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One of the more egregious media hit pieces I’ve ever seen.
WaPo acknowledges they don’t have docs/evidence to support claims
”Complaint” was shared w/ WaPo by complainants brother without his consent
No comments from anyone involvedhttps://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 …
A tax expert weighs in! “If you have a charity that simply amasses a war chest year after year, and does not spend any money for charity purposes, that does not meet the requirements of tax law.” A simple google search would show this isn’t the case.http://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/lds-charities-releases-2018-annual-report …
Details on the church’s charitable giving “aren’t publicly available?”— where did they look?! News article— “Latter-day Saint Charities donates $2 billion in aid” http://kutv.com/news/local/latter-day-saint-charities-donates-2-billion-in-aid-to-the-needy-throughout-the-world … 2018 report— http://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/lds-charities-releases-2018-annual-report … 2017 report— https://www.latterdaysaintcharities.org/bc/content/ldscharities/annual-report/2017/LDS_Charities_2017_Full_English.pdf?lang=eng …pic.twitter.com/pglyoBKrJu
The thrust of this entire hit is that after funding global charity work and operations for a 16M member church (with buildings and temples all over the world), the church invested the surplus to ensure it grew for when they needed it later. That’s. It.pic.twitter.com/VsRzGoI0Wx
We donate tithing because we’ve been asked to. Every religion asks for sacrifice in turn for blessings. We don’t stop when the church “has enough” like the complaint suggests. Also every Bible reader believes in some kind of last days. Of COURSE we are going to store reserves.
“Church has misled members” is such a ridiculous and laughable overreaching headline when the thrust is “the church invested excess tithing funds to ensure the church had more money for projects down the road.” Most members would be mad if they *didn’t* do that.
While the Post apparently doesn’t require Googling before going to print, here are a few articles about the Church’s philanthropic efforts. If there’s been a disaster, good chance they were there.https://www.wfla.com/news/local-news/mormon-helping-hands-help-clean-up-florida-panhandle-after-hurricane-michael/ …
After recent tornados in Dallas the primary agency resource center was housed in a tithing-funded LDS meetinghouse “The city of Dallas opened a multi-agency resource center Monday morning at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints..”https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/City-of-Dallas-Opens-Multi-Agency-Resource-Center-After-Oct-20-Storms-563957391.html …
Thousands from all over for Harvey cleanuphttps://www.12newsnow.com/article/weather/hurricane/harvey/mormon-helping-hands-brings-thousands-of-volunteers-for-harvey-cleanup/502-475795202 …
Hurricane Matthew:https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article110615807.html …
I could go on forever but I think LDS philanthropy is well known to most people. This in the last few minutes (which the Post couldn’t wait for) explains both the reasons for investing and the statement that they pay all necessary taxes. Obviously. https://twitter.com/benwinslow/status/1206769653957054464?s=21 …https://twitter.com/BenWinslow/status/1206769653957054464 …
You could tell me these reporters are good people and I’d want to believe you. But writing this absurdly thin hit (complete with wild false headline) to smear a religion that does a lot of good, that people have dedicated portions of their lives to isn’t behavior of good people
4 final things that should’ve given editors pause (and would have for *any* other target)
This “whistleblower”
Said he wants a cut of the $100B
Has an obvious ax to grind against the church
Wrote this after being terminated by Ensign
Didn’t authorize this for WaPo
Naturally this ridiculous article gets front page treatment. But at least they dropped the ridiculous theatrical online headline that was blatantly inaccurate suggesting the church was somehow duping members.. by being wise stewards with surplus tithing money.pic.twitter.com/HISnPovRpn
The Church just put out a long statement ending with “The Church complies with all applicable law governing our donations, investments, taxes, and reserves. We continue to welcome the opportunity to work with officials to address questions they may have.”https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/first-presidency-statement-church-finances …
Several days later some very smart people broke down each point in this botched WaPo story on the LDS Church “misleading members.” The Post should be severely embarrassed this ever made it to print. Honestly just egregious.https://publicsquaremag.org/editorials/the-100-billion-mormon-church-story-a-contextual-analysis/ …
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