City Creek Center is a large, upscale shopping center in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah, that opened in 2012. It spans over 20 acres and features retail stores, restaurants, office spaces, and residential units. The development is notable for its retractable glass roof, pedestrian sky bridge, and an artificial creek running through the property, making it a distinctive urban attraction.
The development of City Creek Center was financed by the Church and its for-profit real estate arm. This led to complaints and controversy, with critics alleging that tithing money—donations made by church members—was used to fund the project. The church repeatedly denied these claims, stating that no tithing funds were used in the development and that the project was financed through the church’s commercial investments. However, the criticism persists, as many question the church’s significant financial commitment to a commercial venture rather than charitable or humanitarian efforts. Then, the whistleblower reported that tithing was used to fund the City Creek Center.
No Tithing?
The church in multiple instances and statements from multiple leaders claimed that no tithing funds were used when investing in this gentrification project across the street from Temple Square in Salt Lake City. Church President Gordon B. Hinckley stated in General Conference an assurance to the entire church that “tithing funds have not and will not be used” to acquire or develop the property.
Faith in the payment of tithes and offerings increases despite the straitened economic circumstances in which we find ourselves. We are able to go forward with the building of meetinghouses and temples, with our vast education program, with the very many activities which are conditioned upon the tithing income of the Church. I promise you that we will not put the Church in debt. We will strictly tailor the program to the tithing income and use these sacred funds for the purposes designated by the Lord.
I call attention to that which has received much notice in the local press. This is our decision to purchase the shopping mall property immediately to the south of Temple Square.
We feel we have a compelling responsibility to protect the environment of the Salt Lake Temple. The Church owns most of the ground on which this mall stands. The owners of the buildings have expressed a desire to sell. The property needs very extensive and expensive renovation. We have felt it imperative to do something to revitalize this area. But I wish to give the entire Church the assurance that tithing funds have not and will not be used to acquire this property. Nor will they be used in developing it for commercial purposes.
Funds for this have come and will come from those commercial entities owned by the Church. These resources, together with the earnings of invested reserve funds, will accommodate this program.
President Gordon B. Hinckley, as President of the Church, General Conference April 2003: The Condition of the Church
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2003/04/the-condition-of-the-church?lang=eng
Presiding Bishop H. David Burton emphasized the same when he stated in a Press Conference specifically “so there is no misunderstanding” that “none of that money comes from the tithing of faithful members.” He clarifies further that “that is not how we use tithing funds.”
So there is no misunderstanding, I emphasize that none of that money comes from the tithing of faithful members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. That is not how we use tithing funds.
Presiding Bishop H. David Burton at a press conference Wednesday, Oct. 8, in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building
Deseret News: Church plans to revitalize Salt Lake City October 18, 2003
https://www.deseret.com/2003/10/18/20783610/church-plans-to-revitalize-salt-lake-city/
The church has reiterated this in nearly every announcement and publication about the revitalization project. They state in the church-published magazine Ensign that “no tithing funds will be used in the redevelopment.”
The Church first announced three years ago it was planning to redevelop the downtown area to energize the economy of the city that houses its headquarters and to bolster the area near Temple Square. No tithing funds will be used in the redevelopment.
Church Releases Plans for Downtown Salt Lake, Ensign, December 2006
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/2006/12/news-of-the-church/church-releases-plans-for-downtown-salt-lake?lang=eng#p4
Church officials have not said how much they expect the entire development to cost, though city officials and others have estimated it could be an investment of $1 billion or more.
Money for the project is not coming from LDS Church members’ tithing donations. City Creek Center is being developed by Property Reserve Inc., the church’s real-estate development arm, and its money comes from other real-estate ventures.
Downtown renovation project, Deseret News March 27, 2007
https://www.deseret.com/2007/3/27/20009045/downtown-renovation-project/
Keith B. McMullin, Head of Deseret Management Corporation and previously the Second Counselor in the Presiding Bishopric made the blanket statement that even though they “run these like businesses,” “not one penny of tithing goes to the Church’s for-profit endeavors.” He reiterates further and specifically that “no tithing went toward City Creek Center.”
If anyone is in a position to know the ins and outs of the LDS business empire, it’s Keith McMullin. Until last April, he was second counselor in the church’s Presiding Bishopric.
“Do we go around in frocks and pray all the time? The answer is no, we run these like businesses,” McMullin said. “I have over there a set of scriptures — see those black books over there? Do I consult those scriptures every time I make a decision? The answer is no.
