have removed direct quotes and other information about the temple ceremonies at Mormonthink.com.
3) I am asking that you reconsider the disciplinary council, at least temporarily, as a matter of courtesy. Given that the first time we ever met was when you called me in to discuss disciplinary action, it seems premature and abrupt on my part. It is also my understanding that it is typical LDS policy to work with individuals before submitting them to a court. For example, the recent letters (http://stevebloor.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/wpid-cr1.png ) church area authorities urge local leaders “to work patiently and lovingly with these members in a way that is most likely to address their concerns…”
4) I would like to have discussions with you as local church leaders about what at Mormonthink is untruthful and try to work with you to create a website that can present accurate, open, honest and noteworthy information that can aid member and non-member alike in exercising free will about what they believe.
I hope that these kind of actions and compromises will allow us to maintain civility and move forward to improving the quality of information about LDS history and doctrine.
With kind regards,
David Twede
What's keeping me?
I spoke with another LDS member (John Dehlin) yesterday who had a mellowing effect on me. He has walked a balanced line between critic and faithful member for a long while and his arguments are that it is useful to remain in the system and try to have dialogues with LDS church leaders. He believes they are coming around.
I would encourage them, if they talked with me, to post direct responses on LDS.ORG to the most troubling issues faithful members are having. I explained to the stake presidency in my "interview" that to hide information is to invite frustration and even anger on the part of members when they learn them through FAIR, MormonThink, or reading Richard Bushman. One way or the other, the studious member will find these facts. I don't believe the Mormon church intends its members to remain dolts or unlearned sheeple. It encourages gospel scholarship. However, many of us come unglued about what we learn when we follow that counsel and see what was hidden.
Open and honest dialogue will allow members to choose, according to their agency, whether these facts are too troubling or in the end, humanizing. What do I mean? If we learn that the prophets are just as human, just as weak as we are, perhaps we will not feel anxious about our imperfections. Perhaps we will be more at ease in the church and more tolerant. Yes, I believe an honest view of Joseph Smith's weaknesses and by opening the facts it will bring love and tolerance to the wider membership of the church because they will lose their need to feel inadequate about imperfections in themselves and others. The Mormon church needs to jettison Perfection Syndrome.
That is Christianity at its best, I think.
In this light, I will send a letter by email and paper to my stake president and bishop. I quote it below.
I hope to hear from them in the next couple of days. The media wants to talk, and I can't stall it if I feel threatened.
Dear President P___and Bishop D_____:
Since Sunday I have had time to think more about what we discussed together. In the blog I may have come off irreverent about my attendance at church, so I can understand that it seemed hurtful to the LDS church. Understand I have a different perspective today than I did years ago when I attended regularly. At times it is difficult for me to see from the eyes of active leadership.
By contacting you, my aim isn’t to defame or hurt the church irrevocably or incidentally. As managing editor of Mormonthink.com my goal, as it is for most of the board there, is to maintain a site of accurate, useful and objective information. However, some of what I wrote in my blog may have treated the church unfairly. For this reason I have decided to do the following in the interest of compromise and forestalling your disciplinary council:
1) I have removed the blog. I do not plan to continue writing about my attendance or representing what happens at the Hunters Creek Ward in public.
2) I have removed direct quotes and other information about the temple ceremonies at Mormonthink.com.
3) I am asking that you reconsider the disciplinary council, at least temporarily, as a matter of courtesy. Given that the first time we ever met was when you called me in to discuss disciplinary action, it seems premature and abrupt on my part. It is also my understanding that it is typical LDS policy to work with individuals before submitting them to a court. For example, the recent letters (http://stevebloor.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/wpid-cr1.png ) church area authorities urge local leaders “to work patiently and lovingly with these members in a way that is most likely to address their concerns…”
4) I would like to have discussions with you as local church leaders about what at Mormonthink is untruthful and try to work with you to create a website that can present accurate, open, honest and noteworthy information that can aid member and non-member alike in exercising free will about what they believe.
I hope that these kind of actions and compromises will allow us to maintain civility and move forward to improving the quality of information about LDS history and doctrine.
With kind regards,
David Twede
Monday, September 17, 2012
All is not well in Zion
It was a dark and restless night.
