How the Mormons Make Money

[NNN0LHI]

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

By Caroline Winter on July 18, 2012

Late last March the Mormon Church completed an ambitious project: a megamall. Built for roughly $2 billion, the City Creek Center stands directly across the street from the church’s iconic neo-Gothic temple in Salt Lake City. The mall includes a retractable glass roof, 5,000 underground parking spots, and nearly 100 stores and restaurants, ranging from Tiffany’s (TIF) to Forever 21. Walkways link the open-air emporium with the church’s perfectly manicured headquarters on Temple Square. Macy’s (M) is a stone’s throw from the offices of the church’s president, Thomas S. Monson, whom Mormons believe to be a living prophet.

On the morning of its grand opening, thousands of shoppers thronged downtown Salt Lake, eager to elbow their way into the stores. The national anthem played, and Henry B. Eyring, one of Monson’s top counselors, told the crowds, “Everything that we see around us is evidence of the long-standing commitment of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to Salt Lake City.” 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!”

Watching a religious leader celebrate a mall may seem surreal, but City Creek reflects the spirit of enterprise that animates modern-day Mormonism. The mall is part of a sprawling church-owned corporate empire that the Mormon leadership says is helping spread its message, increasing economic self-reliance, and building the Kingdom of God on earth. “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints attends to the total needs of its members,” says Keith B. McMullin, who for 37 years served within the Mormon leadership and now heads a church-owned holding company, Deseret Management Corp. (DMC), an umbrella organization for many of the church’s for-profit businesses. “We look to not only the spiritual but also the temporal, and we believe that a person who is impoverished temporally cannot blossom spiritually.” snip

It’s perhaps unsurprising that Mormonism, an indigenous American religion, would also adopt the country’s secular faith in money. What is remarkable is how varied the church’s business interests are and that so little is known about its financial interests. Although a former Mormon bishop is about to receive the Republican Party’s presidential nomination, and despite a recent public-relations campaign aimed at combating the perception that it is “secretive,” the LDS Church remains tight-lipped about its holdings. It offers little financial transparency even to its members, who are required to tithe 10 percent of their income to gain access to Mormon temples.

[JoePhilly]

1. My sense is that the Mormon church may simply be a money laundering operation.

And money flows freely between the church part, and the business holdings.

The church helps create a business, the business "donates" money back to the church (getting a tax break for doing so), and then they church invests the money in the next business.

And I would not be surprised to learn that the church, or its businesses, donates heavily to GOP SuperPacs.

[lolly]

4. Yep

That sounds about right.

And no taxes ever paid on any of this.

[barbtries]

2. i live and work in NC

the business park where i work is owned by the LDS church.

[jillan]

3. Here's more info - I have worked with soooo many Mormons, & was always amazed how much $$$

They also mostly go to other Mormon's for services.

If you are a plumber, and you are Mormon - bingo - everyone in your branch of the church will contact you when they need a plumber.
Dentist? Doctor? Real Estate Agent? Accountant? It doesn't matter.... you have a customer base built right in. Plus, in the instance of my daughter's dentist, he is a Mormon, but I still take her to him she has special needs and he is amazing with her. So, besides having a booming business from his fellow followers, he also has business from everyone else as well.

Can you imagine how wonderful it would be to start your own business and have customers immediately coming to see you for the low cost of putting your info in the Church newsletter??? Pretty sweet.

[HeiressofBickworth]

5. BBBBBuuuttttttt

I thought the meme of the day was that all businesses make it entirely on their own. Not by subsidies and guaranteed client lists from anyone, like for example, a church.

[jillan]

6. And how dare President Obama say that somewhere along the line all successful people got help.

And he was mostly referring to teachers and infrastructure!

[Harry Back]

14. They REALLY take care of their own

I had a friend a number of years back who was Catholic and lived for a while in Northern Arizona. He was an Air Force vet and had qualifications to be in law enforcement. He told me he was trying to get on in a sheriffs department there... to make a long story short, the sheriff and the department were all Mormons and they were bound and determined to keep it that way, and did. He said Mormons can't stand Catholics, and swore that is why he never had a shot at the position. He said that whole town was mostly Mormon and if you were anything else, but especially Catholic, you were looked at like dirt.

[Peregrine]

7. Ancestry.com

Is owned by the mormon church. They have bought up much of the records needed to track your ancestry.

[LiberalEsto]

8. And they have bought the Social Security Death Index

As of this year, you can no longer go to the Death Index to look up when your Aunt Joan died, etc. You have to pay $$$ to join Ancestry to look up data that is compiled with our tax dollars. This is totally fucked up.

[dragonlady]

9. No, there is still a free source (from the Mormons!)

Here is the link to look up deaths in the SSDI on the Mormon Family History site (absolutely free):
https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/show#uri=http://www.familysearch.org/searchapi/search/collection/1202535

Familysearch.org is the most valuable free genealogy source around (I say this based on decades of happy genealogy research).

Ancestry, on the other hand, has also bought the death file from Social Security but does make it part of the collection you must pay for.

[shcrane71]

13. I think it's about $3K, but you can buy the Social Security Death Index database too.

[RobertEarl]

10. Mormoney

Its all about getting more and more money.

George W Romney's religion is more money. Mormony.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

11. I take it there are few Mormon ascetics who take a vow of poverty

[SoCalDem]

12. Because they are a closed society, and can count on at least 10%

of all their members..

They have tax-protection for their money.

[jillan]

15. I will say something positive about that. One women I worked with didn't have much financially.

She worked part time, had 3 kids, lived in a small trailer and her husband was in construction. When she became pregnant again, she did not have health insurance. They took care of the doctor visits and the delivery for her.
That was impressive. A definite benefit for those in their closed society.