Posted by:
elderolddog
(
)
Date: December 12, 2022 11:54AM
But it turned out not to be the case.
There was once a mormon church, which in the late 1960s, managed to devise a way to use the then-available data to predict that church membership would reach 100 million by the year 2000.
But then reality set in, and as is usually the case, reality is a real buzz-killer. Some say Henry D. Moyle was the culprit, but whatever effect he had, he wasn't alone. Part of the problem was the effect their "...this is the way we've always done it..." attitude had on the church administration. Not to mention, "ghawd will bail us out, right?"
Enter N. Eldon Tanner, Canadian Social Credit politician, fiscally-sound teacher/principal, and fingers-always-on-the-pulse businessman to save the church's financial ass via Correlation (which he didn't create but ended up being its principal guide).
Not only did he corral the fiscal profligacy then in vogue, but he replaced it with conservative 'spend a penny/save a penny' thinking that saw the birth of the 'contingency fund' that has become Ensign Peak Advisors.
Not that it matters any, but I don't think Tanner intended to change the 'character' or 'personality' of the church. Still, as in so many endeavors, people who take over for an originator (Tanner) think to themselves, "if some (of what Tanner did) is good, more is better!" They saved so much money for the church while killing its character that they created the rich (money) church/poor (personal) church situation we see today.
I'm not kidding; just before 1970, there was data available to support the dream of 100 million mormons in the world by the year 2000. Could it have happened? Who knows...
But the logic is practically unassailable that Correlation killed whatever soul the church had that we old folk like to talk about as we sit out on the porch drinking herbal tea mixed with Metamucil.
"As the years go by and we review twentieth-century Church history with additional perspective, it seems clear that N. Eldon Tanner was especially prepared in his character and life experiences to play a very significant role in bringing The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints into better organizational and financial practices. He established a foundation of fiscal development and responsibility that continues today. Significant Church projects may not have been possible without the influence and direction of President Tanner. Many Church departments and programs were deeply affected by his stellar service, and his memory continues to loom large over the Church even today."
https://rsc.byu.edu/firm-foundation/n-eldon-tanner-church-administration (short, interesting read)