To my friends in the church after I've left: We learn so much when we listen to voices that express opinions different from our own. One of the best practices we can adopt in our healing journey is to express criticism without judgment, and to accept criticism without shame. In this episode, I express my respect for members of the LDS faith, and discuss three of the issues that I would like LDS members to understand.

Megan Conner is the mother of 6 spectacular humans and a breaker of generational trauma cycles. She has spent the last 10 years overcoming the effects of child SA and other abusive relationships and cycles. She is the author of I Walked Through Fire to Get Here, which was written to give support and hope to other survivors. Megan is passionate about helping people make small changes that make their lives better every day.  

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1

Megan: Hello, beautiful humans, and welcome to another episode of the midlife revolution. I'm your host, Megan Connor. And today I wanted to address some of the consistent comments that I get from faithful Lds members. When my content overlaps especially with the Lori Balloday Bell trial.

2

Megan: I get some pushback from time to time from faithful Lbs. Lds members asking me why I'm so critical of the Church. And so this episode is addressed specifically to my friends who are still faithful members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

3

Megan: So I was born into a faithful Lds family. As a seventh generation Mormon.

4

Megan: I was baptized at 8 years old I participated in temple ordinances. As a youth I went to girls' camp every summer. I attended early morning seminary all 4 years of high school, and I earned my young womanhood medallion.

5

Megan: Although I spent a couple of years inactive before I got married, I still believed everything I had been taught as a child and a youth, and it was always my goal to get married in the Temple and remain faithful

6

Megan: instead, largely because of my unhealed trauma. I married somebody who was not a member.

7

Megan: I didn't feel worthy to marry a member, and, in fact, I was told that nobody faithful would want to marry me.

8

Megan: but still I did my best to stay on the Covenant Path, as they say. I made sure that the missionaries were always around, and eventually my former husband did get baptized

9

Megan: just a few months later, though, he told me that he would no longer be coming to church.

10

Megan: and when I asked him why. He replied that it wasn't what he thought it would be.

11

Megan: and he just didn't feel it was a benefit to him.

12

Megan: I, however, remained faithful.

13

Megan: At my bishop's suggestion I waited to receive my temple endowment.

14

Megan: The Bishop posited that I should keep praying for my husband to reactivate so that we could attend the temple together.

15

Megan: Eventually my former spouse did attend a temple, prep. Class with me, but he never did reactivate or have any desire to go to the Temple.

16

Megan: I finally received my endowment in 2,004, at the age of 30. By this time I had 4 children, and I later had 2 more. I love being a mom, and I always wanted a large family, but I think there was also a part of me that believed I would somehow be more acceptable in the church culture if I had more children.

17

Megan: although it was a struggle every day and every week I made sure that my children were raised to be faithful members.

18

Megan: I had very little help or support from my former spouse, but I made sure that we read the Scriptures. Every day we had family, home, evening, every week we attended every class.

19

Megan: every meeting, and every social event, and I accepted every calling I was ever given

20

Megan: for over 20 years. I took my 6 children to church every Sunday and made sure they were heavily involved in scouts and youth activities.

21

Megan: I even had a tradition of taking each of my children to the Temple on their twelfth birthday to do baptisms.

22

Megan: I attended the temple at least every month. Once I was endowed, and there were many years when I attended weekly

23

Megan: I served in the young women's and primary presidencies. I've had every music calling that exists in the church. I was a ward missionary. I was a relief society teacher, and I taught gospel doctrine for 6 years.

24

Megan: I have a great deal of respect for the majority of the people I encountered during my time in the church.

25

Megan: I believe that most members of the church are good people, trying to live good lives. I fully recognize that plenty of people have gone through an entire lifetime in the church, and have only experienced relatively small amounts of harm.

26

Megan: I also recognize the experiences of many people who have been deeply harmed during their time in the Lds Church.

27

Megan: I recognize that some people who have been harmed during their time in the Church, weren't harmed by actual church leaders or by actual teachings of the Church.

28

Megan: But I also recognize that there are literally thousands of people who have been harmed

29

Megan: by people in church leadership roles.

30

Megan: and I would argue that there are hundreds of thousands of people who've been harmed by the doctrine and the teachings of the Church. Whether they were members or not.

31

Megan: I personally had a lot of harmful experiences in the Church, I believe, partially because I belonged to what was called a Part Member family. I think I was looked at differently in the church, and I definitely was looked at differently as a young mother before I was endowed in the Temple.

32

Megan: and I know for a fact that I got left out of a lot of social situations outside of church contact, because my husband was not an active member. I didn't get invited to things because they thought he wouldn't want to attend, or they didn't know him very well, because he wasn't at church, so they didn't know if he was a safe person to invite to social activities.

33

Megan: So my criticism of the Lds. Church is not aimed at the individual members who are doing their best to live good lives. My criticism of the Lds Church

34

Megan: is also not aimed at the church leaders, who are doing their best to live good lives and care for the people that they serve largely on a volunteer basis.

35

Megan: My criticism is aimed at the doctrine and the policies that are harmful and at the people in church leadership who have harmed people either directly by their words and actions, or indirectly by the by, their failure to act or speak.

36

Megan: There also is a general policy of the way that the Church is run, which I don't really think is healthy, and there are a couple of things I'm going to talk about here.

37

Megan: I believe that 2 of the very important traits that we, as human beings, need to develop if we ever want to be fully healed and truly authentic are one to give criticism without judgment. And that's what I'm attempting to do here.

38

Megan: and 2

39

Megan: to accept criticism without shame. And that's what I've tried to do when I've received comments of pushback from members of the church wanting to call me out or tell me that I'm wrong for being critical of the Lbs church.

