Recently, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has received increased criticism of its finances. I’ll admit that when I learned that the Church’s investment portfolio may exceed $100 Billion, I was unsure how to feel.

Then I learned more. The Church has been near bankruptcy about every 20 to 30 years between 1830 and the 1960s. The saints, led by Joseph Smith, poured everything they had into the Kirtland temple and then left it. The saints were driven out of their homes in Missouri, suffering significant losses. They built up Nauvoo and finished the temple, only to leave that behind. Brigham Young led the destitute saints to settle a nearly uninhabitable land in the Rocky Mountains. In Utah, the Saints faced continued pressure from the United States government. The Church has endured every financial crash, depression, and major economic downturn in the last 200 years while still providing essential religious services and growing internationally.

Where were the critics when the saints lost their homes and land in Missouri? Where were the sympathetic detractors when members of the Church had to sell their homes and land at huge losses in Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois? Did the dissenters ease up and back down?

Did the critics cheer on the Latter-day Saints when they were on the brink of financial failure? Did the critics cut the saints some slack because of their dire economic situation during most of the Church’s history?

Reeling from the Great Depression, the Church was very cautious about its use of the tithing funds of the members of the Church.² Everything saved was kept in cash. It all came to a head in 1963 when an initiative to build facilities around the world in the late 1950s forced the Church to spend all of its reserves. The Church was $236 million in debt by 1963. There were some concerns that the Church could not make payroll for the paid employees of the Church Office buildings in Salt Lake City. A sharp businessman, N. Eldon Tanner, introduced policies and procedures in the Church at that time to put it on a better financial footing. That included using sophisticated wealth management techniques used by other institutions. And it worked. The Church paid its debts in a few short years and started getting into the black. Only in the last two or three decades has the Church gone from stable to incredibly successful.

Do the critics not realize that the Church’s financial success is a recent phenomenon?

Isn’t the turnaround of the Church’s finances miraculous? Wonderful? Can’t the Church do so much more good now that it is on a stable financial footing?

Critics complain that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints still requires 10 percent tithing on members’ “increase” even though the Church is much more financially stable. Until recently, haven’t church members contributed additional funds and money above and beyond tithing to construct local church buildings and temples?

Isn’t it safe to say that the Church requires less of us now than ever?

Is requiring “less of us” good for our spiritual development? Does making things easier and more convenient make more devoted, committed members of the Church? (I personally do not think so.)

Isn’t tithing a principle of faith? If there is a God, and tithing is his law, what does it matter how well off the Church is?

The Welfare Program of the Church

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints cares for the needy in long-lasting and meaningful ways.

In 2023 alone³, there was/were:

• $1.3 billion in expenditures for welfare, self-reliance, humanitarian aid, and volunteer service in 191 countries and territories
• 6.2 million hours volunteered
• 11,368 welfare and self-reliance missionaries
• 4,119 humanitarian projects
• 206 clean water, hygiene, and sanitation projects
• 530 education projects
• 415 emergency relief projects
• 5,538 job placements through Employment Services
• 601 healthcare projects
• 530 food security projects
• 374 housing projects serving the homeless
• 2,926 addiction recovery, support, and therapeutic groups that meet weekly
• 14,643 self-reliance groups serving 110,019 participants

Socioeconomic Status of Members of the Church

Sociologist Tim Heaton reports in Vital Statistics⁴ on the subject of “Latter-day Saint Social Life” that members of the Church have above-average socioeconomic attainment. This likely includes both the US and non-US countries.

Education generally has an inverse relationship or no relationship with religious devotion. Latter-day Saint members, however, are more religious the more educated they are. The Pew Research Center⁵ reports:

“Among Mormons, those who are more highly educated are not simply as religious as those with less education – Mormons with college experience are more religiously observant, on average, than Mormons with less education. Fully 92% of college-educated Mormons are highly religious, as are 91% of Mormons with some college. Among Mormons whose education topped out with high school, however, just 78% score high on the index of religious observance.” (emphasis added)

Why are more devoted members of the Church more likely to be educated?

In the same religious landscape study from the Pew Research Center⁶, a higher percentage of Latter-day Saints were in the “$50,000-$99,000” and “$100,000+” income categories, and a lower percentage of Latter-day Saints were in the “$30,000-$49,999” and “less than $30,000” categories.⁷

Why do members of the Church make more money than non-religious people do?

Non-Latter-day Saint economist and George Mason University professor Tyler Cowen provides commentary on how religious moral codes may help strengthen the middle class and alleviate poverty.⁸ Regarding the Latter-day Saints, he said:

“Religions and social movements with strong moral codes may be able to help improve life prospects. It is striking, for example, that Utah fits the economic profile of an older, more middle-class-oriented America. The reasons for this are complex, but they may stem in part from the large number of Mormons in the state.

Mormons have done relatively well in economic terms, perhaps, at least in part, because their religious culture encourages behavior consistent with prosperity, such as savings, mutual assistance, family values and no drug and alcohol abuse.

I am not a Mormon and am not advocating that religion or any other. But it seems reasonable to observe that changing social norms, sometimes associated with religion, can help improve living standards.” (emphasis added)

In my observation, members of the Church of Jesus Christ have an impressive sense of self-determination and agency. That is no surprise with scripture like this one:

“Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness; For the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves. And inasmuch as men do good they shall in nowise lose their reward. But he that doeth not anything until he is commanded, and receiveth a commandment with doubtful heart, and keepeth it with slothfulness, the same is damned.” – Doctrine and Covenants 58: 27-29 (emphasis added)

Contrast the Latter-day Saint doctrine above to the doctrine of determinism espoused by many of the Church's skeptics and of the culture at large.

