Discussions toward a better understanding of LDS doctrine, history, and culture. Discussion of Christianity, religion, and faith in general is welcome.
RubinHighlander wrote: ↑Thu May 31, 2018 9:37 am
Will it be easier for a billionaire TBM to pass through the eye of a needle than the poor divorcee with five kids paying tithing on his/her welfare check?
Loophole: The church isn't a person, it will live on as all her members come and go. Never facing death (especially when sitting on a pile of assets that large), the church never has to make an attempt to enter into the kingdom of god. Why go to heaven when you're set up that well here?
All of the money in these funds is the church's and does not include investments of others
Forgive the ignorance but what does the process of getting the church to invest your money look like? Does one fill out a tithing slip in a special way? Instead of investing in BlackRock, you invest with HatRock? I invested 10% of my gross for decades. At what age am I eligible to make withdrawals from my investment without penalty?
We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.
– Anais Nin
And, IMO, if the church has reached a position where they can survive off of dividends, interest, returns, etc. I think it's high time we redefine tithing at 10% on what's left over after all living expenses (housing, utilities, food, medical, etc.) have been paid.
Maybe the church doesn't have enough to sustain itself with $0 in additional tithing coming in, but they probably do have enough for the church to sustain itself with all of their other revenue streams and a reduced tithing stream. There's really no need to continue to grind the face of the poor, is there?
We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.
– Anais Nin
Considering their huge land holdings: Biggest cattle ranch in the US located in Florida and two more huge ranches in Montana. Plus farms all over creation, etc., etc. I figured the church was justifying their temporal wealth as preparing for a leadership position when everything goes to hell.
In our family we coined the acronym as ICOA: In case of anarchy.
So when ICOA hits the church can be prepared with their resources and shadow government (priesthood) to step into the role of hero\savior and say, "Don't you think it's time you joined us?"
Or if ICOA never comes they can be seen as wise and profitable servants. A win/win for leadership....not so much for impoverished members...
"There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily."
"Truth will ultimately prevail where there is pains to bring it to light."
At $32 Billion the amount is hard to visualize for me. The only things that I know of that are in that range are the most wealthy individuals lists, large company market values, military contract values, and University endowments.
"I would write about life. Every person would be exactly as important as any other. All facts would also be given equal weightiness. Nothing would be left out. Let others bring order to chaos. I would bring chaos to order" - Kurt Vonnegut
They only found 13 companies? So are 2 missing? That would allow each of the Q15 to provide CEO oversight to a $2B corporation (on average). Might have some nice perks too.