40

Megan: I also believe that sometimes we accept a way of life with blind faith, because many other people have chosen that way of life and have turned out just fine. And I'm not just talking about faith here, or church traditions or religions. I'm also talking about the idea of going to college and getting a job and having a mortgage and having a family. All of those are ways of life that sometimes we accept just because that's what the majority of society around us does.

41

Megan: But there, again, if we want to live a fully healed and truly authentic life, we need to question everything

42

Megan: not necessarily all at once, but yes, everything.

43

Megan: I'm constantly in the process of examining really big things like whether or not I want to continue to live in the United States. And really small things like are my kitchen cabinets, organized in the most efficient manner for doing dishes and prepping food.

44

Megan: These examinations have led to changes both big and small, but every change along the way has made my life better and happier and more peaceful.

45

Megan: And that's what the midlife revolution is all about. It's getting to a point in your life where you're willing to start questioning everything and making some little changes.

46

Megan: The majority of my family are still faithful members of the Lds Church, and I would never shame or disparage them or anyone else because of their faith.

47

Megan: It is also never my intention to tear down anyone's faith, or to try and bring people out of the church.

48

Megan: My faith crisis was one of the most difficult things I've ever been through in my entire life, and I still get emotional when I think about how painful it was.

49

Megan: I would never wish such an experience on anyone, nor will I ever try to convince someone against their will to examine truth claims unless they're fully prepared that they may not, they may not like what they find.

50

Megan: Therefore.

51

Megan: having stated my intentions fully, I would ask that if you are a faithful, believing member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and you are happy with your faith, and it's bringing nothing but positivity into your life, you can continue to consume my content, knowing that my criticisms come from a place of wanting to make the church a healthier place for the people who stay not out of a desire to destroy anyone's faith or to attack anyone. Personally.

52

Megan: Today I want to examine 3 things that I think are unhealthy about the Lds. Church, in the hopes that it will help faithful members understand a perspective that disagrees with their own.

53

Megan: and I'm hopeful it will help those within the Church to help make the Lds Church a healthier organization overall.

54

Megan: I believe that all organizations and systems should be regularly examined to determine where they are, on the spectrum of healthy and unhealthy.

55

Megan: For me personally. That means taking a regular inventory of all the things that exist in my life.

56

Megan: and asking myself if the groups and the organizations and systems that I belong to are healthy for me and my children, and whether or not, they're still serving a valuable purpose in my life.

57

Megan: And yes, I believe that an organization that holds itself out to be God's one true Church on the earth ought to be examined with careful scrutiny, and held to the highest possible standard.

58

Megan: I believe it was general authority. J. Reuben Clark, who said, if we have the truth, it cannot be harmed by investigation.

59

Megan: If we have not the truth, it ought to be harmed.

60

Megan: So at this point I want to examine some objective facts about the Lds church and how it's being run.

61

Megan: I'm not going to touch on any discussion about whether or not the writings or experiences of Joseph Smith are true and accurate in this episode.

62

Megan: but I will give a self-care warning for those of you who are faithful, believing members of the Lds church. If you're still listening, that you may not like some of the things that you hear.

63

Megan: because the official story that gets presented is not often the whole story.

64

Megan: Sometimes when the leadership of the Church talk about statistics or finances or other situations, they don't give an entire picture, and I think it's really important to listen to both the leaders of the Church, and also other sources that are critical of the Church in order to get the full understanding.

65

Megan: When I was a faithful, believing member, I tended to dismiss anything negative about the Church as anti-mormon lies. I think many of us were taught to think that way. I certainly was, and I think that some of the church leadership encourages that way of thinking as well.

66

Megan: The reason I think this is an effective tactic is because when we look at Mormon history, it is true that Mormons have historically been persecuted.

67

Megan: It is also true that many faithful people gave their lives for what they believed.

68

Megan: Therefore many faithful members of the Lds church have somewhat of a persecution complex, where they believe that anything negative being said, is a form of persecution.

69

Megan: However, this is a very closed-minded approach, because it only considers one side of the equation.

70

Megan: Yes, early members of the church were persecuted. But looking at the other side of the equation means asking why they were persecuted and listening to the perspectives and the experiences of the people who were doing the quote unquote, persecuting.

71

Megan: After reading some of their perspectives and experiences, I believe that many of the persecutors of the early Church genuinely felt threatened by large populations of Mormons suddenly moving into their communities.

72

Megan: I believe also that many of them were concerned for their livelihoods, because Mormons tended to only do business with other Mormons, and that really hasn't changed a lot. By the way, which meant that if you were the only grocer, or Ferrier, or doctor in your town, and you had a thriving business.

73

Megan: And then Mormons started moving in, taking up space and resources that meant fewer resources for the existing residents and people quickly learned that the Mormons moving in would not be doing business with the existing merchants. The Mormons would establish their own grocery store, their own doctor's office, their own Ferrier, etc.

74

Megan: Now, that doesn't mean that violence was justified

75

Megan: in these cases. But that's a rabbit hole for another time.

76

Megan: I'm only using that as an example, in the hopes that people will, you will approach the information that I'm giving with an open mind rather than dismissing it as anti-mormon lies. Again, the things I'm about to discuss are objective facts, and by objective I mean that they're verifiable through multiple independent resources, not reporting with an anti-mormon agenda.

77

Megan: And for today I'm going to stick to 3 topics, policies, finances.

78

Megan: and statistics.

79

Megan: So first, the Lds church defines policy and doctrine as 2 separate things. If you go to church of Jesus Christ Org, which is the website for the Lds church, the Gospel living Section States

80

Megan: quote, put simply, policies can change. But doctrine is rooted in eternal truths that never change.

81

Megan: Readers are also directed to a video featuring featuring Elder Ulyssa. Ula.

82

Megan: Let me try that again, readers are also directed to a video featuring Elder Ulysses Suarez, of the quorum of the 12 Apostles and Craig Christensen of the 70.

