They can't outspend the church or even come close, but I hope the "inspired leaders" realize the downside of all the negative press and bad feelings they have created.
The church does not appear to care about bad feelings anymore. They don't need people except for appearance.
You can buy anything in the world with money. The money monsters eventually mostly care about ways to make even more money. They are past needing to be nice about it, IMO.
I’m trying to make sense of your money laundering comment, and failing.
Money laundering is hiding the origin of illegally obtained money. Drug dealing, extortion, illegal gambling all require money laundering.
Tithing money is perfectly legal. Spending tithing to buy land for a temple is also perfectly legal. It’s already tax free, so there is no need to hide it to avoid taxes, though that is not what money laundering means anyway.
And you don’t launder money through a law firm. Typical ways to launder money are through casinos ( you give the casino your money under the table, and then they give it back to you, as gambling winnings. They take a cut of your money for doing you this “favor”), or through large real estate transactions, where you buy a property, you give a “purchaser” a big pile of money, and then they give it back to you by purchasing your property at a huge markup.
Bingo. You now have an explanation of how you “earned” all that money. The money has been laundered.
They could be taking a page out of the WWE playbook. Play the bad boys talking smack, then a good guy comes in to whoop their arse. One of the Q15 sets the middle managers straight and looks like a real prophet going against the evil bean counters.
TSCC could come out ahead by throwing the right person under the bus. But most likely they will double down.
The church figures no matter what they do or say will be twisted by the convoluted press so they might as well act like dicks and try to get what they want.
Just saw a headline that TSSC are getting their building permit after they threatened to sue again. So, just as everyone thought would happen, did happen.
I imagine the Lethbridge McTemple will be as tall as HQ demands. Too many Mormons among Lethbridge voters to risk offending with a civic election a year away.
Let's say for a minute that the Hare Krishna's or a muslim group wanted to build a temple in Cody. It's not a good look to oppose the building of any religious building that is sacred to the people who want to build it. It doesn't really matter how rich or how poor the religious organization is. Maybe the citizens of Cody say, why don't you go and build that temple over here, where we think it poses less of an traffic and/or congestion issue. If it gets to the point of looking like religious discrimination, well then, that's what it probably is.
Nope. The good citizens of Cody were simply asking the Mormon church to follow the zoning laws. The church wants to build the temple in a residential neighborhood. I would feel the same way.
We readers of the NT all know how Jebus loved attorneys and lawyers. The church did what Jebus would have done, i.e. call in His lawyers from Kirton McConkie. Praise God.
-We want this parcel zoned so we can build a temple. Neighborhood voiced concerns about traffic and fitting in with existing landscaping- all have walls with climbing plants/flowers.
-You don't understand our temples. They are only open several days of the week. There will be no significant increase in traffic. Our temple is closed on Sunday.
And here's what the church did.
After the land was rezoned, the church reneged and added a second building onto the original temple plot.
Now, there will traffic going to that church plot 6 days a week.
The church does not want a neighborhood wall around the site like every other zoned housing project in the neighborhood. It has a low wall and then a high black security fence protecting all of the temple and its grounds. They want their temple to be visible not hidden.
Yep, sure sounds like discrimination. The church, an organization which does not respect local ordinances and zoning laws.
I've written about this. Mormon investors (the elite Mormons) buy land and get a temple built on it. They get it rezoned with bribes and make a fortune. This wouldn't work if Mormons were not dupes dying to live next to a temple.