Ensign Peak $100 Billion

There were a couple of articles printed in the US press, I have included a link for the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal they are concerned with the church’s possible misuse of tax exemptions. However, the real story for LDS members is why does the church have so much money and what is it being used for?

Tithing

Quoting the Post, “The church typically collects about $7 billion each year in contributions from members, according to the complaint. Mormons, like members of some other faith groups, are asked to contribute 10 percent of their income to the church, a practice known as tithing. While about $6 billion of that income is used to cover annual operating costs, the remaining $1 billion or so is transferred to Ensign, which plows some into an investment portfolio to generate returns, according to the complaint.”

Church Assets

Clearly the church has current assets in excess of $100 billion, that figure would increase by including fixed assets of church buildings, land, etc, then there the farms and other acreages it owns, plus its real estate portfolio and business ownership not managed by Ensign Peak.

Investments can be accessed in times of hardship or to meet the emerging needs of a growing, global faith in its mission to preach the gospel to all nations and prepare for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ (see Gérald Caussé, “In the Lord’s Way: The Spiritual Foundations of Church Financial Self-Reliance,” Church Newsroom, Mar. 2, 2018

Second Coming Fund

As an uniformed financial observer, wouldn’t the value of stocks, shares, bonds, etc possibly take a dive if dramatic events materialise whilst heralding the reign of Jesus’s millennium?

How much humanitarian aid does the church give ?

The annual report of the Church in April 2021 stated

Interestingly, the 2020 report contained no such comparative five months after the newspaper’s whistleblowing revelations on the church’s wealth.

Interestingly, the 2021 figure includes valuations on amounts given to support LDS members.

Interestingly, the actual value of money donated since Ensign Peak revelations has likely risen exponentially, I have not been able to tie down reliable sources or figures, as the church is closed about it’s finances. But, as a proportion of it’s liquid wealth, most commentators believe that only a very small amount proportionately was ever given previously.

Concluding Questions

Has the church increased its level of generosity in respect of humanitarian aid since the Ensign Peak disclosure?

Was amassing wealth for the future aligned with Jesus’s view of the coming of God’s kingdom?

Could I make a suggestion, if it is not too irreverent. If Jesus is concerned with money to fund millennial projects, he should assert his right being the global freeholder and charge rent on any post apocalyptic business that is able to generate revenue.

Why are young people and their families sacrificing to fund their missions?

Why are members donating time to clean their chapels?

Why are members required to pay tithing when it is no longer necessary to support church programmes?

Why under a separate settlement, did The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints agree to pay $250 million into the fund for abuse claimants of the Boy Scouts ? Why is our tithing being used for such purposes?

Wouldn’t you have liked the opportunity to follow Jesus’s admonition to give personally to the poor? If the church stated, we don’t need your tithing anymore, how about you decide who will benefit from your ten percent.