David Neeleman launched JetBlue in February 1999 with his Mormon missionary experience in Brazil still vivid in his mind.
Having seen the extreme poverty and rigid class distinctions in that country, Neeleman built his business model instead on what he viewed as Mormon egalitarianism. No executive parking places or dining rooms. No first-class section on his planes. A strong ethos of managers and employees working side by side.
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With the Iowa caucuses coming Tuesday and an LDS candidate seen as the GOP front-runner, The Salt Lake Tribune is publishing a series of occasional stories exploring the intersection between Mormonism and politics.
Sunday » Mormonism and government
Monday » Mormonism and the economy
Coming Tuesday » How their faith influences LDS politicians
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"I abhor people who think they’re better because they have more money," he says in a phone interview from his home in Connecticut. "That’s despicable."
Neeleman, who now runs a Brazilian airline, Azul, won a lot of public attention for his approach. Now with Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s pitch as the go-to guy to fix the U.S. economy, Mormon views of wealth are once again in the spotlight.
One thing is clear: Many Mormon businessmen and women end up like Romney, at the top of the corporate ladder, obviously able to compete in a free-market economy. Observers point to the Mormon upbringing of these industry titans as contributing to their achievements, citing early LDS training in public speaking, international mission experiences, knowledge of a second language and ability to work well within a strict system. Plus, faithful Mormons have a Boy Scout-like reputation for honesty and clean living — no smoking, drinking or carousing.
But outside the faith, few recognize Neeleman’s second strand of Mormon economic thinking, including notions of stewardship, sharing and cooperation.
You can’t read the Book of Mormon, the Utah-based church’s signature scripture, says Kim Smith, who spent his career at Goldman Sachs in New York and now teaches at Brigham Young University, "without getting pounded about the equality of everything."
The book is, he says, "unambiguous about our responsibility to the poor."
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The grand experiment » From the beginning, Mormon founder Joseph Smith felt a strong responsibility to care for his burgeoning flock of mostly poor farmers and religious seekers. Waves of immigrant converts came from parts of the East Coast and Europe to form what they hoped would be a new Zion society.
More than a quarter of what Smith said were divine revelations contained in the faith’s Doctrine and Covenants relate to economics, says Warner Woodworth, BYU professor of organizational behavior.
Smith envisioned a plan known as the United Order in which individual Mormons would give all their possessions to the church, then be deeded portions "according to his family, according to his circumstances and his wants and needs."
The United Order, late LDS apostle Marion G. Romney taught, is the Lord’s program for "eliminating the inequalities among men." In short, some receive more than they give, some less. This system "exalts the poor and humbles the rich."
That’s not exactly a page from the Republican Party platform, nor the Democratic one, for that matter.
Some say that smacks of socialism. Not so, according to church leaders, because, among other reasons, the United Order is voluntary and nonpolitical, and participants own property.
Though the United Order and cooperative enterprises were tried in Utah but didn’t last, the idea of Mormon "consecration" did. In LDS temples, devout church members agree to give up everything for the faith if called upon. The church also expects Mormons to give 10 percent of their income as well as contribute to a fund for the poor (dubbed fast offerings). In addition, members can donate to education and temple funds to help Third World Mormons, along with missionary and humanitarian outreach.
In 1936, the church christened its own "welfare system" to help out-of-work or impoverished members. Those in need would ask their bishops for vouchers to the "bishop’s storehouse," where they could get food, clothing and other goods in exchange for working. Though begun amid the Great Depression, this program continues today and has expanded across the globe.
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