83

Megan: In this video elder Suarez quotes a Scripture from Matthew, where Jesus Christ tells his apostles to go and teach all nations.

84

Megan: He points out that teaching all nations includes the Gentiles who are not well looked upon at the time.

85

Megan: Elder Suarez indicates that this was a policy change by Jesus Christ to his apostles.

86

Megan: He goes on to posit that when Jesus did this he entitled future Leaders to make policy changes with changing circumstances and needs.

87

Megan: Craig Christensen offers the opinion that doctrine doesn't change, but that policies govern the way that we apply the doctrine

88

Megan: under those definitions I would argue that offering the blessings of the temple and the priesthood to black people was a policy change and not a revelation, as is indicated in the official declaration offered by church leadership in 1 78. But again, that's a topic for another time.

89

Megan: So now that we understand how church leadership defines the differences between policy and doctrine, or

90

Megan: at least I think I understand it.

91

Megan: I want to discuss the one policy that has given me the most consternation. Over the years. In November of 2 15 the Lds. Church announced a policy change that affected the children of gay and Lesbian couples

92

Megan: within the Church.

93

Megan: The policy indicated that these children could only get baptized at the age of 8 if they denounced their parents' homosexual lifestyle.

94

Megan: I want to offer that policy contains a very harmful requirement.

95

Megan: It requires of a child of 8 years old to differentiate himself from his parents in such a way that risks the attachment of that child to his parents and the belonging that child feels in the family environment.

96

Megan: It's just as harmful, if not more so as asking an 8 year old child of a faithful Lds family not to get baptized

97

Megan: in both of those cases. An eight-year-old child does not yet have the emotional maturity required to understand all of the consequences of such a choice.

98

Megan: In both of those cases you're asking an eight-year-old child to risk abandonment by his parents and family.

99

Megan: and in the psyche of an 8 year old child facing abandonment is akin to facing death.

100

Megan: This policy also labeled Same-sex Marriage as an act of apostasy, meaning that gay and Lesbian couples who chose to get legally married, faced excommunication.

101

Megan: This harmful policy remained in effect for almost 4 years.

102

Megan: In April of 2019 the Lds Church reversed its policy.

103

Megan: The current policy now reads children of parents who identify themselves as Lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender, may now be blessed as infants and baptized in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints without first Presidency approval.

104

Megan: In addition, the Church will no longer characterize same gender marriage by a church member as apostasy for purposes of church discipline.

105

Megan: although it is still considered a serious transgression. End of quote.

106

Megan: Members who commit what the Church considers a serious transgression are subject to discipline, which is now called a membership review

107

Megan: discipline that is most often applied to such a member is that the member may no longer take the sacrament, pray, speak, or perform in public meetings, and may not hold a calling.

108

Megan: However, we know that there are some individual congregations that do allow gay couples who've been legally married to take the sacrament and hold callings.

109

Megan: These policy changes and inconsistencies in the application of discipline are confusing for everyone, and particularly harmful to gay lesbian and transgender members who have previously been disciplined and or excommunicated and shunned and shamed in their Mormon communities.

110

Megan: As a faithful, believing member of the Lds. Church in 2,015, I cried, when the original policy change was read over the pulpit and sacrament meeting.

111

Megan: At the time I was also a choir director, and I frequently brought my students to sing in church at Christmas and Easter.

112

Megan: I asked myself.

113

Megan: how can I possibly bring my Lgbtq students into this church when I know that harm is being caused to so many members of the Lgbtq community who belong to the Church.

114

Megan: How will my students believe that I love and care about them when I'm affiliated with an organization that actively harms members of the Lgbtq community.

115

Megan: What if one of my children was Lgbtq?

116

Megan: Would I choose to continue to be a member of the church that harms my children.

117

Megan: This was before 2 of my sons came out to me

118

Megan: at the time. I also knew that I was bisexual, but I bargained with myself that the Church was true, and that my bisexual feelings could be repressed so that I could remain faithful, and that God would work it all out later.

119

Megan: I know that general authorities have warned members against engaging and advocacy for the Church to change its policies.

120

Megan: However, I also know that leaders, and especially bishops, have a lot of individual flexibility, both given to them by Church leadership and by their own interpretations of the church handbook in the way that they handle interactions with individual members.

121

Megan: It's my hope that by bringing up this issue it will help members and leadership to understand the harms of these policies

122

Megan: and to accept the perspectives and experiences of Lgbtq. Individuals who are still in the church, and those who have chosen to leave.

123

Megan: Second is a topic that's a little bit easier.

124

Megan: When I was teaching gospel doctrine the lesson Manual often wanted teachers to focus on the threefold mission of the Church.

125

Megan: At the time I started teaching gospel doctrine. Those missions were one to preach the gospel.

126

Megan: 2 to perfect the saints, and 3 to redeem the dead.

127

Megan: It was not until 2,009 that the Lds Church finally added, caring for the poor and needy as a part of its mission statement.

128

Megan: I find that particularly odd coming from a church that bears the name of Jesus Christ, who spent much of his time caring for the poor and needy, and preaching that this is what we should all be doing.

129

Megan: Defenders of the Church will likely say that we have always been encouraged to care for the poor and needy, and we've always had a policy of giving fast offerings just for that purpose. And I agree that that's true.

130

Megan: What is also true, however, is that

131

Megan: the Lds church is, in fact, a corporation.

132

Megan: It's actually a collection of corporations.

133

Megan: And here are all the names of the separate corporations affiliated with the Lds. Church.

134

Megan: and this information can be found

135

Megan: at philanthropies. Dot Church of Jesus christ.org.

136

Megan: So the legal names of separately incorporated charities affiliated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

137

Megan: So these are corporations that are incorporated as charities.

138

Megan: Brigham Young, University.

139

Megan: Brigham Young, University, Hawaii.

