Glass Box Podcast

The Wall Street Journal somehow got an interview with two of the leading guys of Mormon Money, the Presiding Bishop, Gerald Causse, and the head of Ensign Peak Advisors, Roger Clarke. We discuss the story with the help of a post in the /r/mormon subreddit (linked below). After that, it's our next installment of The Case for the Book of Mormon by Tad R. Callister where he decides to go completely offensive because us critics have had the ball in our court for too long! Then we talk about Jeff Bezos pledging $10 billion to climate change.

Links:https://www.reddit.com/r/mormon/comments/f1yu3w/epa_what_we_know_now/

https://www.reddit.com/r/mormon/comments/f5gtrg/1billion_fake_church_news_live

https://www.reddit.com/r/mormon/comments/f4mfbs/netflix_explained_series_i_just_watched_the/

https://www.reddit.com/r/mormon/comments/f4h1xz/if_mormonism_is_going_to_survive_it_will_not_be/

https://www.reddit.com/r/mormon/comments/f4cgte/how_much_is_124_billion/

https://www.reddit.com/r/mormon/comments/f1vi62/the_mormon_church_amassed_100_billion_it_was_the/

Light of GazalemJeff Bezos commits $10 billion to fight climate change

Show Links:Website http://www.glassboxpodcast.com/index.html Find us on Facebook and Twitter @Glass Box Podcast

Clutch my pearls! Braden and I talk about the Super Bowl halftime show and the expected responses from Mormons scared that the female figure exists who never batted an eye at a topless and tattoo-covered Adam Levine last year. After that Braden tells us about Ramy, a Hulu series about a Muslim-American finding his way in life. Then we talk about Activision utilizing lootboxes for good, for a pleasant change!

Links:

Super Bowl Halftime show:

https://youtu.be/pILCn6VO_RU

Media of Great Price:

Ramy: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7649694/

Light of Gazalem:

https://blog.activision.com/activision/2020-02/Together-the-Call-of-Duty-community-raises-over-one-point-six-million-dollars-for-Australian-Bushfire-Relief

Show Links:

Website http://www.glassboxpodcast.com/index.html Find us on Facebook and Twitter @Glass Box Podcast

2019 in review! We read through the recent Jana Riess article about the most significant Mormon headlines of 2019 and discuss some highlights. Then we make predictions for what we might expect in 2020 and also what we'd REALLY like to see in 2020 regardless of how probable they might be. Then we do our next segment of The Case for the Book of Mormon by Tad R. Callister concerning evidence for a historical Book of Mormon. We wrap up with a happy news story about a church in St. Louis paying off thousands of people's medical debts (yes, we have those in America). We finish off the episode with a bit of listener mail resulting from our Mormon Money series.

Links:

Jana Riess: Seven top Mormon news stories from 2019https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2019/12/31/jana-riess-seven-top/

Light of Gazalemhttps://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/st-louis-churches-buy-up-million-in-medical-then-give/article_cb5202e1-19ae-5cdb-aa4a-4359d17b5db2.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook_St._Louis_Post-Dispatch&fbclid=IwAR2H7gIy-0erbu-qpTG2SSnrLJFshJVOZJO3OsbMOslE_ls3q2n9MQnU-Q4

Opening Arguments Ep 344https://openargs.com/transcript-of-oa344-did-the-mormon-church-really-hide-100-billion-in-assets-from-the-irs-feat-bryce-blakenagel/

Mormon Land episode 114 w/ D. Michael Quinnhttps://www.sltrib.com/podcasts/mormonland/

Show Links:

Website http://www.glassboxpodcast.com/index.html Find us on Facebook and Twitter @Glass Box Podcast

Today's show centers around an interview with an anonymous person sharing her story of the Mormon welfare system. She's currently undergoing a divorce and found out in court the church has been paying her estranged husband's car and mortgage payments, over $18,000, for the past year on accounts bearing her name without her knowledge. When our interviewee attempted to find more information about the financial support for divorce and tax reasons, she was stonewalled by local leadership. She ran up the ranks to find more information only to be stonewalled by a senior attorney at Kirton-McConkie the primary law firm for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Her story is incredible and reveals a troubling aspect of the church welfare program; there are simply no checks and balances available to members when they suspect abuse or misappropriation of funds related to fast-offering funds from the Mormon Church.

Show Links:

Website http://www.glassboxpodcast.com/index.html Find us on Facebook and Twitter @Glass Box Podcast

$100 billion (yes… with a "B") is a lot of money for the church to be hoarding. Unfortunately, the media coverage has been inaccurate in many regards and has missed some of the larger issues contained in the expose "Letter to an IRS Director" by Lars Neilsen. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has become so wealthy and powerful it seems to simply operate by its own set of rules. The size of Ensign Peak Advisors (EPA) is larger than the media has discussed and the alleged violations regarding its disbursements to City Creek Center and Beneficial Financial Group (totally $2 billion) could threaten its tax-exempt status. Also included in the expose is the whistleblower discussing with EPA director, Roger Clarke, "worst practices" which included "deleting receivables" and opening the way for "dark money" payouts EPA made to unknown entities. The actual portfolio by Nov 2019 is estimated to be closer to $124 billion. We discuss a bit of the media coverage and wrap up with talking about how the church should use that money, could use that money, and how we'd use that money. $124 billion is hard to conceptualize but we try our best. Please share if you learned anything worth sharing.

