Stats and Facts

OK, this posting is all about the sharing of information. No debating over religious doctrine or philisophical thinking required here.

First, good news Dave. In my research I found a news release regarding the church's mall renovation project which you refered to. It stated "tithing funds of the church will not be used for this commercial investment." Rather it was stated that this venture is supported by "business-generated dollars." I imagine these business-generated dollars would include the church's gains from commercial stock ownerships, and income generated from the sales of Church publications through Deseret Book, even sales of the BOM, which interestingly enough, now includes the eye-brow raising agreement with Doubleday publishing to sell the Book of Mormon on Amazon.com.

So why would they spend so much of this money on a mall renovation when they could have spent it on helping third world slums? Because it's a business investment....investment being the key word here. That means this money will likely generate much more money, and with their commercial properties and investments the church states they "contribute funds to a number of community arts, education and charitable groups".

Thus this investment could produce even more potential to give back to the local and global community, including third-world slums. This actually sounds like quite a financially sensible move.....and perhaps you can feel better that in actuality, you have not been ripped off. I can understand why you would regret having donated tithing to a cause you no longer believe in, however the tithing fund has gone towards the same old things the church has always claimed it would go towards, namely temples, church buildings, furniture, and supplies. Likewise, all fast offerings and other offerings, including humanitarian aid donations, have been passed on directly, and in full, to those for whom it is intended.

And speaking of humanitarian aid, I tracked information stating that "humanitarian assistance rendered has reached 154 countries and is valued at tens of millions of dollars annually" (and remember to add to this the indeterminable value of the time that is donated as well)

Anyhow, I did get this information off of www.lds.org mind you (in the newsroom quickfacts and browse by topic links).......so you could respond by questioning whether this is biased or accurate information. Well, OK that's only reasonable. If you find contradicting statistics or evidence from another reliable source, I'm willing to listen.

In reference to an erroneous statement in a the Doubleday press release of the BOM, concerning whether the church is one of the "largest religions in America"........Well I can't see what the point would be for church leaders to promote a statement that could easily be refuted by anyone in a simple internet search. That's just asking for an avalanche of rigorous mormon denouncing criticism. How would this obvious consequence serve as means to promote the BOM? In otherwords, even if there were hypothetically a real intent to decieve, I think anyone would be smart enough not to try to pull off something like that.

Seems more probable that there has been some sort of miscommunication or misunderstanding here. Especially in light of some additional research I pursued, which used different control groups than the study Rick relied on.

For one thing, varying control groups in polls result in varying information. Some control group selections are likely to be be dispersed evenly throughout the United States, not taking into account much higher concentrations of members in Utah and Idaho, who are not being accounted for. Therefore, I would be more inclined to trust straight comparitive numerical head counts of the population of specific church memberships, rather than percentages based on limited control groups.

In that case, according to the "Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches" the LDS church ranks at #4 in the top 10 Religious bodies in the US. Sure, 5, 503, 192 people may compare much less impressively against those churches which rank higher........but it IS still ranking as #4 in the top ten here. I suggest an examination of this website www.adherents.com. which is where I obtained this information. This website, not affiliated with the LDS church, also presents back up research (done by non-LDS researchers) which confirms the head count of the LDS church to be considered accurate.

Perhaps this Rapkin lady, motivated for her own reasons to promote sales of the Doubleday BOM, obtained her info from this website, for all we know.

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