140

Megan: Brigham Young, University, Idaho.

141

Megan: the corporation of the President of the Church of Jesus Christ, of Latter-day Saints.

142

Megan: the Corporation of the Presiding Bishop of the Church of Jesus Christ, of Latter-day Saints.

143

Megan: Latter Day Saint Charities, LDS. Business college

144

Megan: and the Polynesian Cultural Center.

145

Megan: So for those of you who visit Hawaii and go to the Polynesian cultural center. It is a corporation that is owned by the Church.

146

Megan: Now each of these entities are nonprofit corporations, except

147

Megan: the 2 that govern the Church, the presiding sorry, the corporation of the President of the Church of Jesus Christ, of Latter-day Saints, and the corporation of the presiding Bishop of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Those are corporations sole

148

Megan: which, if you go to the Utah, a secretary, estate page, you will see a corporation. Seoul is a legal entity consisting of a single incorporated office occupied by occupied by a single natural person. So, for example, the profit

149

Megan: this structure allows corporations often religious corporations to pass without interruption from one office holder to the next, giving positions, legal continuity with subsequent officeholders having identical powers and possessions to their predecessors.

150

Megan: A corporation sole is one of 2 types of corporate corporation, the other being a corporation aggregate, which is more of a group or conglomerate.

151

Megan: Now these are religious corporations. And again, the definition of a religious corporation is a type of religious nonprofit organization which has been incorporated under the law. Often these types of corporations are recognized under the law on a subnational level, for instance, by a State or Province government.

152

Megan: The government agency responsible for regulating such corporations is usually the official holder of records, for instance, the Secret Secretary of State

153

Megan: in the United States religious Corporations corporations are formed, like all other nonprofit corporations, by filing articles of incorporation with the State.

154

Megan: Religious corporation articles need to have the standard tax exempt language. The Irs requires.

155

Megan: Religious corporations are permitted to designate a person to act in the capacity of corporation soul. That would be the prophet or the presiding bishop. This is a person who acts as the official holder of the title on the properties, etc.

156

Megan: So key aspects of a nonprofit corporation. I have some knowledge about this because I formed a nonprofit myself. It is not a fully formed legal entity yet, but I went through a lot of this process when I was trying to get this set up in the State of Texas.

157

Megan: but it says, key aspects of nonprofits are accountability, trustworthiness, honesty, and openness to every person

158

Megan: who has invested time, money, and faith into the organization.

159

Megan: Nonprofit organizations are accountable to the donors, founders, volunteers, program recipients, and the public community.

160

Megan: theoretically, for a nonprofit that seeks to finance. Its operations through donations public confidence is a factor in the amount of money that a nonprofit organization is able to raise.

161

Megan: Supposedly, the more a nonprofit focuses on their mission, the more public confidence they will gain.

162

Megan: This will result in more money for the organization.

163

Megan: The activities a nonprofit is partaking in can help build the public's confidence in nonprofits, as well as how ethical the standards and practices are.

164

Megan: and what I want us to keep in mind as we review the next pieces of information is that the key aspects of nonprofits are accountability.

165

Megan: trustworthiness, honesty, and openness to every person

166

Megan: who has invested time, money, and faith into the organization. So each of those

167

Megan: individual

168

Megan: people.

169

Megan: members of the Church of Jesus Christ, of Latter-day Saints, who work as volunteers in the Church, and who have donated a lot of time and effort to the organization, and then, in addition, donate at least 10% of their income for tithing and an even greater amount if they're paying fast offerings.

170

Megan: so we'll come back to that a little bit later, after review, we review some information that I would like to take a look at.

171

Megan: I am going to share my screen with you so that I can share with you an article that was written in the Salt Lake Tribune.

172

Megan: This is about the largely publicized allegations of Federal violations that occurred when the Lds. Church

173

Megan: was sanctioned by the Irs and the Securities Exchange Committee

174

Megan: for failing to report

175

Megan: their stocks properly.

176

Megan: We'll just go through this article and then address some things at the end.

177

Megan: So

178

Megan: investment managers for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints face fresh allegations that they dodged Federal reporting laws in connection with the Utah based. Faith, mammoth stock portfolio. And just so that you know this article comes from the Salt Lake Tribune, which is independent from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the article was published

179

Megan: in April of 2024.

180

Megan: The new assertions involve Ensign Peak advisors, the church investment arm, and a period between 2,002 and 2,019, when Federal regulators have previously said, the 2 sought to obscure the breadth and the depth of the Faith's portfolio by spreading it among more than a dozen separately reporting shell companies.

181

Megan: That behavior which regulators say effectively, let Ensign Peak avoid attention by evading a hundred 1 million dollar reporting threshold on its holdings led to a 5 million dollars settlement last year with the US. Securities and Exchange Commission.

182

Megan: Ensign Peak paid 4 million dollars, and the Church paid 1 million dollars.

183

Megan: Those same securities laws enforced by the Scc. Are also require that institutional investors report through filings under what is known as Schedule 13 G. When they hold 5% or more of the outstanding shares of a publicly traded company's stock.

184

Megan: Analysts with the Widows might report website, say that they have found at least 7 instances in which the combined shares held by Ensign Peak in a handful of public stocks.

185

Megan: Through those shell Llcs exceeded that 5% threshold without the firm filing 13 G forms. Now, the widows might report, is a collection of people both inside and outside the Lds. Church, who, through their ethics have decided that they want

186

Megan: the church to have more transparency about its financial and statistical reporting. And so they come together in an effort to publish a watchdog report that more accurately reflects what the church is doing with its money.

187

Megan: So going back to the article, the investment firm's stock trading patterns at the time, according to the site, also reveal that Ensign Peak may have been aware its ownership had climbed above the 5% reporting trigger.

