Michael Quinn's New Book: Chris Smith Review

[_Kevin Graham]

https://www.dialoguejournal.com/wp-cont ... V52N04.pdf

All I can say is wow. I'm sucked in from beginning to end.

[_NorthboundZax]

Thanks for pointing this out. Lot's of fascinating stuff like this:

Of particular interest in chapter 3 is its discussion of the Church’s noncompliance with tax laws. According to Quinn, by 1978 the Church “adopted a policy of not complying with tax laws until administratively forced to do so by governmental agencies.” This policy has saved the Church millions or perhaps billions of dollars on sales and property taxes in many countries where tax enforcement is somewhat lax (124–28).

Chris's review starts on page 157 of the link.

[_Philo Sofee]

https://www.dialoguejournal.com/wp-content/uploads/sbi/issues/Dialogue_V52N04.pdf


All I can say is wow. I'm sucked in from beginning to end.

That was a fantastic review! Thanks for the link Kevin! Good to see you again. Hope all is well. That the church has been cheating on tax laws is no surprise. I wonder if apologists will still find a way to defend their cheating and dishonest leaders.

[_Fence Sitter]

Some quotes from Chris' review.

Quinn’s data on Church leaders’ income and assets show a strong correlation between wealth and hierarchy rank. Joseph Smith consistently owned more than two and a half times more personal property than the average Church member, and “Brigham Young and his counselors were among Utah’s highest income earners every year.” Several Church presidents died millionaires (17–29). In addition to sometimes six-figure ecclesiastical salaries, top-level General Authorities received pay from Church-owned corporations they helped manage (30–33). In contrast, many local Church leaders volunteered without wages, and rank-and-file missionaries paid for the privilege to work full-time for the Church for years of their lives. This includes service missionaries working as ranch hands and real estate specialists for companies owned by the Church

So much for a history of non-paid clergy.

Two years later, when weary pioneers complained of the arrangement, Brigham Young rebuked them for “whining and babbling about the 12 [apostles], saying that Brigham oppresses the poor and lives off their earning.” To subsequent complaints he retorted, “I av [have] a carriage & can ride over you.”

What a sweetheart BY was.

Increasingly LDS leaders taught that finance has a spiritual dimension, that tithe-payers are “business partners” with the Lord, that Jesus was “the founder of modern business,” and that the Lord favors capitalist economics over united order–style communism

And such 'spiritual' acumen has allowed Jesus to hoard $100 billion dollars just so He can admire it.

As Zax pointed out above.

Of particular interest in chapter 3 is its discussion of the Church’s noncompliance with tax laws. According to Quinn, by 1978 the Church “adopted a policy of not complying with tax laws until administratively forced to do so by governmental agencies.” This policy has saved the Church millions or perhaps billions of dollars on sales and property taxes in many countries where tax enforcement is somewhat lax

So much for the 12th and 13th articles of faith.