Latest from Mormon Land: LDS Church talks money — sort of

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A financial FAQ

With the church’s money drawing so much media attention, the global faith of 17.5 million members has added an extended Q&A about its finances to its Topics and Questions website, along with a webpage dedicated to how it deals with donations and reserve funds.

While long on explanations, the entries are short on precise dollar amounts.

Here are key examples:

• “Church leaders set aside a portion of the church’s income as reserves.”

(It is not known how much is stashed in reserves, but the publicly reported portfolio at Ensign Peak Advisors, the church’s investment arm, stands at $52.3 billion in its latest federal filing. These are hardly the only reserves. Outside analysts estimate the faith’s overall wealth at more than $290 billion.)

• “The church spends hundreds of millions of dollars every year on the acquisition, design, construction, maintenance and operation of meetinghouses. … Much of the church’s current growth is occurring in regions of the world that are still developing economically. … Additional funds are needed to support the church in those regions. Sustaining continued church growth in these areas of the world requires substantial resources.”

(In 2017, we showed how money from headquarters props up operations overseas. For instance, the Philippines, where the church is expanding dramatically, required a subsidy of nearly $64 million in 2010 alone from Salt Lake City to cover its bills.)

• “The church commits over $1 billion every year to the operations of formal and informal education for church members and members of the communities where they live.”

(The Widow’s Mite Report, an independent website devoted to documenting the faith’s finances, notes that more than $1 billion annually in tithing funds funnel into Brigham Young University campuses and Ensign College to hold down tuition prices.)

• “Over 360 [tally is now at 382] temples are in operation, under construction or announced. The cost of such temples reflects an unprecedented and monumental dedication of financial resources.”

(The faith doesn’t release construction costs of its rapidly multiplying temples. The Wall Street Journal, however, reported two years ago that Idaho’s Pocatello Temple, one of the larger edifices of late, cost $69 million to build. Widow’s Mite estimates temple construction costs at roughly $1,100 per square foot.)

• “Members of the First Presidency, the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, the general authority Seventies and the Presiding Bishopric leave their careers when they are called to full-time church service. They receive a modest living allowance and insurance benefits so they can devote all their time to serving the Lord.”

(The current living allowance has not been released. Widow’s Mite has pegged total 2025 compensation — including salary, health insurance and retirement benefits — for each general authority at $194,000 a year. A leaked memo from a decade ago indicated that the “base living allowance” was $120,000 a year.)

Special ‘Mormon Land’ podcast: The African experience

The church is booming in parts of Africa. Why? A Latter-day Saint couple in Kenya offer a number of clues.

Listen to the podcast.

Around the world

• With contributions from the church, a Children’s Justice Center opened last week in Ogden to help abused kids.

“It’s so important to stand against abuse and realize the importance of not just prevention but also reporting and then the healing that will take place,” Young Women General President Emily Belle Freeman said in a news release. “That healing will begin in a place like this, where that story can be told.”

• Fresh from the conclave that elected Pope Leo XIV, Cardinal Pablo Virgilio Siongco David welcomed apostle Patrick Kearon last week in the Philippines, their second meeting in less than a year.

“It was wonderful to see Cardinal David again,” Kearon said in a news release. “He is constantly caring for those who might be forgotten.”

• Pressed to achieve academically, South Korean young people found reassurance recently in the words of visiting apostle Dale Renlund, who reminded them of their “infinite worth” and their “divine destiny.”

“Heavenly Father offers everything,” Renlund said at a Busan devotional, “but we must follow his path, not shortcuts.”

• Latter-day Saints are increasingly connecting — and reconnecting — with their body and spirit through the Hindu-rooted practice of yoga.

“My faith teaches that God has a physical body — an exalted, celestial, perfected body,” a Latter-day Saint yoga teacher told The Associated Press. “What it means to become like God is to get to a point where my body is just as important as my spirit, that they are all perfectly aligned.”

• Crews are working on the final phase of the Salt Lake Temple’s seismic upgrade. See photos from inside and outside the iconic building.

From The Tribune

• The Gospels record that Jesus was buried and then resurrected. Thousands of years later, though, more and more believers, including Latter-day Saints, are opting for cremation.

• A former Latter-day Saint missionary is poised to become what amounts to an area president in the Community of Christ.

• A Latter-day Saint U.S. senator suggests that the church — and other religious groups — stand ready to fill the void left by Donald Trump’s cutbacks in humanitarian foreign aid.

• So you forgot your temple recommend? Well, the church offers a new solution.

• BYU’s star quarterback Jake Retzlaff has been accused of sexual assault in a civil lawsuit. His attorney said his client is “factually innocent.”