I was reading an article on the Church News website about Nelson's trip to Chile to dedicate a temple there and noticed this statement about a devotional he held with Chilean youth:

"As part of the Church’s initiative to simplify and reduce, the event marked a shift away from the youth cultural celebrations that have been associated with temple dedications for more than a decade."

So it would appear that another "casualty" of the cutbacks is the youth cultural celebrations associated with temple dedications that I believe began during Hinckley's time.

Although these and other cutbacks are being pitched as being about simplification and refocusing of efforts, I am starting to believe what others have been saying that it has more to do with church finances than anything; that the church has seen a decline in tithing income that is leading them to cut back in order to afford the continued mass building of temples.

It makes me wonder whether

I hit post message by accident....here is what I was going to say:

It makes me wonder whether we will see other big cut backs. For example, could we see big cut backs on spending on the Church schools (the BYUs) in favour of more emphasis on the distance education program they have been pushing (BYU Pathway)?

I don't think BYU is going to be cut in a major way because it is such a status symbol. It is an experiment in modern protestant education with conservative political indoctrination. It is the shining city on the hill so to speak.

From what I've seen it's run streamline without vast empty research facilities and other massive spending wastes that other state colleges play around with. With the exception of Cougar football the money seems to be well managed.