Many Mormons see their church’s economic success as a sign of good stewardship. At least a few said they are uneasy about the price tag of the new Mormon mall, the church’s lack of transparency and its centralized finances.
“The money may be perfectly administered, for all we know,” said Ron Madson, 57, a lawyer and lifelong Mormon. “When we see these expenses for the City Creek mall, for the hunting preserves, these commercial enterprises … we don’t know where it’s going.”
McMullin said not one penny of tithing goes to the church’s for-profit endeavors. Specifically, the church has said no tithing went toward City Creek Center.
Daymon M. Smith, a Mormon anthropologist, pointed out that new tithing slips read, “Though reasonable efforts will be made globally to use donations as designated, all donations become the church’s property and will be used at the church’s sole discretion to further the church’s overall mission.”
How the Mormons Make Money, How the Mormon Church Makes Its Billions | Bloomberg Businessweek | July 18, 2017
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2012-07-18/how-the-mormons-make-money
https://archive.org/details/HowTheMormonsMakeMoney/How%20the%20Mormons%20Make%20Money-%20Bloomberg%207-18-12/
https://archive.sltrib.com/article.php?id=54478720&itype=CMSID
Since then, reports show that they did use tithing funds, but the church distinguishes it as only interest from invested surplus tithing. The church believes this is a valid if technical distinction, but critics feel this was an intentionally misleading claim. The redevelopment continued and opened to the public in 2012. Church leadership by this time had changed hands, but at the opening, the whole First Presidency was in attendance as well as the Presiding Bishopric. They were all involved in cutting the ribbon and shouting “Let’s Go Shopping!”
Let’s Go Shopping!
Church President Thomas S. Monson and the whole First Presidency were present for the ribbon cutting and grand opening with the cheer, “Let’s Go Shopping”.
The First Presidency participated in the March 22 ceremonial ribbon cutting at City Creek Center. President Thomas S. Monson and his two counselors, President Henry B. Eyring and President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, also greeted and shook hands with several shoppers anxious to look about and enjoy the bustling shopping center with its various outdoor features and wide-range selection of shops and stores.
First Presidency attends City Creek opening, 22 March 2012, The Church News
https://www.thechurchnews.com/2012/3/22/23225774/first-presidency-attends-city-creek-opening/
https://www.reddit.com/r/exmormon/comments/1d7529n/lets_go_shopping_citycreekcenter/
“We’re so pleased to join with the Taubman Company in inviting the world to come to downtown Salt Lake City,” announced President Henry B. Eyring, first counselor in the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon). President Eyring spoke during the ribbon-cutting ceremony officially opening City Creek Center. He talked about the “beautifully landscaped walkways and gathering places, innovative and yet timeless architecture, cascading waterfalls, choreographed fountains and meandering creek.”
Church President Thomas S. Monson, second counselor President Dieter F. Uchtdorf and the Presiding Bishopric were also in attendance.
President Eyring said, “Everything we see around us is evidence of the longstanding commitment of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to Salt Lake City. The Church’s unwavering commitment to this community is enduringly expressed in the resources provided to renew and revitalize here in the heart of the city.”
City Creek Center Opens, March 22, 2012, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Newsroom
https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/city-creek-center-an-economic-revitalization
Church and City leaders praise new shopping center
Speaking on behalf of the church, President Henry B. Eyring, First Counselor in the First Presidency of the LDS Church, said City Creek is now open to invite the world to come to downtown Salt Lake City.
“Everything that we see around us is evidence of the long-standing commitment of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to Salt Lake City,” he said. “Downtown, thanks to so many, is indeed rising.”
City Creek Center opens amid fanfare and long lines March 22, 2012 | KSL News
https://www.ksl.com/article/19685852/city-creek-center-opens-amid-fanfare-and-long-lines
SLC marks triumphant opening of City Creek Center March 22, 2012 | Deseret News
https://www.deseret.com/2012/3/22/20402356/slc-marks-triumphant-opening-of-city-creek-center/
It’s ironic that just a year before opening City Creek Center, President Thomas S. Monson spoke during General Conference and quoted Lord Jonathan Sacks, Britain’s Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth, lamenting on the decay of society and the reckless abandon we spend our financial capital and the culture of “buy it, spend it, wear it, flaunt it.”
We have been spending our moral capital with the same reckless abandon that we have been spending our financial capital. … There are large parts of [the world] where religion is a thing of the past and there is no counter-voice to the culture of buy it, spend it, wear it, flaunt it, because you’re worth it.
