Glass Box Podcast

Now displaying: December, 2019

Ep 36 - Mormon Money pt.3; Russell Nelson, $124 Billion Goldmember at World’s End 0

Dec 24, 2019

$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.

Check out our all-new merch store!

glassboxpodcast.com/shop

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/

https://www.kitv.com/story/38903471/activist-says-mormon-church-should-pay-taxes-on-polynesian-cultural-center

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

https://archive.org/stream/HowTheMormonsMakeMoney/How%20the%20Mormons%20Make%20Money-%20Bloomberg%207-18-12_djvu.txt

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
Find us on Facebook and Twitter @Glass Box Podcast

Download this Episode

Ep 35 - Mormon Money pt.2; The $100 Billion Empire Reichs Back (1930-1980) 0

Dec 17, 2019

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

Eldon Tanner
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathan_Eldon_Tanner

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
Find us on Facebook and Twitter @Glass Box Podcast

Download this Episode

Ep 34 - Mormon Money pt.1; In the Beginning (1830-1930) 0

Dec 11, 2019

We finally broach a subject that’s taken the back-burner for far too long. Mormon money is one of the most complicated subjects associated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and we decided it requires a multi-part series to understand with some level of depth and context. Join us for part one where we start at the beginning with Joseph Smith, get into Brigham Young and the Mormon exodus to Utah in 1847, and tie together financial strands all the way into the Great Depression. Some topics of discussion: Joseph Smith as an entrepreneur, Brigham Young as a theocrat and tyrant, polygamy and the first manifesto under President Wilford Woodruff, complicated finances with intermingling the prophet’s personal with the church’s corporate assets, Joseph F. Smith and the church in near-bankruptcy he inherited in 1901, Franklin S. Richards and his rehabilitation program, the Corporation of the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (COP), The Corporation of the Presiding Bishop of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (CPB), and the trajectory upon which the church was set going into the Great Depression.

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

Kirtland Safety Society
https://rsc.byu.edu/archived/byu-religious-education-student-symposium-2012/kirtland-safety-society-and-its-effect-faith

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/history/topics/kirtland-safety-society?lang=eng

Nauvoo Charter
https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/topic/nauvoo-charter

Sunstone and Presentation “Joseph Smith, the Entrepreneur”
https://www.sunstonemagazine.com/joseph-smith-the-entrepreneur/
https://www.sunstonemagazine.com

Edmunds Act

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmunds_Act

Wilhelm Von Wymetal 1886 expose
https://archive.org/details/josephsmithproph01wyme/page/276

Late Corp of LDS v. U.S.

https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/136/1

Ann Eliza Webb Young Wife No. 19
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Eliza_Young