Hypocrisy in Church Practices
From FAIRMormon
Contents |
Criticism
Critics claim that the Church, as a corporate entity, controls business properties that are not consistent with its stated purposes. Examples include:
- claims that the Church owns controlling stock in the Coca-Cola company
- claims that the Church owns stock in tobacco companies
- claims that the Church owns stock in alcohol companies
Response
The Church has what is called the "donations in kind" office that manages issues related to real estate, stocks and bonds, and other "non-cash" contributions. Interested parties can call Church headquarters and ask to be connected to this department, which will provides frank information about the Church's policy in this area.
It is the Church's practice to automatically liquidate all stocks/bonds provided to the donations in kind office as soon as they can be sold. Any stock donations made to the Church are never held by the Church or its corporations, but are converted into cash and then used for Church purposes.
The church receives a lot of these types of donations because of the favorable tax treatment the donor receives. In the United States, the IRS code allows for an individual who has a long term potential capital gain in a stock (i.e., they have owned it for more than 1 year) to donate the stock to a non-profit organization and receive a tax deductible donation credit against their taxes based on the full value of the holding without having to also recognize the gain and be taxed on the gain.
For example, if you bought stock for $10 and donate when it is worth $110, you get to remove $110 from your taxable earnings (which at the 33% tax bracket benefits you with not paying $36 in taxes). If you had sold the stock and donated the money, you would have had to realize a gain of $100 and had to pay taxes on that ($33), and then you would get the credit for the donation which would offset the gain.
As can be seen, when one can donate without selling, one essentially gets the best of both worlds, and it can result in substantial tax savings, with no loss to the charity to which one is donating. For this reason, estates that make sizeable donations to the Church usually do so with long term capital holdings, like stock, in order to realize the greatest tax benefits. This means that such donations are a very common event in Church finances.
Because the Church can neither control which stocks are donated, nor which stocks are in mutual fund shares that are donated, there have doubtless been times when interest in companies whose products are not in keeping with Church standards have been donated. Furthermore, stock index funds contain investments in all the stocks in that index (such as the Dow Jones Industrials, the S&P 500, and the Willshire 5000). Usually, this includes companies in industries inconsistent with the Church position.
The financial data for every publicly-traded corporation (i.e., a corporation with stock for sale at a stock exchange) is held in the Edgar data base of the Securities and Exchange Commission. This data is publically available on-line, at such sites as:
This data includes a list of "significant shareholders," which are typically those who own >5% of the total stock price. Any critic who claims the Church has on-going interest in a company should prove the claim by providing data showing that the Church indeed holds significant interest.
There have thus been instances in the past where reportable donations were made (>5%), and when the church received and then liquidated the holdings as a matter of public record. Yet, this does not mean that the Church purchased stock in these companies, or had continued to profit from stock held in such companies. The Church merely received a donation, which it liquidated in accordance with its standard financial practices.
Conclusion
It may be technically true that for a few minutes, hours, or days, the Church has been at least part owner of some companies whose products or behavior does not match the Church's interests or standards. However, such claims as used by critics are designed to mislead, since the Church did not seek interest in any such company, and sells its interest as soon as it acquires it.
The Church does not refuse to accept any lawfully traded security based on the products they sell, because all such donations are treated equally—they are sold.
Endnotes
None
Further reading
FAIR wiki articles
| Accusations of dishonesty wiki articles |
Joseph Smith period
- Crime in Nauvoo
- Counterfeiting by Joseph Smith and apostles at Nauvoo?
- Joseph Smith land speculation
- Lying for the Lord?
- Joseph Smith taught 'it was right to steal'
- Orson Hyde says Spirit of Lord may influence to steal
- Hiding Joseph's use of a gun at the martyrdom?
Utah period
Present day
- Church art and historical accuracy
- Brigham Young manual hides the truth about polygamy
- "Censorship" and "revision" of LDS history?
- Brigham Young destroys Lucy Mack Smith's history of Joseph?
- Did David B. Haight use astrological ideas about the moon, only to be censored later?
- Lucy Mack Smith letter about First Vision suppressed?
- President Boyd K. Packer on the truth
- Elder Packer address to CES: "Mantle is Far, Far Greater than the intellect"
- Sidney Rigdon trial in Times and Seasons versus History of the Church
- Wilford Woodruff criticizes publication of polygamists
- Cognitive dissonance
- History of the Church—authorship?
- Hypocrisy claimed in Church financial holdings
- Lying for the Lord?
- Paid clergy
- Testimony and doubt reconciliation
| Word of Wisdom wiki articles |
- Word of Wisdom (Summary article)
- Almon Babbitt copied Joseph's violations?
- Eat meat sparingly
- Hot drinks
- Tobacco
- Alcohol
- Does the Church control Coca Cola, or companies marketing tobacco and alcohol?
- Joseph Smith asked for a pipe and tobacco for Willard Richards?
- Sacrament uses water instead of wine
FAIR web site
| Word of Wisdom FAIR articles |
- FAIR Topical Guide: Word of Wisdom FAIR link
- FAIR Topical Guide: Does the Church control Coca-Cola? FAIR link
- Michael R. Ash, "Up In Smoke: A Response to the Tanners' Criticism of the Word of Wisdom," FAIR Conference, 2000. off-site
- Lance Starr, "The Word of Wisdom," in Mormonism 201, reply to McKeever and Johnson, Mormonism 101, chapter 14 (FAIR). FAIR link
External links
- "Does the Mormon Church Own the Coca-Cola Company?" Snopes.com off-site
- N. Eldon Tanner, "Q&A: Questions and Answers," New Era (July 1975): 50. off-site
| Word of Wisdom on-line articles |
- Thomas G. Alexander, "The Word of Wisdom: From Principle to Requirement," Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 14:3 (Autumn 1981): 78–88. off-site
- Thomas J. Boud, MD, "The Energy Drink Epidemic," Ensign (December 2008): 48. off-site
- Lester E. Bush, Jr., "The Word of Wisdom in Early Nineteenth Century Perspective," Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 14:3 (Autumn 1981): 47–65. off-site
- Robert J. McCue, "Did the Word of Wisdom Become a Commandment in 1851?," Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 14:3 (Autumn 1981): 66–77. off-site
- Paul H. Peterson, "An Historical Analysis of the Word of Wisdom," Master's thesis, Brigham Young University, 1972. off-site
- Clifford J. Stratton, "Caffeine—The Subtle Addiction," Ensign (June 1988): 60. off-site
Printed material
| Word of Wisdom printed materials |
- Michael Hickenbotham, Answering Challenging Mormon Questions: Replies to 130 Queries by Friends and Critics of the LDS Church (Horizon Publishers & Distributors, 1995), 131–133. ISBN 0882905368. ISBN 0882907786.