President Thomas S. Monson, Stand in Holy Places, General Conference, October 2011
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2011/10/stand-in-holy-places
But Funds Earned From Tithing
Is interest earned from invested tithing that different from tithing? Interest on tithing money is still tithing money. Maybe in the letter of the law, but not the spirit of the law. Then church will take the widows’ mites—their tithes—and claim they are such sacred funds that they have members clean the chapels themselves and direct those in need to seek family help first. Meanwhile, the church accumulates large reserves of funds they label as “excess tithing,” and invests it all in the stock market to grow. Once the interest accrues, they want to use the dividends to build vast business ventures with no accountability or transparency. This is as bad as money laundering. The Church’s position is essentially, “We invest tithing and make a ton of interest. The tithing is yours, but the interest is ours. Your tithing didn’t build the mall, but our interest earnings did.” While technically true, God, truth, and honesty don’t hide behind technicalities–That’s more Satan’s shtick.
Is this the role of a church president and self-proclaimed prophet of God? Is this the message the Mormon god gives his people? Hide truth, display no financial transparency, focus on business investments, and be a good consumer by going shopping? What about using charitable donations for charitable purposes like feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, nursing the sick, and bettering the world in general? They are more focused on real estate investments and growing the portfolio.
This commercial development came when the downtown Salt Lake City real estate values were sinking in the area of the church headquarters. This project, along with the giant conference center lifted these prices and helped the church become more wealthy.
Some Mormons — and plenty of others — were appalled to witness their church build a $1.5 billion mall in downtown Salt Lake City and hear their prophet proclaim, “Let’s go shopping.”
Isn’t religion, they argued, supposed to be about feeding the hungry and clothing the poor? How is selling Tiffany jewelry, Nordstrom cocktail dresses and luxury condos any part of a Christian faith?
There is a difference between production and consumption of wealth, [Jana] Riess says. Generating goods to build an economic reservoir for the future care of the church and its members is a good thing. For her, though, the Main Street venture tipped the scales from preaching frugality to promoting luxury shopping. In that mall, there is a store named True Religion that sells jeans for more than $200. The irony, she says, “is palpable.”
Historian digs into the hidden world of Mormon finances, shows how church went from losing money to making money — lots of it By Peggy Fletcher Stack, Oct. 14, 2017. The Salt Lake Tribune
https://www.sltrib.com/religion/local/2017/10/14/historian-digs-into-the-hidden-world-of-mormon-finances-shows-how-church-went-from-losing-money-to-making-money-lots-of-it/
Even apologist site FAIR acknowledges that the earnings on invested funds (which originated from tithing) were used to finance the development project. Separating seed money (tithing) from investment money and dividends on this money is a highly technical distinction and at best a white lie.
However, financial documents have shown that only earnings on invested funds, not the original funds themselves, were used to finance the development project.
FAIR, City Creek Center in Salt Lake City: Did the Church use tithing funds to finance the purchases and buildings?
https://www.fairlatterdaysaints.org/answers/City_Creek_Center_in_Salt_Lake_City
Donated Funds vs Earnings on Invested Donations
David Nielson states in his whistleblowing complaint to the IRS that church leadership has misled members about spending tithing. Two judges on the appellate court gave weight to declarations given under oath by David Neilsen in which he says that employees at Ensign Peak referred to tithing principal and earnings on tithing principal as the same thing.
Nielsen’s complaint further alleges that between 2009 and 2014, Ensign pumped $1.4 billion in several installments into the City Creek Center, a shopping mall in downtown Salt Lake City featuring a retractable roof. The mall, partly owned by the church, had also been hit by the financial crisis.
Amid complaints from members about the church venturing into retail, church leaders have repeatedly made assurances over several years that no money from tithes would be spent on developing the mall, a joint venture with the Taubman real estate group.
“I wish to give the entire church the assurance that tithing funds have not and will not be used to acquire this property. Nor will they be used in developing it for commercial purposes,” Hinckley said when plans for the mall were unveiled in 2003.
Hackney, the University of Pittsburgh tax law expert, said the payments would raise red flags if they were indeed made to for-profit entities that were separate from Ensign and not recorded as investments.
While the church may argue Ensign contributes to a broader religious and charitable mission, as a separate corporate entity, it must show that “it furthers a charitable purpose exclusively on its own,” Hackney said.
“Once that money comes in, it’s gotta go back out,” he said. “They have to come up with a justification based on the entity alone. Looking at the other organizations shouldn’t be a means of justifying hoarding.”