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Links:

Religion Unplugged $100 Billion Stockpile articlehttps://religionunplugged.com/news/2019/12/16/whistleblower-exposes-100-billion-stockpile-by-mormon-church

"Mormons, Inc. "Kingdom Come"" Timehttp://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,986794,00.html

Official church response to exposehttps://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/first-presidency-statement-church-finances

Deseret News Op-ed on exposehttps://www.deseret.com/opinion/2019/12/17/21026103/the-washington-post-mormon-church-whistleblower-says-billions-thank-goodness

Polynesian Cultural Centerhttps://www.polynesia.com/packages/

https://www.kitv.com/story/38903471/activist-says-mormon-church-should-pay-taxes-on-polynesian-cultural-center

Deseret Trust Companyhttps://www.deserettrust.com/about-us?lang=eng

Intellectual Reserve, Inc.https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5918641

Templeshttps://www.businessinsider.com/fancy-mormon-temples-2014-8

Reuters 2012 Mormon Money articlehttps://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-politics-mormons/insight-mormon-church-made-wealthy-by-donations-idUSBRE87B05W20120812

Bloomberg 2012 "How the Mormons Make Money"https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2012-07-18/how-the-mormons-make-money

https://archive.org/stream/HowTheMormonsMakeMoney/How%20the%20Mormons%20Make%20Money-%20Bloomberg%207-18-12_djvu.txt

Quinn on Church Finances SLTribhttps://www.sltrib.com/religion/local/2017/10/14/historian-digs-into-the-hidden-world-of-mormon-finances-shows-how-church-went-from-losing-money-to-making-money-lots-of-it/

Dowry is not the Lord's Way Deseret News Articlehttps://www.deseret.com/2018/4/16/20643748/dowry-is-not-the-lord-s-way-in-kenya-lds-president-nelson-says-tithing-breaks-poverty-cycle#anna-waithira-has-margaret-wanaki-on-her-back-as-she-lines-up-to-attend-a-special-devotional-with-president-russell-m-nelson-of-the-church-of-jesus-christ-of-latter-day-saints-in-nairobi-kenya-on-monday-april-16-2018

List of Templeshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_temples_of_The_Church_of_Jesus_Christ_of_Latter-day_Saints#Dedicated:_2010s

Show Links:

Website http://www.glassboxpodcast.com/index.html Find us on Facebook and Twitter @Glass Box Podcast

Wheeew what a doozey! We cover Mormon Money from the 1930s to the 1980s. When this much money gets involved and a church grows to have a significant international presence, money begets politics and politics feed money. Once Franklin S. Richards died another needed to carry the Mormon Money torch; here enters Henry Dinwoodey Moyle, a man with grand ideas and exponential growth intentions. He rolls out new missionary programs, local "baseball baptisms" sports leagues, carbon copy chapels, the new 28-story Church Office Building, and a litany of other aggressive expansion programs. After bankrupting many companies and chewing through untold resources, Moyle died leaving the church $32 million in debt but on a good path toward global expansion. N. Eldon Tanner, with the help of Marion Romney, takes the helm of Mormon Money and rights the sinking ship by filling leadership with more businessmen and lawyers than ever before. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints also began to gain a national political foothold with George Romney running for President and subsequently being appointed Nixon's HUD Secretary. Gordon B. Hinckley is brought in as Tanner's protege to take the Mormon Money colossus rampaging across the planet. Part 3 will discuss the recent revelations concerning the church's $100 billion in holdings and Ensign Peak Advisors.

Links (there are a lot of them):

Get Quinn's latest book in the Mormon Hierarchy series Wealth and Corporate Powerhttps://www.amazon.com/Mormon-Hierarchy-Wealth-Corporate-Power/dp/1560852356

Henry D. Moyle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_D._Moyle

1. Eldon Tannerhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathan_Eldon_Tanner

Mormon Corporate Structurehttps://exploringmormonism.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Corporate-structure-image-400.jpg

Church finances (official)https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics/church-finances-commercial-businesses?lang=eng

Church Office Buildinghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_Office_Building

Consolidated Freightwayshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consolidated_Freightways

Marion Romneyhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marion_G._Romney

George Romneyhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W._Romney#Local_church_and_civic_leadership

George Romney and MLK "marching together" fact checkhttps://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2007/dec/28/mitt-romney/george-romney-and-mlk-marched-but-not-together/

Tax churches for $71 bn per yearhttps://bigthink.com/21st-century-spirituality/how-to-make-71-billion-a-year-tax-the-churches

Show links:Website http://www.glassboxpodcast.com/index.html Find us on Facebook and Twitter @Glass Box Podcast

