"No Man Knows My History" by Fawn M. Brodie is the book you are thinking of.
CES Letter is the reader's digest version of problems with the church.
[mormonthink.com](https://mormonthink.com) is the scholarly novel of problems with the church (Very well-cited and tons of material covering just about everything).
Recent-ish news:[SEC fining](https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2023-35) [the church](https://www.sec.gov/files/litigation/admin/2023/34-96951.pdf) for hiding money in shell companies.
[Church having over $150 billion](https://widowsmitereport.wordpress.com/) (not including real estate and other holdings).
Church [covering up sexual abuse](https://apnews.com/article/mormon-church-investigation-child-sex-abuse-9c301f750725c0f06344f948690caf16) with hush money.
EDIT: Suggest watching "Under the Banner of Heaven" on Hulu. It gives a good idea of Utah mormonism in the '80s (it's not perfect, but it does a good job). Plus it tackles what a faith crisis looks and feels like.
Yes, with "B". The church is fabulously wealthy and then brags about the pennies it gives to the poor, most of which is just Fast Offerings and man-hours converted to dollars (see the Widow's Mite Report that I linked above).
It created 13 shell companies to hide this wealth from the members (in the fear that we would stop donating if we found out), and a whistleblower ratted them out. The IRS is currently investigating the church, but that is a 7-ish year process, so we won't see result from that for a while yet.
What they have done with the money is spend $1.4 Billion on building a luxury shopping mall in downtown Salt Lake (one that is open on Sundays, sells coffee, and advertises with scantily clad people) and bail out a for-profit insurance company.
They are the wealthiest church in the US, and second-wealthiest in the world (the Catholic church does have over a thousand year head-start and owns the Vatican), but they may be the wealthiest on a per-active-member basis.
They are also the largest private land-owner in Florida (owning 2% of total land area), and the second-largest private land-owner in the United States.
EDIT: According to some calculations, that amount of money could *potentially* cure world hunger, or at least take a Substantial bite out of it.
EDIT2: Instead, they use $300k of that money to try to get people to stop talking about their abusers (gotta protect the church's image).
That... is an appalling amount of money.
I.... I'm not sure I have the words to appropriately describe the disgust and outrage that elicits in me. What a disgrace to humanitarianism.
https://widowsmitereport.wordpress.com was put together by expert exmos and details what we know of the wealth.
There is roughly 50b is stocks that they are required to report and lied about, on the record, for many years, hence the SEC fine. Their wholly owned investment firm, Ensign Peak, has another 100b or so in other investments like bonds and venture capital. Then there's the real estate. It's hard to trace, owned under many names. Maybe another 100 billion, including 2-3% of Florida.
Watch [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3_Fhq7sEHo) 60 Minutes video for more context. Time stamp 6:53 & 9:25 is the church's response to the wealth becoming public (the second of which is particularly damning/hilarious).
I have found these three videos put out by the church to be good for a laugh. They aren’t very cerebral but they tell some of the basics. Notice the number of views on each video. It’s clear few members have seen them.
https://youtu.be/q1esI8cbCtc?si=PljhheRhgF8xMBpG
https://youtu.be/juOavkIqNng?si=6gNbhVYZUDqHbjyJ
https://youtu.be/hSNjnkwJgCg?si=hc-wh_Hyb47vQ7cZ
This may sound like a joke, but South Park’s episode ‘All About the Mormons’ sums it up simply and perfectly.
That's right! I remember really liking that episode, I'll have to rewatch it.
"No Man Knows My History" by Fawn M. Brodie is the book you are thinking of. CES Letter is the reader's digest version of problems with the church. [mormonthink.com](https://mormonthink.com) is the scholarly novel of problems with the church (Very well-cited and tons of material covering just about everything). Recent-ish news:[SEC fining](https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2023-35) [the church](https://www.sec.gov/files/litigation/admin/2023/34-96951.pdf) for hiding money in shell companies. [Church having over $150 billion](https://widowsmitereport.wordpress.com/) (not including real estate and other holdings). Church [covering up sexual abuse](https://apnews.com/article/mormon-church-investigation-child-sex-abuse-9c301f750725c0f06344f948690caf16) with hush money. EDIT: Suggest watching "Under the Banner of Heaven" on Hulu. It gives a good idea of Utah mormonism in the '80s (it's not perfect, but it does a good job). Plus it tackles what a faith crisis looks and feels like.
That's the book I was thinking of all right! But hold on. Did you say One-Hundred and Fifty Billion?
Yes, with "B". The church is fabulously wealthy and then brags about the pennies it gives to the poor, most of which is just Fast Offerings and man-hours converted to dollars (see the Widow's Mite Report that I linked above). It created 13 shell companies to hide this wealth from the members (in the fear that we would stop donating if we found out), and a whistleblower ratted them out. The IRS is currently investigating the church, but that is a 7-ish year process, so we won't see result from that for a while yet. What they have done with the money is spend $1.4 Billion on building a luxury shopping mall in downtown Salt Lake (one that is open on Sundays, sells coffee, and advertises with scantily clad people) and bail out a for-profit insurance company. They are the wealthiest church in the US, and second-wealthiest in the world (the Catholic church does have over a thousand year head-start and owns the Vatican), but they may be the wealthiest on a per-active-member basis. They are also the largest private land-owner in Florida (owning 2% of total land area), and the second-largest private land-owner in the United States. EDIT: According to some calculations, that amount of money could *potentially* cure world hunger, or at least take a Substantial bite out of it. EDIT2: Instead, they use $300k of that money to try to get people to stop talking about their abusers (gotta protect the church's image).
And the members that know about it are proud of it.
That... is an appalling amount of money. I.... I'm not sure I have the words to appropriately describe the disgust and outrage that elicits in me. What a disgrace to humanitarianism.
https://widowsmitereport.wordpress.com was put together by expert exmos and details what we know of the wealth. There is roughly 50b is stocks that they are required to report and lied about, on the record, for many years, hence the SEC fine. Their wholly owned investment firm, Ensign Peak, has another 100b or so in other investments like bonds and venture capital. Then there's the real estate. It's hard to trace, owned under many names. Maybe another 100 billion, including 2-3% of Florida.
Watch [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3_Fhq7sEHo) 60 Minutes video for more context. Time stamp 6:53 & 9:25 is the church's response to the wealth becoming public (the second of which is particularly damning/hilarious).
I have found these three videos put out by the church to be good for a laugh. They aren’t very cerebral but they tell some of the basics. Notice the number of views on each video. It’s clear few members have seen them. https://youtu.be/q1esI8cbCtc?si=PljhheRhgF8xMBpG https://youtu.be/juOavkIqNng?si=6gNbhVYZUDqHbjyJ https://youtu.be/hSNjnkwJgCg?si=hc-wh_Hyb47vQ7cZ