To Get Gain

Modern Mormonism teaches that salvation comes in and through the temple ordinances (see “Temples”). Because of this, all aspects of the church point to the temple. Financial aspects of the church are no different. Because temples are taught as necessary to salvation, and because temples cost so much to build, it is understandable that the church puts so much emphasis on the acquisition of money.

Of course, the temple model for salvation does not require the army of professionals employed by the church, nor the smaller contingent of paid ministers employed by the church (CES, General Authorities, and mission presidents). Oddly, the annual combined cost of all church employees easily exceeds the cost to build and maintain temples. To labor for money in the name of building Zion is explicitly identified by Nephi as priestcraft: “the laborer in Zion shall labor for Zion; for if they labor for money they shall perish” (2 Ne. 26:31).

Nephi prophesied that “the Gentiles” would do exactly these things. Though modern Mormons comfortably shrug off this prophecy to the Catholics, it is unquestionable that the church’s actions fit the bill.

And the Gentiles are lifted up in the pride of their eyes, and have stumbled, because of the greatness of their stumbling block, that they have built up many churches; nevertheless, they put down the power and miracles of God, and preach up unto themselves their own wisdom and their own learning, that they may get gain and grind upon the face of the poor. (2 Nephi 26:20.)

Has the church built many churches? The church breaks ground on one chapel per day. Have the leaders put down the power and miracles of God?

They have preached consistently that revelation is just your feelings,¹ that only the unrighteous seek spiritual manifestations,² that spiritual gifts are often from the devil,³ and that, contrary to God’s word on the subject, one should not actually seek the face of Jesus in this life.⁴

Have the leaders “preached up unto themselves their own wisdom and their own learning?” They have truly set themselves up as the light of the world, proclaiming that revelation can’t be from God if it disagrees with them,⁵ that we should trust in them for salvation,⁶ that their opinions should be accepted as God’s word,⁷ and that a man’s allegiance to Christ is measured by his allegiance to them.⁸

But have these teachings been demonstrably for the purpose of getting gain at the expense of the poor? If a poor man can obtain salvation directly from Christ, he does not need to worry about selling his house or working away from his family for years in order to obtain salvific ordinances from the church while the rich can obtain it without any such sacrifice.⁹ If a poor man can obtain salvation directly from Christ, he doesn’t have to go without food, medicine, or shelter to pay 10% of his already insufficient income to the church in order to finance ornate temples¹⁰ and luxury living standards for church employees. Turning the people away from Christ and towards themselves in order to maintain their dependence upon them is a literal fulfillment of 2Nephi 26:20, and it is particularly harmful to the poor, whose sacrifices to maintain membership in the system must far exceed that of the rich.

Therefore, there is no doubt that the following lament lays squarely upon the leaders of modern Mormonism as much as any other group:

O ye wicked and perverse and stiffnecked people, why have ye built up churches unto yourselves to get gain? Why have ye transfigured the holy word of God, that ye might bring damnation upon your souls? Behold, look ye unto the revelations of God; for behold, the time cometh at that day when all these things must be fulfilled. (Mormon 8:33.)

The change of tithing from a one-time consecration with 10% of annual surplus thereafter to 10% of annual income with no consecration of surplus was a change made by fiat with the intent to bring in more money.¹¹ Because God gave no revelation to change his standing law forever (D&C 119), this was and is a transfiguration of the holy word of God.

Changes to align church policy more closely to God’s revealed word would not need to be drastic (though many church employees would lose high paying jobs). For example, the church is already buying massive tracts of farmland. Would it be that much of a change to buy it in the developing world instead of the United States, and give poor members the opportunity to farm their own food? Simply by moving these land holdings to the developing world, the church could save millions of church members from poverty.

Other, more drastic changes, would be needed to bring about complete compliance with God’s word. He doesn’t provide a mechanism for priestcraft or for a for-profit church. He doesn’t provide for a way to have both rich and poor members.

And it is my purpose to provide for my saints, for all things are mine. But it must needs be done in mine own way; and behold this is the way that I, the Lord, have decreed to provide for my saints, that the poor shall be exalted, in that the rich are made low. For the earth is full, and there is enough and to spare; yea, I prepared all things, and have given unto the children of men to be agents unto themselves. Therefore, if any man shall take of the abundance which I have made, and impart not his portion, according to the law of my gospel, unto the poor and the needy, he shall, with the wicked, lift up his eyes in hell, being in torment. (D&C 104:15-18.)

He did not say, “my way is that the rich remain rich and the poor remain poor.” The way he has appointed is that the money flow from the rich to the poor. If this is true of individuals, should it not be true of the church itself? Does God approve of a rich church whose members are still poor?

In the end, it is abundantly clear that the model of the church is that salvation comes in and through temples and the paid personnel of the church, and therefore the objective of the church is to gain as much money as possible in order to finance the temple-church employee complex because, under this model, the more money gained, the more souls can be saved. As a result, the poor are disproportionately deprived of welfare that would otherwise be their due under the gospel, and also disproportionately deprived of the little they have as a result of priestcraft. While the church decides against proselyting activities that will only add poor members to the church, such as baptizing thousands of Africans who have petitioned for missionaries,¹² the church infrastructure is filled with entities whose sole purpose is to get gain.

First among its for-profit enterprises is DMC, which reaps estimated annual revenue of $1.2 billion from six subsidiaries, according to the business information and analysis firm Hoover’s Company Records (DNB). Those subsidiaries run a newspaper, 11 radio stations, a TV station, a publishing and distribution company, a digital media company, a hospitality business, and an insurance business with assets worth $3.3 billion. AgReserves, another forprofit Mormon umbrella company, together with other church-run agricultural affiliates, reportedly owns about 1 million acres in the continental U.S., on which the church has farms, hunting preserves, orchards, and ranches. These include the $1 billion, 290,000-acre Deseret Ranches in Florida, which, in addition to keeping 44,000 cows and 1,300 bulls, also has citrus, sod, and timber operations. Outside the U.S., AgReserves operates in Britain, Canada, Australia, Mexico, Argentina, and Brazil. Its Australian property, valued at $61 million in 1997, has estimated annual sales of $276 million, according to Dun & Bradstreet. The church also runs several for-profit real estate arms that own, develop, and manage malls, parking lots, office parks, residential buildings, and more. Hawaii Reserves, for example, owns or manages more than 7,000 acres on Oahu, where it maintains commercial and residential buildings, parks, water and sewage infrastructure, and two cemeteries. Utah Property Management Associates, a real estate arm of the church, manages portions of City Creek Center. According to Spencer P. Eccles from the Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Development, the mall cost the church an estimated $2 billion. It is only one part of a $5 billion church-funded revamping of downtown Salt Lake City, according to the Mormon-owned news site KSL. (http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2012-0710/how-the-mormons-make-money.)

The article goes on to list Ensign Peak Advisors, a multi-billion dollar hedge fund whose sole purpose is to invest money for the church. Since this article was published, the church has accelerated the acquisition of real estate holdings, including the construction of a luxury apartment complex on the site of the new Philadelphia temple.

In the end, the following criticism from Moroni seems to fit well:

For behold, ye do love money, and your substance, and your fine apparel, and the adorning of your churches, more than ye love the poor and the needy, the sick and the afflicted....Yea, why do ye build up your secret abominations to get gain, and cause that widows should mourn before the Lord, and also orphans to mourn before the Lord, and also the blood of their fathers and their husbands to cry unto the Lord from the ground, for vengeance upon your heads? Behold, the sword of vengeance hangeth over you; and the time soon cometh that he avengeth the blood of the saints upon you, for he will not suffer their cries any longer. (Mormon 8:36-41.)