Throughout this recession I've heard different takes on this matter concerning the finances of the Church, mainly doom and gloom.

However, I'm inclined to think that the Church is doing just fine as far as money is concerned. I mean, how much can it actually cost to run the Church compared to the amount of money that the Church rakes in (even in a worst case scenario)?

If I'm not mistaking, back in the late 90s, Time magazine ran an article called "Mormon Inc.". And if I remember correctly, it mentioned that the Church then raked in approx. 6 billion dollars a year in tithing alone.

Now, of course, the economy was in greater shape then that it is now, but in case that it collects half of such number now, I would think that it's more than enough to cover the expenses and make a profit.

But who knows? Perhaps I'm wrong and in fact the Church may be struggling for some cash.

Nevertheless, I look forward to your input.

Here is the Time article
http://www.lds-mormon.com/time.shtml
A crunch? Perhaps! Yet, they keep building multi Mil temples, malls etc. Obviously, they rely more and more on volunteers and cut paid employees We just had a post how elderly missionaries are being treated. I imagine the tithe settlement will be more ridigdly enforced.
Hmm. I just saw last night a show about this mega church having filed bancrucy. Some emploees said it was a power thng gone amoc. Ah, seeking power comes back to bite every time. Clergy included, unfortunatedly! It shouldn't be that way.

You are prolly right about the cost of running a "church", Church Enemy.

But LDSInc. is so much more than a so-called church. It is a huge properties management corporation. And right now, they are holding a lot of toxic, wasting assets, the future of which is very much in doubt. Posters here on rfm claim LDSInc., like many other institutional investors and banks, are holding investments in a huge amount of fraudulent mortgage derivatives. They are quite worried about their bottom line at present, I believe.

The tithing monies are very likely being laundered into the "underperforming" for-profit businesses. And funneled into the pockets of the well-connected insiders. And they need a lot more money to shore them up.

With other businesses, they build up outgo to match their income.

We can only imagine the outgo for LDS Inc, but there are a lot of bills coming due right now for the shopping mall, the Hawaii hotel, the housing developments, the new temples, the ongoing missions costs. They pay all the salary for the employees in the COB.

They can't back out of too much of that without getting attention.

They claim not to have debt, but no one knows. They might be bailing out Zions Bank for all we can tell. We have heard rumors of big investments in bad mortgage securities.

They have cut out janitorial services for wards, closed garment distribution centers, laid off COB personnel and replaced them with volunteers. It smacks of desperation.

Businesses run out of money when the their mandated outgo is larger than the income - and their income is dropping in this economy.

Methinks there could be several possibilities as far as the actual cash position of Monson, Inc. is concerned. It's obvious they're turning the screws tighter every day, but that's been a trend for some years now, going back at least to sacking their professional custodians.

So things could be hunky-dory, business as usual.

On the other hand it's just as likely they have backed themselves into a financial corner. I'm pretty sure the fat cats on top have been looting the place six ways from Sunday, and double that on fast Sundays.

This was no big deal when times were good and the sky was the limit for spending as they pleased and keeping everyone in the loop greased and happy. Can you say 'money-laundering' that makes Mafioso capos envious? They most likely became addicted to the fast easy bucks that risky capital ventures like mortgage backed securities, financial derivatives and other exotic high-flying capers provided and it was pedal to the metal.

So now that the chickens are coming back to Zion to roost there is bound to be an ever-increasing sense of panic. When (not if, mind you) the world economy takes a huge dump, we'll see for sure.

Won't it be a hoot watching the rats jumping ship? The lower echelon rats are evidently getting tossed overboard already.

Might at least serve to cheer us up when the news from elsewhere is gloomy.

Regarding their behavior of sacking COB employees and relying on volunteers, the motives could be political (in a broad sense) rather than financial. The Big 15 are sick of watching all their secrets get leaked, and see elderly volunteers as more reliable and less likely to ask questions.

I doubt if the janitors were leaking many secrets, though.

Well, they certainly are consolidating businesses into one building...Deseret News, Beneficial Life(what's left of it), KSL all packed together now in the Triad Center. It's been quite the mess to see them move the Deseret News out of their own building and I can tell you the employees (what's left of THEM) do NOT like it. It is utter disarray. It feels like they are really trying to cut back on everything.

...has been pressing ahead with construction of its multi-million-dollar temple in Hawaii (est. cost at least $100M), plus they're still involved in the multi-billion-dollar 'Great & Spacious Mall-and-Condos' project in downtown SLC, so either they've secured debt to cover their project costs or cut back so much that they've freed up enough moola to see things through, or a combo of both. Of course, LDS sheeple won't be told anything substantive, even if tithing ends up being used.

so bean counter, is the temple you speak of the renovation project for the Laie temple? Wow, over $100,000,000! They had a major reno in '78, and minor ones have closed it since then.

Then add the costs of the new hotel, and the Campbell Estate development, that is some amazing high level commitment to expenditure for Laie.

But the answer to over-spending mormons is simple.Increase tithing "donations" to 15%. Duhhhhhh.:)

Without a financial report, we have no idea what the church finances are. We don't know the cash flow, the liabilities, and the retained earnings stashed away. Without a balance sheet and income statement, who knows.

Well, the church is still growing in Australia, and our dollar has nearly reached parity with yours. So instead of getting 80c for every aussie tithing dollar, the church is now getting 1 whole dinky-die-true-blue-yankee-dollar.

And the work goes on,

Ka-ching!!!

M.A

Unfortunately.

Actually, with all of the cost cutting moves, they have improved their financial position because they believe we haven't seen the worst of the financial mess quite yet. They are slashing overhead, but they are very profitable still with the billions pouring into the Morg each year. We're seeing them button up the hatches (ie: hoarding more cash) because the financial woes we've seen so far are just the inital gales of the financial storm coming. I'm not so much concerned about their financial survial as I am that of my own. If the Morg collapses in the coming financial crisis, great, but I just hope we all do not starve once everything collapses so that we get the chance to dance on the church's grave.

They may be taking in less now but they have so, so much built up over the years that I think they could operate just fine if no one ever paid tithing again by simply the interest on their 100B empire.