This past week 60 Minutes the CBS TV Journalism Show covered the event of the Church having its finances exposed by whistleblower David Nielson. We take a look at what was said…. and what wasn’t in this weeks episode of Mormonism LIVE! “David Nielsen is a former investment manager for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who became a whistleblower regarding the church’s finances and tax-exempt status. Nielsen accused the church of hoarding billions of dollars it has not paid taxes on and asked the IRS to strip the church of its tax-exempt status. Nielsen argued that the church owes billions in taxes, and he wants a cut of that as part of a reward offered by the IRS for reporting tax-related offenses.”
RESOURCES:
(2038) Mormon whistleblower: Church’s investment firm masquerades as charity | 60 Minutes – YouTube
60 Minutes – Bishop defends the Church’s investment fund | Facebook (60 Minutes Overtime)
The Perpetual Education Fund (churchofjesuschrist.org)
The Perpetual Education Fund (churchofjesuschrist.org) (Gordon Hinckley’s talk)
Structure of the Corporation of The President / Bishopric (Actual LDS “Church”) | Exploring Mormonism (LDS HOLDINGS)
A look at the LDS Church’s legal legacy as a corporation (The Merging of the two corporations)
https://widowsmitereport.wordpress.com/60minutes/
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Why won’t the LDS church just say they have enough money to be self-sustaining and start massive charity programs? Because they are true believers of the US Republican Party, which has contempt for the poor and think that charity makes people lazy.
I can’t believe nobody caught the “food production” part of the humanitarian aid comment. They spent a billion dollars on humanitarian aid and FOOD PRODUCTION. Does “food production” include operational costs for church-owned farms? What about the expenses of BYU campus catering services and BYU cafeterias? Does this include the cost of running the church food storage/canning program?
It’s almost as if the church lumped in everything that even remotely sounds like it could be part of a welfare program.
When he was discussing the idea of an investment bank vs church bank, i believe i know what he meant. He was trying to stress that EP is used just as a way to facilitate transfers and payments necessary for church operations. And because of that, any interest earned is merely incidental to the primary purpose (of functioning as a bank, NOT an investment account). Interest received is just icing on the cake.
Anyone else buying that? Me neither.
Angie,
Your comment seems out of sorts. The issue of political party is irrelevant to the problem of the Corporation of the First Presidency being a Hedge Fund masquerading as a church.
That said, you might be interested to know the question of political party affiliation and charitable giving has been studied. Data shows Republicans in Republican counties give more of their money to “charity”. Democrats in Democratic counties pay more in taxes. Who is more “charitable”? All depends on how you define charity. This is explained in the NY Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/03/your-money/republicans-democrats-charity-philanthropy.html
As for the question of “charity” making people lazy, everyone has their anecdotes. What is indisputably true is the challenge of the “Poverty Trap” – this is the recognition that getting people out of poverty is really hard . People with no resources struggle greatly to break the chains of poverty. But once people begin receiving public assistance the economic benefits and incentives make it very difficult for the person to get off public assistance. I highly encourage you to research the “Poverty Trap” as you will learn it is a universally recognized social challenge. This doesn’t mean one shouldn’t give to the poor. It does mean it is much easier to give to the poor than it is to alleviate poverty.
That was disappointing RFM. Justin did not deserve the treatment you gave him. All that was done was you left the conversation feeling like you won and he left feeling attacked and will probably dig his heels in even more. He was being vulnerable and you shit all over him.
This is pure speculation. What if the purpose of EPA is different from Roger Clarke’s excuse? What if the purpose is to gain enough money to make everyone think twice before doing something to tick the Church off? EPA has grown quickly into one of the largest financial entities in the world. Given that they do not pay taxes, have no responsibilities to shareholders, and do not have significant expenses to run the company, we can expect that it will soon dwarf the others. At that point, the political clout that it will hold will be substantial even if the number of Mormons in Congress falls to a number commensurate with their share of the population. This is just something I’ve been considering for a while.
AM,
Wouldn’t surprise me that is a rational of the church leadership. I think it is foolish and for this reason. The church, unlike Catholics and Evangelists, has little political clout. There is not much “influence” the church can sell.