Yesterday I attended church again. After sacrament meeting, the executive secretary (stake, I believe) found me in the chapel overflow, called me by name and told me the stake president would like to meet me.
I followed him to the stake offices and there waited until the stake presidency and my bishop filed in, sitting in mostly an arc before me (bishop to my left). They chatted about who I am and my membership history and then confronted me about my writings--the (formerly) prozac-ville blog and my editorial role at MormonThink.com.
Before I admitted to writing any of it, I asked them how they had gotten my name and learned that I was writing any kind of blog. They would only say that they were perhaps "inspired" to know my identity. Then they told me they were scheduling a disciplinary council for my role as managing editor at Mormonthink.com, and particularly over my recent articles and writings, while attending the Hunters Creek Ward in Orlando, Florida.
My writings, of recent last week, (from September 11 -15) which were posted to this blog and MormonThink include "The God of Mitt Romney" and one on the political history of the LDS church, as it relates to Mitt Romney’s campaign.
They gave me a letter stating a disciplinary council for "apostasy" is scheduled on September 30 at 7:30am. During our chat, the leaders persistently asked me about other contributors, why we kept secret our identities and implied that that I am an anti-christ. This was the first time I had ever met each of these leaders, and none of them knew me before by name or face, from what I know.
They denied that they are on—in their words—“a witch hunt” but they continued asking me to answer questions such as, “If people are truly interested in truth, as you say they are, then why would they hide their name or who they are?”
Many of us have seen the harm openly raising doubts can cause with family, friends and community in the Mormon culture. Most of my family is true-believing Mormon, and they will be hurt by my probable excommunication for apostasy.
I hope to find a way to work it out, perhaps by vacating the blog (which I did this same day, and found the blog name taken by others who posted a critique of Mormonthink) and removing the temple material from Mormonthink.com.
In the "interview" I specifically asked if there was anything I could do to forestall the disciplinary council. They told me there was nothing I could do. It was going to happen.
Yesterday I attended church again. After sacrament meeting, the executive secretary (stake, I believe) found me in the chapel overflow, called me by name and told me the stake president would like to meet me.
I followed him to the stake offices and there waited until the stake presidency and my bishop filed in, sitting in mostly an arc before me (bishop to my left). They chatted about who I am and my membership history and then confronted me about my writings--the (formerly) prozac-ville blog and my editorial role at MormonThink.com.
Before I admitted to writing any of it, I asked them how they had gotten my name and learned that I was writing any kind of blog. They would only say that they were perhaps "inspired" to know my identity. Then they told me they were scheduling a disciplinary council for my role as managing editor at Mormonthink.com, and particularly over my recent articles and writings, while attending the Hunters Creek Ward in Orlando, Florida.
My writings, of recent last week, (from September 11 -15) which were posted to this blog and MormonThink include "The God of Mitt Romney" and one on the political history of the LDS church, as it relates to Mitt Romney’s campaign.
They gave me a letter stating a disciplinary council for "apostasy" is scheduled on September 30 at 7:30am. During our chat, the leaders persistently asked me about other contributors, why we kept secret our identities and implied that that I am an anti-christ. This was the first time I had ever met each of these leaders, and none of them knew me before by name or face, from what I know.
They denied that they are on—in their words—“a witch hunt” but they continued asking me to answer questions such as, “If people are truly interested in truth, as you say they are, then why would they hide their name or who they are?”
Many of us have seen the harm openly raising doubts can cause with family, friends and community in the Mormon culture. Most of my family is true-believing Mormon, and they will be hurt by my probable excommunication for apostasy.
I hope to find a way to work it out, perhaps by vacating the blog (which I did this same day, and found the blog name taken by others who posted a critique of Mormonthink) and removing the temple material from Mormonthink.com.
In the "interview" I specifically asked if there was anything I could do to forestall the disciplinary council. They told me there was nothing I could do. It was going to happen.
Sunday, September 16, 2012
The Hammer of Laban
I know I don't have a large audience, but that doesn't matter. I'm chronicling the events here for my own sake. Thus, I hate to disappoint my small audience in not posting a long tale about today's church events. Needless to say, they are hardly bland or boring. I just can't get into details at this time.