188

Megan: It appears widows might added that this failure to report to regulators was not accidental.

189

Megan: The Site's authors, called Ensign speaks.

190

Megan: Ensign Peaks, violations of 13 G rules quote another indicator of decades of poor internal controls and a top-down policy of selective compliance among church investment entities unquote.

191

Megan: These potential violations, it added, exposed Ensign Peak to legal risk.

192

Megan: When asked about the latest allegations. A church. Spokesperson did not provide a response, while an inquiry directed to Ensign Peak advisors went unanswered.

193

Megan: In the previous Sec. Case the worldwide faith of 17.2 million members stated that it relied on, quote legal counsel.

194

Megan: regretted, regretted its quote mistakes, and considered the matter closed. That was from an address by Dallin Oakes.

195

Megan: How the Federal agency may be reacting to the new accusations, if at all, and whether it is again investigating, remained an open question.

196

Megan: A spokesperson told the Salt Lake Tribune that the Sec. Does not comment on the existence or nonexistence of a possible investigation.

197

Megan: so the widows might report. Launched in 2021 is produced by a cadre of unnamed current and former church members with professional backgrounds in business, finance, law, real estate, education, data, science, and related fields. The experts regularly publish studies on the Church's finances, land holdings, charity work, temple construction, and other aspects of the Faith's estimated 265 billion dollars in wealth based on public documents and market data.

198

Megan: Here's a graph that shows that the Lds church gained 3.7 billion dollars on its investments just in the fourth quarter of 2023, and that brought the portfolio of the stocks and mutual funds managed by Ensign Peak to 50 billion dollars as 2023 closed.

199

Megan: So the widows might's latest findings, detailed recently online, emerge more than a year after the Sec. Announced the 5 million dollars settlement, stating that the top church officials had authorized the creation of 13 shell companies, partly to evade public reporting laws and obscure the size of the Faith's investment portfolio.

200

Megan: That settlement involved so-called 13 F. Violations under the Securities Exchange Act, which is designed to ensure market transparency when large investors accumulate shares in publicly traded firms.

201

Megan: according to the widows, might in late 2,002, when Ensign Peak first began reporting to the Sec. Using the series of shell companies. One of its shells, Whitney asset management, held a combined stake in a Massachusetts energy firm called Tc. Pipelines, now owned by Tc. Energy of 6.5% of all its

202

Megan: outstanding shares. So Whitney asset management, which was one of the Shell corporations that the Lds. Church used or the the Ensign Peak advisors fund used

203

Megan: owned 6.5% of Tc pipelines.

204

Megan: and that violates the 5% ownership rule, and they would have had to file the 13 G report with the Sec. If that was the case

205

Megan: back to the article. Analysis indicates, Ensign Peak officials appear to have noticed Whitney had exceeded the 5% trigger, and gradually winnowed its stake in Tc. Pipelines over the next 6 months, bringing it by the end of September 2,003 to 4.9 9 9, where it remained for at least another 2 quarters.

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Megan: Yet none of those events widows might noted prompted Ensign Peak or Whitney to file a 13 G. Report.

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Megan: Ensign Peak violated a similar reporting requirement in February of 2,003. The site said, after Whitney's stake in Atlanta based real Estate Investment Trust, Jdn. Realty had climbed to 6.1% of that firm's shares the previous quarter.

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Megan: even though Jdn. Was acquired by another company less than a month before Ensign Peaks, 13 G filing deadline widows might stated it was still obligated to report. Whitney's stake had risen above 5%.

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Megan: So I'm going to go now to the actual widows might report

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Megan: which can be found

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Megan: on the Internet at widows might report.wordpress.com.

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Megan: And I want to look at another aspect that is somewhat troubling to me. So this is moving from finances

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Megan: on to

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Megan: statistical reporting.

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Megan: However, I just want to comment that objectively. The Lds church behaved unethically.

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Megan: The church leadership broke the law, and that's the thing that's confusing to me about the whole situation.

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Megan: They stated that they were under

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Megan: are acting under the advice of attorneys, and I don't understand

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Megan: why they weren't acting under the advice of God.

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Megan: If the prophet or the President of the Church speaks directly to God, and receives revelation from him about how to direct the worldwide Church. Why did they not ask God how they should handle their finances.

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Megan: I don't think that God would have directed them to form shell corporations and deliberately attempt to conceal the amount of money that they had in investments.

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Megan: The spokesperson for the Church said in an interview afterwards that they didn't want people to know how much money they have, because then people would try to tell them how to spend it.

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Megan: and I don't understand how. That's a valid concern, because people tell church leadership all the time how they think the church leaders should be doing things, but the church leadership shoots back that they're acting under the direction of God. So I don't understand why they would not just do that. In this case

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Megan: this type of behavior is confusing to members and non members alike. Members want to believe that the church leadership says

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Megan: that they are speaking directly to God, and acting in a manner that he directs his church. But when their actions don't match the character of God, that we've been led to understand in the Scriptures.

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Megan: It's very confusing.

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Megan: So I want to go back to that key aspects of a nonprofit

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Megan: accountability.

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Megan: trustworthiness.

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Megan: honesty.

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Megan: and openness to every person who has invested time, money, and faith into the organization. So under that definition, saying that the Church didn't want people to know how much money that they have

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Megan: is sort of a slap in the face to members, because they are accountable to the members for how they spend the tithing dollars that has been donated to the church. They constantly say it's the Lord's money, it's the Lord's Church. So why are they not spending it in quote unquote the Lord's way. And why are they behaving unethically?

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Megan: When I started to more closely examine the behavior of the members of church leadership, I felt betrayed.

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Megan: I felt as though I had been lied to.

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Megan: I didn't realize previously that church leadership gets paid, paid a sizable stipend and other significant benefits.

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Megan: I previously understood that their housing was paid paid for, but I also thought that their own retirement and or savings is what they were living on.