“All events, including human action, are ultimately determined by causes external to the will. Some philosophers have taken determinism to imply that individual human beings have no free will and cannot be held morally responsible for their actions.”⁹ – Oxford language definition of “Determinism” (emphasis added)

Ironically, critics of the Church are deterministic unless determinism reflects positively on the Church. At that point, they say that the Church has no effect as a cause external to the will.

“Well, of course, I’d have self-control and discipline if I did not grow up in the Church.”

“Of course, I’d have this beautiful family that I love even without the Church.”

“No, I would not be addicted to drugs even if I was not raised in the Church.”

How naive would I have to be to think that everything good in my life has nothing to do with the gospel of Jesus Christ? How deluded and narcissistic would I have to be to enjoy the fruits of my religious upbringing and then turn around to curse the tree?

Unpaid Clergy

99%+ of the Church’s leaders are unpaid. There are over 35,000 congregations with a Bishop or Branch president, unpaid. There are over 3,500 stakes with a stake president, unpaid. There are over 400 missions with a mission president, unpaid. There are over 175 temples with a temple president, unpaid. Plus, the thousands of bishopric members, mission presidency members, stake presidency members, temple presidency members, elder’s quorum, and relief society presidents and presidency members of the world are all unpaid. Millions of other members serve in callings or on missions, unpaid. There are a little over 100 full-time paid clergy in our Church (15 apostles and 100 or so others).¹⁰

Isn’t it safe to say that the Church essentially has an unpaid clergy?

The 100 or so Church leaders who receive compensation receive a modest salary.¹¹ Some other leaders, like mission presidents, can opt to receive a stipend for living expenses.

Does anyone aspire to become a church leader for all that cash?

I suspect no Church member in its history has sought to become a high-ranking leader because of all the money in it. The root problem with the criticism about unpaid clergy in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is that we cannot seek to be a church leader; we are called to it. There is no way to earn it or lobby for it. It is a calling.

What do critics think? Church leaders serve tirelessly for countless hours for years in local wards and stakes, hoping they’ll get called as a general authority so that finally, after decades of selfish service, they’ll get that sweet, sweet cash from a “modest salary”? Really?

Shouldn’t the critics ask why we call (not volunteer) people in their 60’s and 70’s to work 6 days a week for long hours for a “modest salary”? Isn’t that elder abuse? Shouldn’t they be making more? Why aren’t there more petitions from critics demanding that the general authorities have more days off?

Church Finances Conclusion

I quickly discovered how much of the criticism of the Church’s modern wealth is disingenuous. Critics would disapprove of something else if not for the Church's success. Critics of the Church have always beaten us while we were down and never let up. They ignore the substantial amount of long-lasting humanitarian and social aid the Church provides. Critics purposely try to disconnect the better-than-average socioeconomic status of members of the Church of Jesus Christ from its doctrines and practices.

It's easy to only see dollar signs. I’ve come to see the widow’s mite of millions of faithful Latter-day Saints across generations to build up the Kingdom of God on the earth. I see honest and good stewards of that money making the most of those sacred funds. Most importantly, I see how temperance and sacrifice have blessed the lives of countless members of the Church, including my own.

Footnotes

1. “Will the Church Ever Have Sufficient To Stop Requiring Tithing?” Was Mormon, January 4, 2024, https://wasmormon.org/will-the-church-ever-have-sufficient-to-stop-requiring-tithing/https://wasmormon.org/will-the-church-ever-have-sufficient-to-stop-requiring-tithing/ ↩

2. Roundy, Jeff. “Church Finances: Disconcerting or Miraculous?”, Latter-day Saints Q&A, August 28, 2019, https://latterdaysaintsqa.com/church-finances-disconcerting-or-miraculous/ ↩

3. “Caring for Those in Need 2023 Summary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, accessed on April 30, 2024 from https://assets.churchofjesuschrist.org/8b/36/8b360e21d69911ee9ebbeeeeac1e4fbbd8af5f11/welfare_2023_annual_report_caring_for_those_in_need.pdf ↩

4. Heaton, Tim. “Vital Statistics,” in Latter-day Saint Social Life: Social Research on the LDS Church and its Members (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1998), 105–132. ↩

5. The Pew Research Center, “In America, Does More Education Equal Less Religion?”, Pew Research Center, April 26, 2017, https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2017/04/26/in-america-does-more-education-equal-less-religion/ ↩

6. “Income Distribution.” Pew Research Center. Accessed on April 30, 2024 from https://www.pewresearch.org/religious-landscape-study/database/income-distribution#income-distribution ↩

7. Latter-day Saints (LDS) fare better on average than the “Unaffiliated” (religious “nones”) in the $50K-$100K categories (33% LDS compared to 26% nones) and “less than $30,000” category (27% LDS compared to 33% nones). In the “$30,000-$49,999” category LDS is tied with nones for 20%. In the $100,000+ category nones edge out LDS 21% to 20%. ↩

8. Cowen, Tyler. “Why There's Hope for the Middle Class (with Help from China).” Mercatus Center George Mason University, April 16, 2016, https://www.mercatus.org/economic-insights/expert-commentary/why-theres-hope-middle-class-help-china ↩

9. “Determinism.” Oxford Languages, 2024 ↩

10. “Paid and unpaid Church leaders”, FAIR Latter-day Saints, accessed on April 24, 2024 from https://www.fairlatterdaysaints.org/answers/Paid_and_unpaid_Church_leaders ↩

11. “Paid and unpaid Church leaders”, FAIR Latter-day Saints, accessed on April 24, 2024 from https://www.fairlatterdaysaints.org/answers/Paid_and_unpaid_Church_leaders ↩