Hence, this Sunday's blog is delayed indefinitely due to me being confronted directly by leadership at church today. They are reading my blog. They know who I am--were, apparently, "inspired" somehow to learn my name. I don't want to jeopardize my MT position or others at MT by discussing any other details. We are being watched. I got a letter from them with my name and numbering my days, unless I stop writing for MT and blogging.
Hence, this Sunday's blog is delayed indefinitely due to me being confronted directly by leadership at church today. They are reading my blog. They know who I am--were, apparently, "inspired" somehow to learn my name. I don't want to jeopardize my MT position or others at MT by discussing any other details. We are being watched. I got a letter from them with my name and numbering my days, unless I stop writing for MT and blogging.
Saturday, September 15, 2012
The Mysteries of the Gospel
Many of you have been to FAIR-LDS, which attempts to explain many of the “mysteries” of the gospel. No, not the mysteries like who’s God’s daddy, did the Liahona stop working because Nephi was on AT&T’s network, or was the method used by Shiz struggling for breath without a head the same as how the Jaredites breathed while in the dish-tight subs.
What I mean are the mysteries of why did Joseph Smith have so many “first visions”, why he married so many already-married women and did God change Lamanite DNA to keep us in faithful suspense.
FAIR is actually a great resource because not only do they utterly fail to provide adequate answers to these mysteries, they also validate that they are in fact mysteries that justly trouble many LDS. I remember many years ago when, as a TBM, I was researching the Book of Abraham and came across an “anti-mormon” website detailing how Joseph Smith completely failed, when they compared his translation to those of Egyptologists who’d studied the re-discovered papyri. When I first saw this, I thought: No, there are no papyri—they were lost in the Chicago fire! But I had to find out if someone had defended against this “bullcrap”. I searched and found that FAIR, a BYU related website, confirmed that in fact it was true. They had the papyri. FAIR argued that we probably don’t have all of the scrolls. But we do have the papyri with the facsimiles, even the one upon which Smith & colleagues had drawn a man’s head on Anubus. FAIR admitted that the translation of these and the characters all around them did not match Smith’s Abraham in the least. This admission extremely distressed me for a day or two.
Most of you already know this, and it is discussed very well at many sites, so you may wonder why I’m bringing it up. Why? Because of Pat.
I decided to send Pat two links: The first link to Mormon Info Graphics on the Book of Abraham, and a second one to FAIR’s explanation of one of the facsimiles. That way Pat would see the fully-exposed (Elohim’s "godhood" included) version and the “legitimate version” at FAIR. I sent it on Wednesday night, and heard back from Pat on Saturday morning. The response surprised me a little.
PAT: I have never seen this. I’ve been in dismay for the past couple of days. Based on your reaction at church I thought I might be able to help ease your doubts. Now I don’t know.
We’ve exchanged phone numbers and we’re talking about many other issues. Pat shared some of these with the spouse and now they might both be having serious doubts. I will have to be careful on Sunday not to give them or myself away.
There is also a possibility that the woman I talked with at the end of the meeting might be open to discussing some issues. How fast should I go with her? I can't recall the rules with LDS women...
Addendum:
One of the interesting conversations with Pat went like this:
PAT: Did you see the graphic on facsimile 2, where Joseph Smith translated part 7 as God sitting on his throne, but the Egyptologists translated it as one of the gods with an erection?
ME: Yes, and I've wondered if the drawings proportions are to scale, because if we're made in Elohim's image, then that dude is a hung brother!
(You can see the erection is almost as long as his thigh.)
The god "Min", an ithyphallic god; that is, a sexually aroused male deity.
PAT: Haha. What is he doing with an erection?
(Note this is one of the big gospel mysteries FAIR has yet to answer.)
ME: Maybe going number 3?
PAT: number...do I dare ask?
Me: Going number 3 is (mimic a closed-fist fast up/down motion with my hand) a very personal thing some guys do when they don't have to worry about bishop interviews.
PAT: uh, okay, changing the subject...
The Great and Spacious Building
Or The Great and Specious Building...
Late on Wed/early Thursday I wrote and posted a treatise on the Political history of the LDS church and how it might affect Mitt Romney if he were elected. The biggest concern with Romney has been that he's hiding his taxes and claiming that it is his right to keep "sacred" (or secret) his donations to God. Mitt has used his church as an example of why he doesn't need to disclose his taxes: “Our church doesn’t publish how much people have given... we had never intended our contributions to be known.”
