{"id":100814,"date":"2023-07-01T15:23:06","date_gmt":"2023-07-01T21:23:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=100814"},"modified":"2023-07-01T15:23:06","modified_gmt":"2023-07-01T21:23:06","slug":"inside-the-mormon-churchs-globe-spanning-real-estate-empire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2023\/07\/inside-the-mormon-churchs-globe-spanning-real-estate-empire.html","title":{"rendered":"“Inside the Mormon Church\u2019s Globe-Spanning Real-Estate Empire”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
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The seat of the Supreme Court of the United States
(Wikimedia Commons public domain photograph)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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I have said here on multiple occasions that, owing to the concerns expressed by some former donors to the Interpreter Foundation, I no longer hold any political opinions and that I\u2019m not even aware who the president is, nor when she is going to need to campaign toward earning her second (or it is her third?) five-year term.\u00a0 But perhaps I should be clearer:\u00a0 I hold no partisan<\/em> political opinions.\u00a0 I won\u2019t even admit whether I\u2019m a Whig or a Federalist or a member of the Democratic\u2013Farmer\u2013Labor Party.\u00a0 Put me down, if you will, as an adherent of the New Know-Nothings.\u00a0 However, <\/span>that doesn\u2019t mean that I\u2019m unaware of recent rulings from the Supreme Court of the United States.\u00a0 Quite the contrary:\u00a0 I\u2019m delighted<\/em> by them.\u00a0 I was very pleased at the decision in Dobbs v.\u00a0Jackson Women\u2019s Health Organization<\/em>, and the past few days have brought a veritable flood of additional<\/em> good news, prominently including the ruling in Groff v. DeJoy:<\/i><\/p>\n
\u201cSupreme Court Strengthens Religious Freedom Protections for Workers\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n
I\u2019ll probably have more to say on these recent decisions, and more relevant links to share, over the next few days.\u00a0 Suffice it to say in this immediate context that I\u2019m very dedicated to the concept of religious liberty \u2014 which is one of the reasons that I signed on to an amicus brief <\/a>\u00a0back in 2017 in opposition to the then-proposed \u201cMuslim travel ban.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u201cI had not thought that death had undone so many.\u201d\u00a0 Rafael Flores (d. 1886), \u201cDante y Virgilio visitando el Infierno\u201d*
(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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*\u00a0<\/p>\n
Perhaps you will be interested in participating in this effort.\u00a0 And please feel free to share it with friends and family, via social media, and so forth:\u00a0 \u201cVolunteers Needed by Rescuing Our Roots BillionGraves Project for World Record:\u00a0Ten thousand volunteers are wanted to set a world record for the most participants to upload gravestones images to in 24<\/a> hours\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n
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The grain silo at Salt Lake City\u2019s Church-owned \u201cWelfare Square\u201d*
(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
**
*\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve been waiting for this one, from the Wall Street Journal<\/em>, for several weeks now.\u00a0 I had been told that it wouldn\u2019t be as negative as some breathless previous<\/em> expos\u00e9s have been, and I think that that prediction has been borne out by the result:\u00a0 \u201cInside the Mormon Church\u2019s Globe-Spanning Real-Estate Empire:\u00a0From Guam to Cape Verde, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<\/a> is using the financial cushion of its $100 billion investment portfolio to go on a temple-building spree.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n
These two items, from the Deseret News<\/em>, are worth reading in this context:\u00a0 Meagan Kohler, \u201cOpinion: What the Wall Street Journal would have learned about temples from a Latter-day Saint like me:\u00a0Temples are monuments, but not to wealth. They are beacons of light and peace, piercing clouds of cynicism, conflict and despair,\u201d<\/a> and, by Tad Walch, \u201cIn CBS\u2019s \u201860 Minutes\u2019 segment on church finances, it missed the sweeping rags-to-riches history of faith: That history helps explain the church\u2019s finances and decision-making today.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n
And I highly, highly recommend this calm, lucid, well-reasoned video, which runs about seventy-three (73) minutes in length:\u00a0 \u201c\u201dMormon\u201d Church: Taxes, Trust, Transparency: Deeper Context\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n
