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LDS Inc. (Part 12)

LDS Inc. (Part 12)

Last updated on: December 17, 2019 at 12:37 pm by Dan Peterson

LDS Inc. (Part 12) 2019-12-17T12:37:25-07:00 Dan Peterson

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Camilla and Spencer Kimball lived in this vast Salt Lake City mansion for thirty-two years, during his apostleship and during his presidency of the Church. He was living here when he received the 1978 revelation on priesthood. (Wikimedia Commons public domain photo)

By now, many of you will be aware of the Washington Post exposé entitled “Mormon Church misled members on $100 billion fund, whistleblower alleges.” There has already been an official response from the First Presidency:

“First Presidency Statement on Church Finances: Statement provided in response to media stories”

There will probably be other responses, and I look forward to reading them. Here is an excellent reply that has appeared in the Deseret News:

“The Washington Post says the Church of Jesus Christ has billions. Thank goodness”

I also expect that one of the people invited by the news media to comment on the story will be the historian D. Michael Quinn, an excommunicated former Latter-day Saint who has been quite willing in the past to criticize Church leaders and the Church itself, but whose lifelong interest in Church finances, culminating in his 2017 volume The Mormon Hierarchy: Wealth & Corporate Power, had him praising Church leaders and telling Latter-day Saints that they should be “proud” of the way the Church has managed its financial stewardship.

Anyway, he should be consulted for comment. Listen to a 2017 interview with Dr. Quinn here:

“D. Michael Quinn on LDS Church finances”

Another person who should probably be invited to comment is the economist and economic historian Larry Wimmer, who reviewed Dr. Quinn’s book for Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship:

“Through a Glass Darkly: Examining Church Finances”

I claim no special expertise on this subject, and I should not be interviewed regarding it. I’m neither a tax lawyer nor an accountant nor a historian of the modern Church, let alone an organizational insider. But I do have a couple of things to say about the topic.

I’m guessing that at least a few of the *Washington Post’*s readers will assume, at the end of the article, that this is simply yet another sordid tale of ecclesiastical leaders enriching themselves, in the manner of certain television evangelists, off of the contributions of the faithful. But there is no evidence for this. Zero. (See Dr. Quinn’s book.)

And I will offer this observation:

As it happens, I’ve had the opportunity to spend time in the homes of several General Authorities, including two very senior members of the Twelve (both now still fairly recently deceased). These homes were nice, but they were very far from lavish. (Many homes in my neighborhood are newer, bigger, and more expensively furnished.) They weren’t in special enclaves or even gated communities.

I conclude from my observations that the General Authorities do not grow wealthy from their service. For, if they do, where does that wealth go? Not, plainly, into their homes. And not into lavish vacations, either, because their travel schedules are quite well known. (I personally know that some General Authorities who were capable of it have served without any remuneration at all from the Church.)

Moreover, I’ve been involved in many meetings with the Brethren (not only in my own wards and stakes but at Church headquarters and elsewhere), and I have some sense of their typical daily calendars. Service as a General Authority is anything but “retirement.” It’s endless meetings and committees and responsibilities, day in and day out and on weekends, in Salt Lake City and across the United States and around the world, until they’re released as General Authorities at something like the age of seventy (and at that point, often, called to serve as temple presidents or in some other demanding capacity). Or, if they’re ordained apostles — who are not permitted to retire — it continues until they’re released by death. Commonly in their eighties or nineties. Service as a General Authority is scarcely a posh and easy life.

Who is profiting from the Church’s “wealth”? Definitely not its leaders.

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