There's something rotten in dumb-mark. The LDS hides its money for good reason. Let's take a look at the scant record they have offered. First, start with LDS stats from one of their many websites:
http://www.lds.org/bc/content/shared/content/english/pdf/welfare/2011-welfare-services-fact-sheet.pdf
This kind of document is the only official source on the value the church gives to helping the poor. They do not disclose their financial worth, expenses, income or any other indication of financial responsibility in the US.
The LDS church since 1985 has given a combined $1.4 Billion in cash and service value to the poor as humanitarian assistance. (this breaks down to about $400M in cash and about $1B in non-cash service & in-kind donations. In any event, $1.4 over 26 years is about $50 million a year in value.) That comes out to be, on average, about $3.5 per year per current member. That’s extremely low.
Ask a Mormon bishop, is this all the church gives? For more than five years I worked with bishops as financial clerk in a congregation. I know what the income was and what we spent helping the poor. The income to help ratio was about 15:1. The bulk of the income was sent to HQ coffers in Salt Lake City by wire transfer.
The public should know that a few months ago, it was reported that Elder Holland, top LDS official, had this to say:
Holland: There is no money in our church except what the members offer.
That’s the source of the $3.5 per member per year donation? The rest goes to building campuses and other buildings. I found this one, that the church is building:
http://www.downtownrising.com/index.php/project-scope-a-timeline
and
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705366487/City-Creek-condos-go-on-sale-Monday.html
and
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705341784/Salt-Lake-City-high-rise-is-ready-for-occupancy-on-Main.html
The $2-3 Billion mall is owned by City Creek Reserve, Inc (one of dozens of companies held by the LDS Church) according to their own website (http://www.downtownrising.com/ ) Selling penthouse apartments for $1.5M and stores that will sell liquor, which even wealthy Mormons aren't supposed to drink.
So if Holland says all the money comes from the members, and the church spends about $50M a yr on Humanitarian aid, and it spends $3 billion on a mall in a few years (2008-2012), where are its priorities?
Certainly not with the poor. What kind of steward would I be to give money to building a mall instead of helping the poor? How many millions has Romney given? He won't say. It's sacred and because it's on the IRS forms, he can't show you them. I wonder if the IRS has an NDA with the LDS church.
More research shows the church owns (or has owned):
And MANY more -- This is all outlined well in the Bloomberg article on the Mormon Finances
Still, the land alone is estimated worth $20 Billion. The profit-companies are estimated worth another $15 Billion. The Church owned land, campuses and temples are worth billions. When all is said and done, conservative estimates put the combined wealth of the church and its affiliated corporations at around $60 Billion
This is not hard to believe. Tithing collected from $14,000,000 members, where say 2 million are temple going, full tithed, active US workers, puts the estimate at ($50,000/yr avg US salary X 10% X 2M members = ) $10 Billion per year in tithing collection.
Over 25 years, that would easily make up $60 Billion, if not considerably more. Out of that, in 25 years, they gave $1.3 billion to the poor. That’s barely 2% of their interest to the poor. Isn't helping the poor one of the main missions of a charity & church?
How do normal, non-religious consumer-oriented corporations do in their giving?
Taking a look at these:
http://philanthropy.com/article/Interactive-Tracking-Big/128359/
http://philanthropy.com/article/Chart-Companies-That-in-2010/128358/
We can see that for-profit corporations give more than the LDS church. If you look at the net profit before taxes, some companies that earn 1/20th what the LDS church gets in tithing each year, and they pay MORE in donations that does the LDS church, which is supposed to be a charity in the first place.
I would do better to buy groceries at Target, Safeway or Smiths, donate the groceries to poor families in Provo and feel safe that more than 2% of the profits they earn from me are also going to the poor.
Until the LDS church provides me with more transparency on their financial operations, donations and expenditures, I don’t feel comfortable giving to them.
Why would I ever trust the owner of the City Creek Mall to wisely use my tithing donations?