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Megan: Then I came across the widows might report.

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Megan: This report is generated by former and current employees of the Lds Church Corporation. As I said before, they use public sources and some private information to compile annual reports about the Church's finances, because they have a shared belief that the Church should be more transparent about its finances, and should be held accountable for their expenditures and investments.

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Megan: and because the Church has become less transparent over the years.

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Megan: these anonymous individuals! Individuals have decided to publish this report that more accurately reflects the Church's expenditures and accounting and statistics.

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Megan: The main reason I'm bringing this up as a subject is that it's troubling to me is because if the mission of the Church is actually to care for the poor and needy, I'm disturbed at the small amount of money they actually put towards that cause, in contrast with the amount of money that they

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Megan: have a mast

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Megan: in land, wealth, buildings, salaries, and investments.

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Megan: So let's take a look at the report.

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Megan: What does the most?

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Megan: What does the Lds church pay? Its most senior clergy

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Megan: for? 2024? We estimate $178,000 in equivalent taxable salary for the living allowance offered to the Lds. Church's 117 general authorities, and there are some asterisks. It's here which I always am going to encourage people to go down and read the fine print.

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Megan: So

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Megan: they're saying that parsonage, which is clergy housing.

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Megan: is about 25% of the allowance, and it's not taxed. So one 178,000 is the taxable salary equivalent

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Megan: of the estimated base allowance of a hundred $62,000,

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Megan: and there are Irs rules on parsonage which the church is trying to follow there with the caps on that, and then calculating the 117 general authorities.

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Megan: is the 3 people in the first Presidency.

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Megan: the 12 apostles.

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Megan: the general authority, 70 s. Of which there are 99,

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Megan: and the 3 members of the presiding Bishop Rick.

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Megan: Now this here's another disturbing part of this general auxiliary leaders are not full time general authorities. So that means that the leadership of the young men's organization, the Young Women's organization, the Relief Society, and the primary.

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Megan: are receiving no compensation at all.

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Megan: So that means that of all the general authorities that sit on the stand.

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Megan: 117 of them are being compensated.

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Megan: and 3 men are not being compensated.

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Megan: and 12 women

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Megan: are not being compensated.

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Megan: So the only women who actually hold authoritative positions in the church are not being compensated for that time while their male counterparts are.

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Megan: Now, they're putting their salary estimate at $178,000, because they're calculating some of that for their housing allowance, as well

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Megan: with vehicle and per child allowance. We estimate direct general authority, compensation at 188,000, plus retirement and health benefits

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Megan: and apostles may receive extra perks, and if you go down to the 3 Asterisks is here in the report, it talks about the for the vehicle. They're assuming a $400 a month lease

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Megan: at about 10,000 miles per year.

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Megan: and the per child allowance at one child per average, general authority household.

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Megan: and then for apostles, this is so important, and it's down here in the 5 print fine print.

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Megan: When someone becomes an apostle, a 1 million dollar consolidation loan or gift is given.

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Megan: we assumed the loan to be repaid at death.

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Megan: Executive health and retirement. Benefits are assumed at 40% of equivalent taxable salary modestly above the byu faculty averages. So

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Megan: the 12 apostles of the Church are given a 1 million dollar quote unquote loan when they become an apostle. With that 1 million dollars. They can pay off any debts that they have. They can make investments and retirement accounts. They can do whatever they want with that 1 million dollars, and then it doesn't have to be repaid until their death. And so one could argue that they're receiving basically an interest free loan.

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Megan: And I think that's what widows might has calculated down here.

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Megan: for the 15 apostles. So it's the 12 Apostles and the 3 members of the Presidency of the Church.

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Megan: and they're saying,

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Megan: that they're calculating

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Megan: a I'm gonna hide this because that'll make it easier

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Megan: because it keeps popping up and blocking my view.

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Megan: They're calculating for the 15 apostles $40,000 per year of the time. Value of money cost out of a 1 million dollars, interest-free loan at a 4% risk-free rate.

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Megan: The Church has long maintained that the general authority compensation is out of profits on invested tithing, not tithing itself.

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Megan: So the profits that come from investing that tightening. So if they put a million dollars in a stock fund, and over the course of year it gains $500,000, which would be a huge gain. I I agree.

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Megan: but they take that $500,000 and reinvest it in other things, and they pay the compensation for general authorities out of that money, not out of the original tithing money to me. That's not that important of a distinction, because interest on tithing money, I still believe, should be considered the Lord's money

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Megan: anyway.

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Megan: So with vehicle and per child allowance, we estimate direct to general authority compensation at $188,000 a year, plus retirement and health benefits, and the apostles receive the extra perk of a million dollar loan and the the healthcare and retirement benefits also. These payments have historically risen by 3.1 each year, roughly matching long term inflation, inflation.

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Megan: We estimate the church will spend about 29 million dollars on general authority compensation in 2024 19.5 million on base allowances and 9.5 million dollars in benefits. And you can see that that's increased from the year 2,000, where it was $86,052, and that they have documented

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Megan: the last year that they have documented proof of the salary. Compensation is in 2014, when it rose to $131,812, and based on the trends that they observed prior to that they're projecting this out at a 3.1% rate of inflation increase in the salary, so that these are definitely our estimates. They're very open about seeing the last year that they had documented report

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Megan: of the compensation was in 2014.

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Megan: So.

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Megan: going on with this compensation idea.

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Megan: It was troubling to me to find out that general authorities receive compensation at all, but to find out how huge that compensation is in comparison with the

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Megan: cost of living in Utah and the average salary in Utah, and the membership of the Church worldwide, many of whom are in very poor developing countries, many of whom arguably are probably suffering from poverty.

