2019 in review! We read through the recent Jana Riess article about the most significant Mormon headlines of 2019 and discuss some highlights. Then we make predictions for what we might expect in 2020 and also what we’d REALLY like to see in 2020 regardless of how probable they might be. Then we do our next segment of The Case for the Book of Mormon by Tad R. Callister concerning evidence for a historical Book of Mormon. We wrap up with a happy news story about a church in St. Louis paying off thousands of people’s medical debts (yes, we have those in America). We finish off the episode with a bit of listener mail resulting from our Mormon Money series.
Links:
Jana Riess: Seven top Mormon news stories from 2019
https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2019/12/31/jana-riess-seven-top/
Opening Arguments Ep 344
https://openargs.com/transcript-of-oa344-did-the-mormon-church-really-hide-100-billion-in-assets-from-the-irs-feat-bryce-blakenagel/
Mormon Land episode 114 w/ D. Michael Quinn
https://www.sltrib.com/podcasts/mormonland/
Show Links:
Website http://www.glassboxpodcast.com/index.html
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Today’s show centers around an interview with an anonymous person sharing her story of the Mormon welfare system. She’s currently undergoing a divorce and found out in court the church has been paying her estranged husband’s car and mortgage payments, over $18,000, for the past year on accounts bearing her name without her knowledge. When our interviewee attempted to find more information about the financial support for divorce and tax reasons, she was stonewalled by local leadership. She ran up the ranks to find more information only to be stonewalled by a senior attorney at Kirton-McConkie the primary law firm for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Her story is incredible and reveals a troubling aspect of the church welfare program; there are simply no checks and balances available to members when they suspect abuse or misappropriation of funds related to fast-offering funds from the Mormon Church.
Show Links:
Website http://www.glassboxpodcast.com/index.html
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$100 billion (yes… with a “B”) is a lot of money for the church to be hoarding. Unfortunately, the media coverage has been inaccurate in many regards and has missed some of the larger issues contained in the expose “Letter to an IRS Director” by Lars Neilsen. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has become so wealthy and powerful it seems to simply operate by its own set of rules. The size of Ensign Peak Advisors (EPA) is larger than the media has discussed and the alleged violations regarding its disbursements to City Creek Center and Beneficial Financial Group (totally $2 billion) could threaten its tax-exempt status. Also included in the expose is the whistleblower discussing with EPA director, Roger Clarke, “worst practices” which included “deleting receivables” and opening the way for “dark money” payouts EPA made to unknown entities. The actual portfolio by Nov 2019 is estimated to be closer to $124 billion. We discuss a bit of the media coverage and wrap up with talking about how the church should use that money, could use that money, and how we’d use that money. $124 billion is hard to conceptualize but we try our best. Please share if you learned anything worth sharing.
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Links:
Religion Unplugged $100 Billion Stockpile article
https://religionunplugged.com/news/2019/12/16/whistleblower-exposes-100-billion-stockpile-by-mormon-church
“Mormons, Inc. “Kingdom Come”” Time
http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,986794,00.html
Official church response to expose
https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/first-presidency-statement-church-finances
Deseret News Op-ed on expose
https://www.deseret.com/opinion/2019/12/17/21026103/the-washington-post-mormon-church-whistleblower-says-billions-thank-goodness
Polynesian Cultural Center
https://www.polynesia.com/packages/
Deseret Trust Company
https://www.deserettrust.com/about-us?lang=eng
Intellectual Reserve, Inc.
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5918641
Temples
https://www.businessinsider.com/fancy-mormon-temples-2014-8
Reuters 2012 Mormon Money article
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-politics-mormons/insight-mormon-church-made-wealthy-by-donations-idUSBRE87B05W20120812
Bloomberg 2012 “How the Mormons Make Money”
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2012-07-18/how-the-mormons-make-money
Quinn on Church Finances SLTrib
https://www.sltrib.com/religion/local/2017/10/14/historian-digs-into-the-hidden-world-of-mormon-finances-shows-how-church-went-from-losing-money-to-making-money-lots-of-it/
Dowry is not the Lord’s Way Deseret News Article
https://www.deseret.com/2018/4/16/20643748/dowry-is-not-the-lord-s-way-in-kenya-lds-president-nelson-says-tithing-breaks-poverty-cycle#anna-waithira-has-margaret-wanaki-on-her-back-as-she-lines-up-to-attend-a-special-devotional-with-president-russell-m-nelson-of-the-church-of-jesus-christ-of-latter-day-saints-in-nairobi-kenya-on-monday-april-16-2018
List of Temples
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_temples_of_The_Church_of_Jesus_Christ_of_Latter-day_Saints#Dedicated:_2010s
Show Links:
Website http://www.glassboxpodcast.com/index.html
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Wheeew what a doozey! We cover Mormon Money from the 1930s to the 1980s. When this much money gets involved and a church grows to have a significant international presence, money begets politics and politics feed money. Once Franklin S. Richards died another needed to carry the Mormon Money torch; here enters Henry Dinwoodey Moyle, a man with grand ideas and exponential growth intentions. He rolls out new missionary programs, local “baseball baptisms” sports leagues, carbon copy chapels, the new 28-story Church Office Building, and a litany of other aggressive expansion programs. After bankrupting many companies and chewing through untold resources, Moyle died leaving the church $32 million in debt but on a good path toward global expansion. N. Eldon Tanner, with the help of Marion Romney, takes the helm of Mormon Money and rights the sinking ship by filling leadership with more businessmen and lawyers than ever before. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints also began to gain a national political foothold with George Romney running for President and subsequently being appointed Nixon’s HUD Secretary. Gordon B. Hinckley is brought in as Tanner’s protege to take the Mormon Money colossus rampaging across the planet. Part 3 will discuss the recent revelations concerning the church’s $100 billion in holdings and Ensign Peak Advisors.
Links (there are a lot of them):
Get Quinn’s latest book in the Mormon Hierarchy series Wealth and Corporate Power
https://www.amazon.com/Mormon-Hierarchy-Wealth-Corporate-Power/dp/1560852356
Henry D. Moyle
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_D._Moyle
Mormon Corporate Structure
https://exploringmormonism.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Corporate-structure-image-400.jpg
Church finances (official)
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics/church-finances-commercial-businesses?lang=eng
Church Office Building
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_Office_Building
Consolidated Freightways
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consolidated_Freightways
Marion Romney
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marion_G._Romney
George Romney
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W._Romney#Local_church_and_civic_leadership
George Romney and MLK “marching together” fact check
https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2007/dec/28/mitt-romney/george-romney-and-mlk-marched-but-not-together/
Tax churches for $71 bn per year
https://bigthink.com/21st-century-spirituality/how-to-make-71-billion-a-year-tax-the-churches
Show links:
Website http://www.glassboxpodcast.com/index.html
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