IRS rules state that nonprofits “must not provide a substantial benefit to private interests” and that the earnings of registered religious organizations must not benefit “any private individual or shareholder” to avoid jeopardizing tax-exempt status.
Mormon Church has misled members on $100 billion tax-exempt investment fund, whistleblower alleges, December 17, 2019 | Washington Post
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/mormon-church-has-misled-members-on-100-billion-tax-exempt-investment-fund-whistleblower-alleges/2019/12/16/e3619bd2-2004-11ea-86f3-3b5019d451db_story.html
But really though? What about gains from invested tithing—wasn’t there a lawsuit or a whistleblower report about that?
Though tithing wasn’t used, returns from invested tithing were used to develop City Creek.
A whistleblower’s report from former Ensign Peak Advisors employee David Nielsen claimed tithing was spent on City Creek.
The report was prepared by brothers David and Lars Nielsen and filed to the IRS in November 2019. In the report were the following claims:
- “EPA paid $1.4 billion exclusively using tithing dollars on a for-profit mall.”
- “It is true that PRI did finance some of the City Creek Mall, but most of the financing came from EPA using exclusively never-invested tithing dollars ($1.4 billion).”
Are gains from invested tithing sacred? Should that money be used on a mall?
Maybe. Court documents show that Ensign Peak Advisors employees consider the funds they manage to be sacred, even if used for a project like City Creek.
In a sworn declaration in a California district court, David Nielsen said EPA leadership and employees referred to EPA funds as “tithing” and “every penny was the ‘widow’s mite.'”
In a motion submitted to that same court, Church lawyers explained that calling “those funds ‘tithing’ and the ‘widow’s mite’ is a way of expressing the sacred stewardship felt by those administering these funds.” Those lawyers also said that all Church funds—both principal and earned, invested in stocks or in City Creek—are “sacred because they are used or invested with the ultimate purpose of building the Kingdom of God.”
Judge Wilson dismissed Nielsen’s claim that EPA called all their funds tithing, saying that “regardless of the nomenclature used by EPA employees” there was still a distinction between invested tithing and tithing itself.
The City Creek Mall | Mormonr
https://mormonr.org/qnas/NnxpG/the_city_creek_mall
Does the church’s corporate use of tithing funds bother you? Were the leaders honest in their narrative that tithing funds were not used for the development of the City Creek Center shopping mall? Do you think there’s a tangible difference between tithing funds from members and the interest and dividends the church receives when investing this tithing? Share your thoughts in the comments or consider sharing your whole Mormon faith crisis or faith deconstruction story at wasmormon.org.
More reading:
- Where Does Mormon Tithing Go? Read the Fine Print
- Will the Church Ever Have Sufficient To Stop Requiring Tithing?
- Mormon Church Ripping off Millions of Dollars from Australia
- The Mormon-Canadian-BYU Billion Dollar Tithing Funnel
- Utah Heathens Contribute More than the LDS Church Worldwide
- Stop Paying Tithing and Challenge the Tax Exemption Status of the Mormon Church
- Mixing Tithing Funds and Investments Maybe Legal But Doesn’t Mean It’s Right
- The Tithing … Ellipsis
- Development of Mormon Tithing – From Meager Origins to Ensign Peak Billions
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_Creek_Center
- https://www.reddit.com/r/exmormon/comments/l77fkw/the_story_of_the_city_creek_shopping_mall_the/
- https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/mormon-church-has-misled-members-on-100-billion-tax-exempt-investment-fund-whistleblower-alleges/2019/12/16/e3619bd2-2004-11ea-86f3-3b5019d451db_story.html
- https://mormonr.org/qnas/NnxpG/the_city_creek_mall
- https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2021/08/30/are-earnings-tithing/
- https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/city-creek-center-an-economic-revitalization
- https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/downtown-redevelopment-plans-announced
- https://www.reddit.com/r/exmormon/comments/7qjwli/lets_go_shopping_with_thomas_s_monson/
- https://www.reddit.com/r/exmormon/comments/1d7529n/lets_go_shopping_citycreekcenter/
- https://www.sltrib.com/religion/local/2017/10/14/historian-digs-into-the-hidden-world-of-mormon-finances-shows-how-church-went-from-losing-money-to-making-money-lots-of-it/
- https://www.thechurchnews.com/2012/3/22/23225774/first-presidency-attends-city-creek-opening/
- https://www.analyzingmormonism.com/city-creek-mall/
- http://archive.timesandseasons.org/2012/04/city-creek-and-the-choices-of-thrift/