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Megan: It just feels wrong to me, especially when there is such a huge amount of wealth that the Church has in its power, possibly to

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Megan: alleviate some of these poverty, situations, and concerns of their very own members.

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Megan: It just seems like there ought to be a plan to take care of that at some point. So this slide compares the church employment, follows a tiered salary, hierarchy, and just remember, again, that none of the women general authorities are being compensated at all. And they're basically saying that employees with more tenure receive greater pay. So general authorities are paid more than all other employee cohorts.

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Megan: The general authority allowance is 75 to 95% above the Median Utah household income

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Megan: and 2 times higher than the average church employee. Salary.

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Megan: Again, you can look at these slides, at the widows might report.wordpress.com forward, slash, Comp.

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Megan: Which is short for compensation.

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Megan: And it's really just sad and troubling to me to go through these slides and realize that most likely

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Megan: most members don't know that this is taking place.

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Megan: You can see here there's another slide of the church affiliates 22,500 full time. Equivalent employees do receive employee benefit plans.

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Megan: And they they're switching from a pension plan over to a 401 KK. Plan and employees working a thousand plus hours are auto enrolled in the Pension plan based on these filings. We estimate that all of the employees at the church and its affiliates are full time, their full-time equivalents, and these are the estimates for their compensation for 401 k. Plan, or the number of employees that are receiving those benefits

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Megan: on the next slide. It's employment by operating division, and there are about 10 more slides after this that detail the compensation of the various church corporations and the amount of money that they receive and pay out for me. I just

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Megan: found it valuable to finally have true information from the Church, and to be able to see these statistics, and how disappointing it is to me that they seem to be not transparent about the amount of compensation that's received. I certainly had never heard of the 1 million dollar loan before I read this report, and it's again

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Megan: disappointing.

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Megan: So a lot of the statistics that are reported in the widows might report

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Megan: have to do with membership totals. And

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Megan: that's the final topic that I want to address

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Megan: today.

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Megan: because the church reports that

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Megan: there are just over 17 million members of the church who are active worldwide.

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Megan: and you can see here on the windows might report all of the different things that they report on. There's a general report that kind of goes over the highlight, and then it breaks it down by income and expenditures. Real estate land ownership temples. The Wall Street Journal reports

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Megan: validated their Temple cost estimates. They talk about Ensign Peak and all of the updates and the Sec violation settlement.

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Megan: Part of the reason that I found that settlement somewhat troubling is because of the statement that the church came out with at the end, which omitted a lot of the information that would have been really pertinent. There's also an analysis on the caring for those in need. And if we click on this annual report, we can see the Church's

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Megan: reporting on how much they spent

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Megan: on church welfare and humanitarian aid.

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Megan: So if we look at total, charitable expenses in 2023, you can see that the total expenditure was 1.3 6 billion dollars.

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Megan: and this blue section at the top, which is the smallest section.

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Megan: is what the church operations donated, and that includes family services counseling the farms and processing sites, the employment centers and Deseret industries.

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Megan: And then the second section up here is the Bishop's storehouse.

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Megan: which accounted for a small portion of the expenditures and donations. Donations over 2023.

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Megan: The largest amount

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Megan: comes from fast offering assistance, which is the temporary financial help that is given to members in need.

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Megan: But those are completely separate donations to the Church

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Megan: other than tidying, and they don't include anything to do with the Church's

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Megan: massive wealth.

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Megan: that is in investment holdings.

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Megan: So of the 1.3 6,000,000,001.3 6 billion dollars that was donated in 2023. The vast majority of that came from fast offering donations that were made by members and not from the Church's huge

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Megan: financial holdings.

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Megan: So on this next slide we see some members may be designating tithing as humanitarian aid, and this is actually an excellent idea. I think if you're troubled of the amount of money that the Church is amassing and then putting into investment funds.

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Megan: It says here that members in the Uk donated 80% more to humanitarian aid in 2,022 versus 2,016, while tithing and fast offerings rose by just 10% and 1% over the same time period, and it's possible that some members around the world have decided to pay their 10% tithe

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Megan: into the Church's Humanitarian Aid Fund instead of the tithing fund

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Megan: in an attempt to influence how their tidying is used. So if you prefer that your tidying dollars go towards actually funding humanitarian aid rather than

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Megan: into the investment portfolio. You could designate it as humanitarian aid donation.

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Megan: You could also give it in general offerings, and you can also donate it as a fast offering, and you can also donate it to the Bishop and tell him exactly what you want it to be used. For for example, one member in my ward who passed away, left a significant amount of money to the specific congregation, and deemed that it be used to take the youth on a Church history trip

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Megan: to go and visit Navv and Independence, Missouri, and things like that. So if you have an idea that you want to give money to the church, but you want it to go to something that is specifically beneficial to something that you care about. You can designate that to your bishop.

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Megan: and they should honor that

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Megan: large humanitarian donations doubled again in 2023, and during the 60 min interview that was done after the sec. Scandal, the church spokesperson did say.

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Megan: we will double the humanitarian work again, and then again, and the widows might report that that actually did happen. So it's interesting to look as well at the humanitarian donations over the course of time

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Megan: from 2,020, where they were just 10 million dollars a year, 2021. They were 32 million dollars a year, and a large portion of that was a Covid relief response.

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Megan: In $2,02261,000,000, of which 4 million was Covid, relief and general humanitarian was 5 million dollars, and then

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Megan: in 2021, the fourth quarter of 2021 was when the Widows Might was first published.

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Megan: and certainly I think the Church was aware that this was published. And then what happened is that in 2022, giving doubled from 32 million to 61 million almost doubled.

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Megan: and then in 2023,

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Megan: it did almost double again from 61 million in 2022 to 110 to 115 million in 2023. So it appears that the widows might report

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Megan: had an effect on the Church's giving, and had a positive effect on the Church's giving, and that the Church is living up to that

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Megan: declaration that they were going to double the humanitarian work and then double it again. Looks like they've done that, and I'm grateful to the widows might report for helping to make that happen.