The alternative then is the church paying off politicians. Sure, the church could try this but that is an extremely dangerous ploy. First, such activity would be illegal and invite further government investigation. Second, that behavior is wholly contradictory to the claim the church follows the teachings of Christ.
There is a dastardly angle that could be a church strategy. This would be use its obscene wealth to buy up other churches. If RMN believes the LDS church should be the “American” church having money to pull off that trick could be handy. The plot would not be to buy converts, but to literally buy off other churches. I still don’t see this ploy as feasible, but I can be wrong.
My main idea is the LDS church leadership is greedy, selfish and lost. They don’t know what to do with the money because they are a rudderless institution. For the pride of the world the LDS leadership is throwing money to outside charities. I have heard from those involved in outreach efforts the church is wasteful – writing checks more than what outside organizations can spend. We do know the church is now in the pattern of buying accolades from world organizations – for money RMN has received a number of honors from the NAACP and foreign leaders. Isn’t that swell!
And yet out of greed and selfishness the church abuses its members – expecting them to pay out of pocket their own money and time to support the church program, and getting nothing but lectures on how they are failing the leaders expectations in return.
This is the dysfunction of church organization that 50 years of correlation has created. The general authorities don’t trust the membership to handle real budgets so they deny the membership access to the money the membership enabled to be created! And now the membership is figuring this out. Being good LDS most of us won’t say anything publicly. Inwardly we are pissed. There is so much good LDS wards and stakes could do if they had the resources, but the greedy church officers do not want to relinquish control of the program.
My anger is subdued only by the recognition that almost all my fellow ward members and leaders are good people and I benefit from my association with them. But the corporate church is corrupt and it is getting worse.
AM,
A dark strategy we know the LDS church leadership is exploring is how to curry favor with China. This is playing out in three prongs.
(1) Supporting Chinese investment in Utah specifically and the US generally.
(2) Negotiating with the Chinese on the church having approval of the Communist party in China
(3) Africa, where China and the church are both heavily invested.
What compromises is the church leadership willing to make to become the favored “Christian ” church of China? Dealing with China is where big money talks, and the LDS church has big money.
@ Disciple,
You probably saw this:
https://www.newsweek.com/china-using-mormon-church-influence-us-politics-investigation-finds-1790607#:~:text=China%20Using%20Mormon%20Church%20to%20Influence%20U.S.%20Politics%2C%20Investigation%20Finds,-By%20Thomas%20Kika&text=China%20allegedly%20fostered%20connections%20in,according%20to%20a%20new%20report.
I’m glad that there’s at least one other person besides me who thinks this is an important story. If nothing else, it provides indirect evidence that the church exerts influence on Mormon legislators.
@Shane,
Yes, I saw and read that article. The Chinese have no principles other than to advance their national interests. The Utah LDS leaders were played. And they will be played each and every time they try to deal with the CCP.
It is rather bizarre and sad to see the church leadership not follow their own instructions. One of which is to consider the question: “Where will this lead?” The other being the classic story of the man picking up the snake, only to be bitten by the snake. And when the man asked the snake why he bit him the snake replied: “You knew what I was when you picked me up”.
The large financial accounts held by the church will not prove helpful to the church. Money attracts fake friends. It gives false confidence. It fosters greed, envy and moral compromise. Simply observe that the pursuit of money has lead the LDS leadership to (1) Lie and (2) Publicly criticize the church membership for not being trustworthy to have knowledge of the money.
And yet I expect the LDS pursuit of money to continue and the distance between the corporate leadership and the lay church to widen. The rule of holes being another lesson the church leadership fails to learn.
Absolutely love the show. Even if I don’t think I’ll like the show, I’m never disappointed. The show responding to the 60 minutes show gave me a lot of meat to chew. I too have graduated from Mormonism. Still on the rolls but don’t think I will be for much longer. This SEC fraudulent activity turns my stomach. Church discipline for the Top 3 at a minimum.
Excellent pun (“Gone in 60 Minutes”).