The term “ponderize” was coined by a Mormon Church leader, Devin G. Durrant, during a General Conference talk in October 2015. It is a portmanteau of “ponder” and “memorize” intended to convey a specific approach to studying and applying the teachings of the Church. I invite you to “ponderize” one verse of scripture each week. The word ponderize is not …
Continue reading “Monetizing Ponderize – Do Church Leaders Cash In?”
Andrew was raised in a Mormon family but harbored some doubts about the religion, especially when he failed to have spiritual experiences while training to serve a mission. He continued to attend church, get married in the temple, and raise his family in the faith but began to doubt the existence of God – and …
Continue reading “Andrew was a Mormon, an Ex-Mormon Story Spotlight”
The show 60 Minutes broadcast a segment about the Mormon Billions. Sharyn Alfonsi follows up with whistleblower David Nielsen who resigned from his position at Ensign Peak Advisors and wrote the whistleblower report in 2019. Since then, the Mormon church has been fined 5 million dollars by the SEC for illegal filing practices, but Nielsen …
The Mormon church was recently charged with fraud and reached a settlement with the SEC agreeing to pay five million dollars. Their chief infraction was failing to properly file and misstating in filings they did submit about the church investments with the church-owned investment company Ensign Peak Advisors. The fraud reached all the way to …
Continue reading “Why the Mormon Church Hid Billions of Dollars of Investments?”
James Huntsman filed a lawsuit in 2021 against the church claiming that he was duped into believing that his tithing contributions were going to charitable work, while in fact, they are used to pad the coffers of the church investment accounts. He filed the fraud complaint against the church and states that “this is not …
Continue reading “Mixing Tithing Funds and Investments Maybe Legal But Doesn’t Mean Its Right”
Hinckley made it clear that the church doesn’t share financial statements because the information belongs to those who made the contribution. Since 1959, Church finances have not been disclosed to the public, and we can see that church leaders have actively tried to hide finances from the public. Even so, there are disclosures that can …
Continue reading “Church Finances: Follow the Prophet, He has the Money”
Tax time in the US and as people are leaving the church, they are receiving real blessings. In many countries, donating money to a charitable organization is tax deductible, meaning this decreases your taxable income. This is a perk to tithing for some people, it can save you some money on your taxes, though not …
Continue reading “Stop Paying Tithing and Challenge the Tax Exemption Status of the Mormon Church”
Members of the Mormon church are required to pay the church a tithe. This tithing is understood to be ten percent of the member’s income. This is the same for children who earn $5 for mowing the lawn to wealthy lawyers and doctors in the church. The church makes much of the sacrifice and blessings …
Continue reading “Development of Mormon Tithing – From Meager Origins to Ensign Peak Billions”
For the past week, the church has been all over the news. Not for something they will want to draw publicity. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced that the Church has been fined $5 Million for using shell companies to obscure the size of its investment portfolio. On February 21st, the SEC issued a …
Continue reading “LDS Church’s Misstated Filings to SEC Approved by First Presidency”
In an interview President Gordon B Hinckley explains that the reason the church is not open about their finances is because they think “that information belongs to those who made the contribution”. REPORTER: In my country, the…we say the people’s churches, the protestants, the catholics, they publish all their budgets, to all the public. HINCKLEY: …
Continue reading “That information belongs to those who made the Contribution”
Punctuation Lesson An ellipsis (…) is used to omit unnecessary detail from a quote. It usually indicates an intentional omission of a word, sentence, or whole section from a text without altering its original meaning. (It also functions to indicate that the speaker has trailed off and left a sentence or thought unfinished. Like here… …