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Megan: So they do want to accelerate the giving to charitable causes. And I think that that's really wonderful. And I think that you can see firsthand right here from the widows might report how advocacy and transparency is helping the Church to become a healthier place.

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Megan: and

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Megan: I really greatly appreciate that, and I hope that it continues, and I hope that there continues to be more positive change that happens. As a result of this.

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Megan: I want to go down and talk about. One more thing which I mentioned just a little bit earlier is that all of these financial calculations, or a lot of them, are based on membership totals, and that the Church of Jesus Christ has

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Megan: basically said that their membership is around

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Megan: 17.1 million members. At this current time, however, the widows might report.

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Megan: did some calculations based on some different statistics.

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Megan: They publish growth statistics. Statistics the church does, but they, the widows, might report examined 3 different data sets with relevance to member activity. First of all, they measure donations

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Megan: in 5 countries.

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Megan: They measured surveys which were done by the National United States Survey, administered by Ugov.

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Megan: They asked a demographic questions, such as including their religious affiliation and their worship service attendance. In other words, like, How often do you go to church? And the third metric that they included was full-time male elder Lds missionaries, and they used a 2 year rolling average to calculate these statistics.

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Megan: So what they did is, if you look at the church report, you see a steady growth from 11 million members in the year 2,000 to 17 million members in 2020,

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Megan: but again, always going to consider going down to look at the fine print, because it says, this is what the widows might report says, a source of overinflation in reported membership is that some inactive missing quote quote unquote, missing or lost members remain on the official roles until they are 110 years old.

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Megan: And if you go to look at the Temple work.

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Megan: members are not permitted to do the work for anyone who is not their family member

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Megan: until that person's birth date

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Megan: has exceeded a hundred 10 years past.

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Megan: So I'm going to give you just an example.

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Megan: One of my child, one of my children. My daughter, decided to stop going to church, but she did not remove her name from the records of the church.

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Megan: and they were able to keep track of her through. I guess 2, 2 or 3 different moves, but the church now does not have her current address. So if she doesn't go and remove her name from the records of the Church, the church is going to continue to count her as a member

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Megan: until she reaches a hundred 10 years old.

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Megan: So to me, that changes the the statistics of membership drastically, because who knows how many people there are out there who no longer attend church. No, no longer identify as Mormon.

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Megan: but haven't reached the age of 110 yet. So unless the church is informed of a member's death, or unless they receive a request to remove that person from the roles, they keep that person on the roles until that person has reached 110 years old. And that's why I think the membership statistic of 17 million is not accurate.

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Megan: and the widows might, has done the research to compare these statistics and agree.

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Megan: So these statistics are indexed, which means that they took a number at the year 2,000, and they considered that to be 100. And then we can, we can see the shift in percentage as the years go by. So for each of those 3

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Megan: indices that they're considering in green. Here is the number of households a member households who are paying a full tithe in the 5 countries that they that that the widows might looked at, and these are the top 5 tithe paying countries.

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Megan: You can see that the number of Member households paying full tithing

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Megan: has decreased

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Megan: for since 2015

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Megan: by approximately

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Megan: 20 ish percent or so, a little, a little less than 20%.

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Megan: It's gotten as low as 86% since they started tracking that statistic.

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Megan: The next one is the index of the percentage of Americans who identify as Mormon and claim to attend church at least monthly, which is the metric, by the way, that the church uses to define an active member if you attend at least once a month.

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Megan: so in 2010,

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Megan: that number since 2010, that number has decreased

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Megan: again, as as low as 64%. So it's decreased as much as 36% since 2,010.

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Megan: The final statistic that they take is the number of male members serving miss missions which has fallen

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Megan: since the year 2,000, with the exception of the year 2,012, which is when the male mission age was lowered from 19 to 18, and then again in 2,013, when young, the the age for young women was lowered from 21

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Megan: to 18, and then it rose again. During that time period, presumably because there were people who put in their papers when the change was made, and then they actually started serving in 2,014 in 2,015.

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Megan: So but since 2,000 overall, that statistic has fallen as low as 49%, and now it's back to 53, and so again fallen by around 47% since the year 2,000. So by these 3 metrics, if we take the average of those 3 metrics, and we apply that percentage to the churches reported of 17 million

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Megan: I believe that the widows might estimates that the the active church membership is somewhere around

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Megan: 6 million members or 6.5 million members. So you can see,

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Megan: that the widows might has done a lot of work to compare different data and metrics to those things.

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Megan: and you can go and learn more about it again just by visiting the widows might report

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Megan: dot wordpress.com.

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Megan: So

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Megan: just to recap.

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Megan: I have a great deal of respect for the people in my life who choose to stay in the Lds Church and remain faithful members. For me the actions of the church leadership have been disappointing and confusing.

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Megan: I'm hoping that the general membership, being aware of some of these problems, will find the workarounds like we talked about in the tidying situation of making. You're tidying a complete humanitarian aid donation or fast offering. Then you can still declare that you've paid your 10%.

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Megan: I think the Church has a huge amount of power and influence, especially in Utah, and I hope that they will use that power and influence to make positive changes in the world. Hopefully, the exposure that they've seen through the widows might report will spur them to making some positive changes, as they've already done.

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Megan: The amount of wealth that they've amassed would enable them to solve some serious global problems. And I hope that these first changes are a step in that direction. Again, the

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Megan: midlife revolution is all about making small changes that create revolutions in our lives, and I'm glad to see that the Church is doing some of that, and I hope that it continues. I hope that you, too, will continue to find small ways that you can revolutionize your life, and have a happier and a peaceful, more peaceful existence. Thank you for joining me on the midlife revolution, and I will see you again soon.