Mormons make up only 1.4 percent of the U.S. population, but the church’s holdings are vast. First among its for-profit enterprises is DMC, which reaps estimated annual revenues 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 for-profit Mormon umbrella company, together with other church-run agricultural affiliates, reportedly owns roughly 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.

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-07-10/how-the-mormons-make-money



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/10/2012 07:51AM by Stumbling.

They got rich by taking food out of regular Mormon's mouths.

I thought mainstream Mormonism had abjured polygamy...

Polygamy is still an earthly bovine principle.

I might be consuming the inbred 500th generation descendant of the 56th cow wife of the Black Angus Beefcake version of Brigham Young...

If you read the article closely you can see that it confirms:
General Authorities are paid clergy.
Tithing funds get syphoned into commercial business when needed.
Unpaid volunteers (Missionaries) serve for free in some of the commercial businesses.
Most of the worldwide donations are 'spent' in America.

"but a recent investigation by Reuters in collaboration with sociology professor Cragun estimates that the LDS Church is likely worth $40 billion today and collects up to $8 billion in tithing each year."

It references an investigation by Reuters. Hmm...

This older article from Nebraska shows that Mormon money making can hurt the regular people.
http://www.journalstar.com/news/state-and-regional/article_5de7826d-51cb-5b5a-a166-d2b3d38fd1cc.html

"Although its management structure may resemble a private corporation, the church's nonprofit status earns it an exemption from the state ban on corporate farming/ranching."

"Still, the consolidation of such large tracts of land by a single entity should cause concern, said John Hansen, president of the Nebraska Farmers Union. The law seeks to protect the state's interest in having a diversity of resident landowners who live on and work their properties."

"It's hard for local folks to outbid an outside investor who has unlimited money," Hansen said.

This LDS statement reveals how large the LDS owned agriculture industry is. "We run cattle ranches. We are the largest cow-calf operator in the nation."

Topping.

This is probably the most comprehensive article I've seen about the church's financial holdings. And because it's well-written and balanced, it's going to have a major impact on LOTS of people, both in and out of the church.

If I had read this during my TBM days, I would've flipped the hell out.

I just read the story and commented. Sadly, LDS members will be passive aggressive. Members can be made at the publication but arent allowed to criticize church leaders, even when those leaders are wrong.

Church members deserve to know how their donations are used.

Did my part. Shared this on Facebook in three different spots. People will just claim I am attacking them of course..

"When it came time to cut the mall’s flouncy pink ribbon, Monson, flanked by Utah dignitaries, cheered, “One, two, three—let’s go shopping!”

Yeah, Prophet of Gawd my ass.

MormonJesus no longer wants us as sunbeams. Only as consumers. He takes MC, Visa, Discover and AmEx whether you're buying fire insurance (tithing) or that Tiffany ring.

Hmmmmm.....to share, or not to share? I'm sort of an active, non-believing fringe member. I'm pretty sure that if I post this article on Facebook that everyone will turn on me, but I feel its an extremely important read.

I think this is the money quote: “We look to not only the spiritual but also the temporal, and we believe that a person who is impoverished temporally cannot blossom spiritually.”

OMG - yet they have no problem handicapping the individual's ability to avoid temporal impoverishment. What does this say about the church's true intentions regarding the spirituality of their members?

Strykary Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I think this is the money quote: “We look to not
> only the spiritual but also the temporal, and we
> believe that a person who is impoverished
> temporally cannot blossom spiritually.”


Do they think Jesus was loaded? Wasn't Joseph Smith poor?

Yup, I was about to quote this bit until I saw it had already been quoted.

Is this new Mormon doctrine that I am unaware of? Were the poor people of the Old and New Testament not blossoming spiritually? Jesus anybody?

Or is being wealthy now a key to Mormon salvation?

Thanks for the link. This is unconscionable. They can spend tithing money to build a mall, but local wards have to scrounge to be able to afford activities for their members?

In the 19th century they did the same thing.......and PO'd the locals big time.....

Sooooo...

I DON'T get my free set of steak knives??


'Da fuck??

Did anyone else catch this paragraph?

"He [Keith McMullin, the CEO of Deseret Management Co] says DMC has about '2,000 to 3,000 employees.' He also confirms the Hoover’s estimate that DMC has annual revenues of roughly $1.2 billion, but a church spokesman later writes to say that McMullin retracted his estimate, claiming that $1.2 billion is 'vastly overstated.' He did not offer a new one."

So the CEO confirms annual revenues of $1.2 billion, then later the PR persons gives the standard church line of "vastly overstated".

You'd think the CEO would know how much revenue his company was making? Strange.

My sister was complaining about a church dinner they asked her to be in charge of. They gave her $1 per person to spend.

I e-mailed her this article. I told her I thought maybe she should pass it on to her bishop. Obviously the church can afford at least $2 per person.

Isn't it wonderful?

1. The article confirms all General Authorities receive a salary.
2. The article confirms that when Church businesses struggle for cash flow they can go to the Prophet and get extra cash. If that cash doesn't come from tithing then it comes from the proceeds of tithing.
3. The article confirms that $5 billion is being spent on the City Creek project. City Creek is in America (is it not?). That's FIVE BILLION DOLLARS (4 times the total amount of humanitarian expenditure for the last 25 years) on one project. Then there's the PCC, the hunting reserves, the ranches etc etc all in the US of A.
4. The article confirms that the City Creek project is about urban renewal and not about making a profit. In fact the spokesperson is quoted as saying nobody would entertain the project on a commercial basis.
5. The spokesperson stated that the business's utilised 1400 non paid volunteers (Missionaries). Admittedly, after Church PR vetted the article they got him to issue a retraction to say not all the 1400 were unpaid.

In our Stake members are required to clean the Chapel including the toilets after the janitors were laid off by the Church.
In our Stake the Church does not have funds for social activities and things like EFY. Members have to fund these things in addition to their donations.
In our Stake gardening on Church grounds is done by unpaid volunteers from each ward.
In our Stake members are requested to get involved in indexing records as unpaid volunteers.
In our Stake members are periodically press ganged into volunteering unpaid at Church farming enterprises.

But at least Salt Lake City has somewhere upmarket for people to shop.
As Monson stated at the grand opening..."one, two, three...LET'S GO SHOPPING!"

It's disgusting.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/10/2012 03:53PM by Stumbling.

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