TODAY the bold portion takes you to a DIFFERENT link; another Church News story from October 2019 entitled "Church’s $2 Billion of Humanitarian Aid Stems from Loving God and Others". This article contains none of the inconvenient $2.2Billion over 35 years claims.
OR... maybe the claim is true and the church has donated a few billion to charity since November 2019? Call me a cynic, but I think there is deliberate lying going on here by the church PR department. Why would they care anyway? The members believe everything they say so they can say what they like.
LDS apologetics --> "It's not the crime, it's the cover-up, which creates the scandal." "Bigfoot is a crucial part of the ecosystem, if he exists. So let's all help keep Bigfoot possibly alive for future generations to enjoy, unless he doesn't exist." - Futurama
Without any sort of accounting or accountability the church can claim what ever figure they want.
Remember this is the same church that claims 16,000,000 members.
"Any over-ritualized religion since the dawn of time can make its priests say yes, we know, it is rotten, and hard luck, but just do as we say, keep at the ritual, stick it out, give us your money and you'll end up with the angels in heaven for evermore."
The LDS Church declines to pay taxes owed for its for-profit enterprises until the government comes after them. Why would we trust them? They chose to follow the path of the most grasping corporations. Let them prove their generosity. I won’t take such claims at face value. Such credulousness is for fools.
"Petition wasn’t meant to start a witch hunt as I’ve said 6000 times." ~ Hanna Seariac, LDS apologist
In a lecture given last month at the University of Oxford, Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said that each year The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints spends about $40 million on welfare, humanitarian and other LDS Church-sponsored projects around the world and has done so for more than 30 years.
That would account for approximately $1.2 billion on welfare and humanitarian efforts over the past 30 years. Elder Oaks also said that in the last year alone, Mormon volunteers have devoted 25 million hours of labor.
I’d like Causse to show his workings-out in reaching the number he’s claiming...
“When we are confronted with evidence that challenges our deeply held beliefs we are more likely to reframe the evidence than we are to alter our beliefs. We simply invent new reasons, new justifications, new explanations. Sometimes we ignore the evidence altogether.” (Mathew Syed 'Black Box Thinking')
The deliberate rerouting of the link AWAY from the Church's own website, where the facts are, to a Church News story with a similarly misleading headline, is extremely revealing.
Church PR is in full damage control and ANYTHING that looks positive is being spun for all its worth. This may eventually get corrected but now is not the right time. This $1Billion humanitarian claim is PR gold.
We just had a news story in the Australian media and they repeated this $1Billion charity claim. The Church is getting exactly what it wants from this PR spin (lie).
Ensign also said the fund financed operations in poorer parts of the world - such as Africa - where tithing receipts are smaller than the West.
Not a cent has left the Ensign Peak fund for charitable work, ANYWHERE.
LDS apologetics --> "It's not the crime, it's the cover-up, which creates the scandal." "Bigfoot is a crucial part of the ecosystem, if he exists. So let's all help keep Bigfoot possibly alive for future generations to enjoy, unless he doesn't exist." - Futurama
I guess the brethren heard the critics and are at least pretending to do the right thing now. How about some disclosure so we can figure out where the $1 Billion figure comes from? My money is that it comes right out of Nelson's a$$, but I could be wrong. The dodo may have contributed to the make believe. He loves exaggerating for Mormon jesus so one cannot discount his truth massaging.
By the way, Brethren, if any of you are reading this, we don't believe the BS $1 Billion figure. Put up with some real financial disclosure or shut up. Please stop hiding behind the too sacred to tell nonsense. It's becomming embarrassing.
"Religion is about providing human community in the guise of solving problems that don’t exist or failing to solve problems that do and seeking to reconcile these contradictions and conceal the failures in bogus explanations otherwise known as theology." - Kishkumen
Interestingly, the one thing the Church didn't do with the money, is spend some of it correcting a teaching manual that contained the promotion of racist views.
“When we are confronted with evidence that challenges our deeply held beliefs we are more likely to reframe the evidence than we are to alter our beliefs. We simply invent new reasons, new justifications, new explanations. Sometimes we ignore the evidence altogether.” (Mathew Syed 'Black Box Thinking')