Finally, I want to share something that was said recently in a small meeting that I attended.\u00a0 The speaker was an extremely successful and very wealthy tech entrepreneur:\u00a0 He said that he is confident that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is an extraordinarily good steward of its donated funds \u2014 the late Latter-day Saint historian D. Michael Quinn would have agreed with him on that point<\/a> \u2014 but that he would tithe anyway<\/em> even if the Church simply burned his donations in the temple.\u00a0 (As, in fact, the animals donated to ancient Israelite temples were<\/em> burnt.)\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because tithing is required by the Lord and because, thus, paying tithes is a matter of plain obedience.\u00a0 He would, I think, not be impressed with Jana Riess\u2019s decision to withhold her tithes from the Church and to bestow them, instead, upon charities that she herself deems worthwhile.\u00a0 I<\/em> am not.\u00a0 Such charitable activity is, no doubt, commendable.\u00a0 But not in lieu of tithing to the Lord\u2019s appointed earthly representative, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.\u00a0 Abraham gave tithes to Melchizedek, king of Salem, according to Genesis 14:18-24<\/a>, but we have no record of Abraham having ever received an accounting from Melchizedek of how those tithes were used, let alone of any filing with the Internal Revenue Service or the Securities Exchange Commission, and we have no evidence that Melchizedek didn\u2019t simply misappropriate those funds.<\/p>\n
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A mosaic in the Church of Sant\u2019 Apollinare in Clase, Ravenna, Italy, dating to the second half of the sixth century, depicting three Old Testament sacrifices. On the left is Abel with his lamb (Genesis 4:1-16). In the center, Melchizedek presides over the sacrifice of bread (Genesis 14:18-20). The two round loaves with crosses at the center and the wine (in the two-handed pitcher between the loaves) represent the mass, or (in LDS terms) the sacrament. On the right is Abraham with his son Isaac, whom he was willing to sacrifice at God\u2019s command (Genesis 22:1-14). All three sacrifices, of course, foreshadow the atoning sacrifice of Christ.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n*
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*In the confident expectation of fanning the flames of your admirably perpetual indignation, I share with you the following abominations that I\u2019ve recently retrieved from the seemingly inexhaustible Christopher Hitchens Memorial \u201cHow Religion Poisons Everything\u201d File<\/em>\u2122.\u00a0 I hope that you will experience the same gratifying shivers of delicious horror that I<\/em> did in reading through them:<\/p>\n
\u201cWith Church Support, the International African American Museum Opens in Charleston: The museum is a sacred site and includes a Center for Family History supported by FamilySearch\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n
\u201cLatter-day Saints Across Georgia Hosted FamilySearch Booths at 20 Juneteenth Events: \u2018If you are a descendant of African Americans, it\u2019s hard to find information,\u2019 says Area Seventy Elder M. Andrew Galt\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n
\u201cFirst FSY Facility in Asia Opens to Strengthen the Rising Generation\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n
\u201cLatter-day Saint Convert Committed to Serving Others Wins Miss Utah 2023:\u00a0Returned missionary Sarah Sun is the first Asian American to wear the Miss Utah crown\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n
\u201cChurch of Jesus Christ Provides Largest Volunteer Group at Special Olympic World Games 2023: Over 700 young adults volunteer through sponsored service conference at Special Olympics in Berlin\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n
\u201cLatter-day Saint Volunteers Rally to Clean up Flooding in Ecuador: More than 100 homes receive assistance\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n
\u201cThousands Attend \u2018Strengthening Families Conference\u2019 in Abuja, Nigeria: Conference sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ was broadcast throughout the world\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n
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\u00a0 \u00a0 I have said here on multiple occasions that, owing to the concerns expressed by some former donors to the Interpreter Foundation, I no longer hold any political opinions and that I\u2019m not even aware who the president is, nor when she is going to need to campaign toward earning her second (or it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":24858,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[35367,1809,7119,12032,1628,1625],"class_list":["post-100814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-billion","tag-church-of-jesus-christ-of-latter-day-saints","tag-ensign-peak","tag-ensign-peak-advisors","tag-tithe","tag-tithing"],"yoast_head":"\n"Inside the Mormon Church\u2019s Globe-Spanning Real-Estate Empire"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\" I have said here on multiple 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