I think the thing that galls me most about LDS Inc. is how they can have their sacrament and eat it too!

It is one thing to operate a religion organized or not and quite another to operate a profitable multinational corporation as a religion.

There is a very easy explanation for City Creek Mall and it is found in the heart of every believing Mormon with no problem whatsoever in having their religion spending billions on a shopping mall. It is The Parable of The Talents. Jesus wouldn't want the interest made from tithing given decades ago that he gave to his prophets to be buried inert and wasted in the living poor. Jesus needs return on his investments. He needs people to produce more with what he gave them then merely giving it to the poor with whom they have always - right?

I don't think so. And this is what bugs me so much. It is the LDS Inc.'s "sacred trust" that is more a policy driven corporate trust then a heavenly blessed "sacred" anything.

Take their teaching honesty in all things. That is their letter of their law, but what trumps law? Corporate policy. It is policies in LDS Inc. that trump everything from honest history to changing eternal principles (polygamy) to following one's priesthood policies manual instead of their heart. Let's admit that LDS Inc. can have their talents and keep Jesus' profits too!

I doubt Jesus (if he existed and told people this parable) had a love of those talent derivatives in mind when he was telling people to expand themselves in their efforts to be more productive. I doubt he wanted them to send their checks to Salt Lake City as an ROI on giving people his "Light of Christ."

It just really rubs me raw that they enure materialistic ethos with religious pathos so easily among so many people. It is like going to buy a car and paying more than you should have for a car just because the person you bought it from talked you into willing giving 10 percent more than you should have because they will be donating that you a cause you believe in. Never mind they sucked you in with this and made more profit on you than they did the people this gimmick didn't work on because it was 10 percent of what profit?

No one knows. Their policy is to keep their financials sacred.

I know TBMs can justify the mall in their own minds, but the whole thing looks wrong. Which is funny, seeing how mormonism is all about appearances without the substance.

It would be one thing if they took the earnings from their supposedly brilliant investments and then spent that on helping people who are suffering or promoting peace or education or art or giving back to the highest ideals of humanity in some way.

It might still be debatable, ethically, to handle tithing that way (I mean, then you have to trust that their investment of member's tithing money is done well, and the GAs don't seem too bright to me) but it would be different than what we have now, which looks really bad.

I mean, according to the best guesses I have seen (since finances are secret) it is a mystery where the money goes other than toward buildings, like new temples, and more LDS businesses all the time. Isn't that right?

To borrow another biblical reference, LDS temples are Golden Calves....that is what I think, anyway.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/15/2013 08:21PM by 2+2=4.

The mall smells like the work of Pharisees. 1,2,3, Tommy Monson cut the ribbon and broke wind. That accounts for the stink.

That was good even by your standards EB.

"Development of the City Creek Center began in 2003"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_Creek_Center

My disaffection and disbelief began in 2001. After September 11th I had a hard time reconciling what I believed in Mormonism and what I had going on in my life. People throwing themselves out of The World Trade Center for me caused a reflective urge to discover more about what is important in life. Big developments, big business, big ignorance suddenly seemed big evils.

A decade later this decadent monied monstrosity is in full swinging of a religion's purse strings to Biblical proportions.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/22/city-creek-mormon-mall_n_1372695.html

This City Creek screams to me against everything I ever held holy in The Church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter-day Saints.

When people are invited to volunteer for The Church and pay a million to do so...

"These volunteer workers come by invitation of President Cecil O. Samuelson. With a commitment to donate at least $1 million in a five-year period, they provide a large portion of the funding for many of BYU’s top priorities. But BYU PLC members’ contributions extend beyond money to elbow grease as they devote time, energy, and influence to address campus needs. They attend regular BYU PLC meetings, serve on college volunteer councils, and recruit friends to join the team."

...and when the vision these rich people embrace...

"BYU’s mission to meld a world-class education with the gospel and to teach character, leadership, honor, and ethics to all students."
http://magazine.byu.edu/?a=1813&act=view

...pales in comparison to the amount of money their leaders shelled out for a shopping center, I had still have to wonder if this is real.

It is.

And then it dawned on me - policy is more important than patrimony in LDS Inc. Policy and money trump all of these things - "character, leadership, honor, and ethics" and it has for most of my life in Mormonism.

Their Policy of Truth is only true when it is useful - TO THEM. it has been so since Joseph lied. City Creek is the end of that road. The Parable of The Talents only applies in Mormonism when it is useful - TO THEM.

I realized with City Creek more than anything else - my us(and RfM helps this be not just for me) was never ever and forever going to be with THEM. I were irrevocably unsealed and unendowed. They may try to invoke Jesus with their lips but with their projects they are far, far and away from Judea's plain. They are probably going to continue developing their mecca like Old Joe Smith would have done in the Midwest - line upon line, brick upon brick - with their people's donation derivatives,building up their kingdom of pretend powers backed by billions.

Ever heard the parable of the drunk, his wife, the prostitute and the beer cans?

Once there was a drunk. His wife supported him. One day she came home and found him screwing a hooker. The wife said: "Its bad enough that I have to work to support you, AND your drinking habit, while you do nothing but drink all day, but now you have spent some of my money to pay a hooker to have sex with you in my bed.

"OH NO!" said the drunk, " I did not use your money to pay for the hooker! I used my money!"

Since the drunk had no income, the wife then asked the drunk where he got the money from to pay for the hooker.

" I got the money from all of *my* beer cans that I turned in"
the drunk said.

The Holy Order need to be renamed The Holy Recycling Project.

" If you lend money to any of My people who are poor among you, you shall not be like a moneylender to him; you shall not charge him interest.
"If you ever take your neighbor's garment as a pledge, you shall return it to him before the sun goes down.
"For that is his only covering, it is his garment for his skin. What will he sleep in? And it will be that when he cries to Me, I will hear, for I am gracious. (Exodus 22:25-27)

'Take no usury or interest from him; but fear your God, that your brother may live with you.
'You shall not lend him your money for usury, nor lend him your food at a profit. (Leviticus 25:36-37)

" You shall not charge interest to your brother -- interest on money or food or anything that is lent out at interest. (Deuteronomy 23:20)

Woe is me, my mother, That you have borne me, A man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth! I have neither lent for interest, Nor have men lent to me for interest. Every one of them curses me. (Jeremiah 15:10)

If he has not oppressed anyone, But has restored to the debtor his pledge; Has robbed no one by violence, But has given his bread to the hungry And covered the naked with clothing;
If he has not exacted usury Nor taken any increase, But has withdrawn his hand from iniquity And executed true judgment between man and man;
If he has walked in My statutes And kept My judgments faithfully -- He is just; He shall surely live!" Says the Lord GOD. (Ezekiel 18:7-9)
If he has exacted usury Or taken increase -- Shall he then live? He shall not live! If he has done any of these abominations, He shall surely die; His blood shall be upon him. (Ezekiel 18:13)

Who has withdrawn his hand from the poor And not received usury or increase, But has executed My judgments And walked in My statutes -- He shall not die for the iniquity of his father; He shall surely live! (Ezekiel 18:17)

"In you they take bribes to shed blood; you take usury and increase; you have made profit from your neighbors by extortion, and have forgotten Me," says the Lord GOD. (Ezekiel 22:12)
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"A man's religion is - what he believes in, what he lives by and what he dies for." - Abdullah ibn Abbas RA