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Given their vast enterprises and business expertise, Sociology Professor Ryan Cragun said it makes more sense to call them "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints Holdings, Inc."
Like other churches, many of its operations and donations are tax exempt. They're also secretive. Religious operations aren't obligated to explain much publicly. In the early 1960s, the LDS church stopped reporting finances entirely.
In 1997, a Time magazine investigation estimated its total worth at $30 billion. It said about $5 billion flows into church coffers annually through tithes. It also owned around $6 billion in stocks and bonds.
A more recent Reuters/Professor Cragun investigation estimated a $40 billion net worth, including up to $8 billion annually in tithing.
Church finances are so compartmentalized that no single person, not even the president, has access to them all. They're vast, growing, profitable, and perhaps greater than estimated totals.
Modern Mormonism isn't just a religion. It's a money making machine.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at Email address removed .
His new book is titled "How Wall Street Fleeces America: Privatized Banking, Government Collusion and Class War"
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