Members hear a constant mantra of "pray, pay, obey and don't be gay". In contrast, one of the most telling world-wide stats, if true, is the "every 3.6 seconds someone dies of hunger".
http://library.thinkquest.org/C002291/high/present/stats.htm
see
http://www.wfp.org/hunger/stats/
Also,
http://documents.wfp.org/stellent/groups/public/documents/communications/wfp220221.pdf
Which says, "...$3.2 billion is needed per year to
reach all 66 million hungry school-age children. Of this,
US$1.2 billion would allow WFP to reach 23 million
children in Africa."
I ask you, what would it take for every American to give up in order to feed these 66 million kids? Just one pizza per year and the 66 million hungry kids could have food. How the Catholics could sell a few artifacts each year out of the thousands they have and almost perpetually feed these kids. Or the Mormons could donate 30% of their tithing/offerings income and feed all the hungry kids currently in the world.
Think about these numbers as you park your car subterraneously to the Mormon Mall compound. Upon arriving at the north ground entrance of city creek mall, the first thing July tank-top goers notice--besides the dress code they're violating--is the blast of cold air flowing through the large open doorways leading into the mall. One girl was overheard commenting on how wasteful and hurtful to the environment this is.
If you tour the storefronts you'll note that the opulence is staggering by most standards. That the kinds of stores they have there are meant for the 1% types. For example, in the one end, they had an cul-de-sac of Rolex, Tiffany, Porsche Design, Nordstrom, etc. I bet my daughter that the cheapest watch in the Rolex store was $5000. We went in and asked, and sure enough a woman's watch was the lowest at $4800. She began to crack at that point.
It was an eye opening experience for a tween girl to realize the Lord's mall is selling watches that can feed ten-thousand kids for many many days.
Late on Wed/early Thursday I wrote and posted a treatise on the Political history of the LDS church and how it might affect Mitt Romney if he were elected. The biggest concern with Romney has been that he's hiding his taxes and claiming that it is his right to keep "sacred" (or secret) his donations to God. Mitt has used his church as an example of why he doesn't need to disclose his taxes: “Our church doesn’t publish how much people have given... we had never intended our contributions to be known.”
There's something rotten in dumb-mark. The LDS hides its money for good reason. Let's take a look at the scant record they have offered. First, start with LDS stats from one of their many websites:
http://www.lds.org/bc/content/shared/content/english/pdf/welfare/2011-welfare-services-fact-sheet.pdf
This kind of document is the only official source on the value the church gives to helping the poor. They do not disclose their financial worth, expenses, income or any other indication of financial responsibility in the US.
The LDS church since 1985 has given a combined $1.4 Billion in cash and service value to the poor as humanitarian assistance. (this breaks down to about $400M in cash and about $1B in non-cash service & in-kind donations. In any event, $1.4 over 26 years is about $50 million a year in value.) That comes out to be, on average, about $3.5 per year per current member. That’s extremely low.
Ask a Mormon bishop, is this all the church gives? For more than five years I worked with bishops as financial clerk in a congregation. I know what the income was and what we spent helping the poor. The income to help ratio was about 15:1. The bulk of the income was sent to HQ coffers in Salt Lake City by wire transfer.
The public should know that a few months ago, it was reported that Elder Holland, top LDS official, had this to say:
Holland: There is no money in our church except what the members offer.
That’s the source of the $3.5 per member per year donation? The rest goes to building campuses and other buildings. I found this one, that the church is building:
http://www.downtownrising.com/index.php/project-scope-a-timeline
and
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705366487/City-Creek-condos-go-on-sale-Monday.html
and
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705341784/Salt-Lake-City-high-rise-is-ready-for-occupancy-on-Main.html
The $2-3 Billion mall is owned by City Creek Reserve, Inc (one of dozens of companies held by the LDS Church) according to their own website (http://www.downtownrising.com/ ) Selling penthouse apartments for $1.5M and stores that will sell liquor, which even wealthy Mormons aren't supposed to drink.
So if Holland says all the money comes from the members, and the church spends about $50M a yr on Humanitarian aid, and it spends $3 billion on a mall in a few years (2008-2012), where are its priorities?
Certainly not with the poor. What kind of steward would I be to give money to building a mall instead of helping the poor? How many millions has Romney given? He won't say. It's sacred and because it's on the IRS forms, he can't show you them. I wonder if the IRS has an NDA with the LDS church.
