He sent me this article:
https://journal.interpreterfoundation.o ... storation/
I responded:
I looked a little further into the topic, and was intrigued to find in recent videos on the Mormon Stories podcast that they are claiming an average -$20 loss in monthly profits over the past year. As a student/business owner in the media field, that would make sense to me based on seeing that their videos tend to bring in between 20k-100k views each, and the average payout for 20k views on youtube for a podcast channel being only between $100-$140 per video. I looked further into them, and it seems to make sense that they run at a loss due to the number of employees they have, essential expenses to run their show, as well as the number of paid guests they have on each video. I also found that they have been a podcast since 2005, making them among the oldest and longest running podcasts in the world. It seems misleading for the article to state that they are in it for the money, after seeing that podcasts with their amount of followers and those that have a much shorter existence and episode run-times tend to bring in a significantly larger amount of money. The article also says that the CEOs of these major and long-running podcast and media companies against the church take home 100k salaries, which to me seems like a very low salary for a successful business owner to make, and is still significantly less than what the LDS General Authorities (based on a whistleblower releasing a document that in 2014 the general authorities living wages were raised to 120k) take home as a salary paid to them each year by the church's investments funded by sacred tithing money that my family living in 3rd world countries pay instead of covering up the dirt floors in their homes, having access to health, installing a shower head instead of using a hose connected to a barrel on the roof filled with rain water, or improving their quality of life in other various ways. I also find it interesting that the church and prophets have lied in their publications and general conferences about not having paid ministry when the church does pay its general authorities. I realize and have recently learned that there are a few GAs who do not take home salaries, but the large majority do. This is something that members aren't aware of, and what I would tell my converts as a missionary to tell them that their church was false due to their pastors taking home money from their church's tithing funds, while our prophets worked hard/were led by God to work in major professions to get to a point that they didn't need church funds and were able to spend their time working for free in their callings and didn't need church funds. I taught this because the "Service" section of my Preach My Gospel manual said "All work in the church is voluntary. No one is paid for their service." I would rip out the "org chart" of the prophets and 70s included in the Liahona magazine each conference edition and keep it in my scripture case to show to investigators all of the valiant men working for free for the church. I was disappointed to find out that I was misled on that subject, and that we did have paid ministry. Finding that I was misled (by prophets who "cannot lead me astray") at the time wasn't enough to shake my faith, and I still do not oppose the idea of paid ministry in the church. I do however oppose their false doctrines and prophecies which you read in the document that I wrote, and due to the Savior's teachings to beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep's clothings, who will perform miracles/shew signs and wonders in his name, and that by their fruits ye shall know them I cannot conscientiously sustain them as prophets as their teachings and values do not align with my own morals, and their doctrines and prophecies have proven false or have been written off by the church as being false time and time over again.
Although those podcast channels are antagonistic towards the church, I find their content interesting that they tend to stick to analyzing/criticizing content and doctrines found on LDS.org, teachings of the prophets and books sold at Deseret Book. Although their video views are significantly down this year, I did find reports that John Dehlin, the CEO of Mormon Stories Podcast, is expected to make around 230k per year. This dive into their earnings in 2022 may suggest that is possible, and they may be receiving large funds in donations. If that is true, that is a large check to be bringing home, but a comment on the topic makes sense in a capitalistic society, "You spend [19] years building something that people want, they voluntarily give you the money, you are transparent and good at what you do. I’m failing to see the problem here. All of John’s content that he has created is free. There is no paywall to access his work. All of his income is generated by volunteer donations that are not coerced in any way. As far as I know, there is no benefit to donating, other than to see them continue making content.I realize an argument could be made that the LDS church likewise makes their services available to everyone, but that’s not entirely true. To fully participate in callings, leadership, the temple, or even membership, you are required to pay 10% of your income to the organization. I feel like that distinction is entirely relevant to this discussion if we’re going to compare men who claim the title of Apostles of Jesus Christ against a successful non-profit content creator."
Even if his salary is 250k, he is making enough to barely afford an average home in Salt Lake City. He may be in it "just for the money," and if he is, then he is doing poorly at it in my opinion.
https://preview.redd.it/2hrsgg7n3r6d1.p ... a70824b01a
Average homes for sale in Salt Lake City being sold for $750k-$850k.
https://www.reddit.com/r/exmormon/comme ... at_Mormon/