More research shows the church owns (or has owned):
- AgReserves Inc. - the largest producer of nuts in America (circa. 1997)
- Hawaii Reserves, Inc. - Miscellaneous church holdings in Hawaii. Along with the Polynesian Cultural Center (the leading paid visitor attraction in Hawaii) and Brigham Young University-Hawaii, Hawaii Reserves generated revenue of $260 million for the Hawaii economy in 2005.
- Farmland Reserve Inc. - 228,000 acres (923 km²) in Nebraska; 51,600 acres in Osage County, Oklahoma[28]; and over 312,000 acres (1,260 km²) in Florida (dba Deseret Cattle and Citrus).
- Bonneville International Corporation - the 14th largest radio chain in the U.S.
- Deseret Morning News - a daily Utah newspaper, second-largest in the state of Utah.
- Beneficial Financial Group - An insurance and financial services company with assets of $3.1 billion.
And MANY more -- This is all outlined well in the Bloomberg article on the Mormon Finances
Still, the land alone is estimated worth $20 Billion. The profit-companies are estimated worth another $15 Billion. The Church owned land, campuses and temples are worth billions. When all is said and done, conservative estimates put the combined wealth of the church and its affiliated corporations at around $60 Billion
This is not hard to believe. Tithing collected from $14,000,000 members, where say 2 million are temple going, full tithed, active US workers, puts the estimate at ($50,000/yr avg US salary X 10% X 2M members = ) $10 Billion per year in tithing collection.
Over 25 years, that would easily make up $60 Billion, if not considerably more. Out of that, in 25 years, they gave $1.3 billion to the poor. That’s barely 2% of their interest to the poor. Isn't helping the poor one of the main missions of a charity & church?
How do normal, non-religious consumer-oriented corporations do in their giving?
Taking a look at these:
http://philanthropy.com/article/Interactive-Tracking-Big/128359/
http://philanthropy.com/article/Chart-Companies-That-in-2010/128358/
We can see that for-profit corporations give more than the LDS church. If you look at the net profit before taxes, some companies that earn 1/20th what the LDS church gets in tithing each year, and they pay MORE in donations that does the LDS church, which is supposed to be a charity in the first place.
I would do better to buy groceries at Target, Safeway or Smiths, donate the groceries to poor families in Provo and feel safe that more than 2% of the profits they earn from me are also going to the poor.
Until the LDS church provides me with more transparency on their financial operations, donations and expenditures, I don’t feel comfortable giving to them.
Why would I ever trust the owner of the City Creek Mall to wisely use my tithing donations?
Members hear a constant mantra of "pray, pay, obey and don't be gay". In contrast, one of the most telling world-wide stats, if true, is the "every 3.6 seconds someone dies of hunger".
http://library.thinkquest.org/C002291/high/present/stats.htm
see
http://www.wfp.org/hunger/stats/
Also,
http://documents.wfp.org/stellent/groups/public/documents/communications/wfp220221.pdf
Which says, "...$3.2 billion is needed per year to
reach all 66 million hungry school-age children. Of this,
US$1.2 billion would allow WFP to reach 23 million
children in Africa."
I ask you, what would it take for every American to give up in order to feed these 66 million kids? Just one pizza per year and the 66 million hungry kids could have food. How the Catholics could sell a few artifacts each year out of the thousands they have and almost perpetually feed these kids. Or the Mormons could donate 30% of their tithing/offerings income and feed all the hungry kids currently in the world.
Think about these numbers as you park your car subterraneously to the Mormon Mall compound. Upon arriving at the north ground entrance of city creek mall, the first thing July tank-top goers notice--besides the dress code they're violating--is the blast of cold air flowing through the large open doorways leading into the mall. One girl was overheard commenting on how wasteful and hurtful to the environment this is.
If you tour the storefronts you'll note that the opulence is staggering by most standards. That the kinds of stores they have there are meant for the 1% types. For example, in the one end, they had an cul-de-sac of Rolex, Tiffany, Porsche Design, Nordstrom, etc. I bet my daughter that the cheapest watch in the Rolex store was $5000. We went in and asked, and sure enough a woman's watch was the lowest at $4800. She began to crack at that point.
It was an eye opening experience for a tween girl to realize the Lord's mall is selling watches that can feed ten-thousand kids for many many days.
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