We finally broach a subject that's taken the back-burner for far too long. Mormon money is one of the most complicated subjects associated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and we decided it requires a multi-part series to understand with some level of depth and context. Join us for part one where we start at the beginning with Joseph Smith, get into Brigham Young and the Mormon exodus to Utah in 1847, and tie together financial strands all the way into the Great Depression. Some topics of discussion: Joseph Smith as an entrepreneur, Brigham Young as a theocrat and tyrant, polygamy and the first manifesto under President Wilford Woodruff, complicated finances with intermingling the prophet's personal with the church's corporate assets, Joseph F. Smith and the church in near-bankruptcy he inherited in 1901, Franklin S. Richards and his rehabilitation program, the Corporation of the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (COP), The Corporation of the Presiding Bishop of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (CPB), and the trajectory upon which the church was set going into the Great Depression.

Links (there are a lot of them):

Get Quinn's latest book in the Mormon Hierarchy series Wealth and Corporate Powerhttps://www.amazon.com/Mormon-Hierarchy-Wealth-Corporate-Power/dp/1560852356

Kirtland Safety Societyhttps://rsc.byu.edu/archived/byu-religious-education-student-symposium-2012/kirtland-safety-society-and-its-effect-faith

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/history/topics/kirtland-safety-society?lang=eng

Nauvoo Charterhttps://www.josephsmithpapers.org/topic/nauvoo-charter

Sunstone and Presentation "Joseph Smith, the Entrepreneur"https://www.sunstonemagazine.com/joseph-smith-the-entrepreneur/ https://www.sunstonemagazine.com

Edmunds Act

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmunds_Act

Wilhelm Von Wymetal 1886 exposehttps://archive.org/details/josephsmithproph01wyme/page/276

Late Corp of LDS v. U.S.

https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/136/1

Ann Eliza Webb Young Wife No. 19https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Eliza_Young

1870 census datahttps://www.census.gov/history/www/through_the_decades/fast_facts/1870_fast_facts.html?

Lorenzo Snowhttps://historyofmormonism.com/2008/07/08/lorenzo_snow/

Franklin S. Richardshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_S._Richards

CPBhttps://www.bloomberg.com/profile/company/0122898D:US

COPhttps://secure.utah.gov/bes/details.html?entity=553976-0145

COP Structurehttps://exploringmormonism.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Corporate-structure-image-400.jpg

Church Finances (official)https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics/church-finances-commercial-businesses?lang=eng

"Corporate-sole" "Corporation-sole"http://hushmoney.org/corporate-sole_facts.htm

AgReserves Inchttps://www.bloomberg.com/profile/company/0275969D:US

PropertyReserves Inchttps://www.exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,398698,399463

Show links:Website http://www.glassboxpodcast.com/index.html Find us on Facebook and Twitter @Glass Box Podcast

Joe Geisner returns to spend 2 hours on one of the most iconic and influential characters in recent Mormon history, Boyd K. Packer. We discuss his inauguration into the Quorum of Apostles and how he molded and shaped the church from the highest leadership body from that time forward. We cover the internal issues between Packer and the church's history department, discuss the shroud of secrecy he helped to foster, and then get into the outward expressions he declared from the pulpit which directly influenced members and national politics. We wrap with discussing what kind of a legacy was left behind when Packer died in 2015.

Hugo Olaiz's Sunstone Presentationhttps://www.sunstonemagazine.com/sl10212-sacred-secrecy-in-the-teachings-of-president-boyd-k-packer/ Show links:Website http://www.glassboxpodcast.com/index.html Find us on Facebook and Twitter @Glass Box Podcast

From Evergreen to North Star, gay-conversion therapy runs deep through Mormon tradition. October headlines blazed with the LDS church opposing a ban on conversion therapy for minors which was defended, misrepresented, and misunderstood by much of the media. We deep dive on conversion therapy in Mormonism and discuss some of the names associated with this abusive and anti-science practice. After that Braden talks about a climate change movie and some YouTubers getting together to plant some trees!

Sources for conversion therapy stuff:

Evergreen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evergreen_International North Star https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Star_(organization) A. Dean Byrd https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._Dean_Byrd NARTH https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Association_for_Research_%26_Therapy_of_Homosexuality https://psychology.wikia.org/wiki/National_Association_for_Research_%26_Therapy_of_Homosexuality Joseph Nicolosi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_NicolosiEvergreen expose https://truthwinsout.org/ministry-evergreen-international/ Gay Rights and Political Correctness: A Brief History https://web.archive.org/web/20051220234201/http://narth.com/docs/schoenewolf2.html Conversion therapy VICE expose https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/jmvya8/i-joined-a-bunch-of-gay-conversion-groups NARTH rebrand https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/08/ex-gay-group-attempts-rebranding-narth-conversion-therapy/ ATCSI (Formerly NARTH) https://www.therapeuticchoice.com/why-the-alliance-supports-safe-ther September 1999 gay conversion therapy Ensign article https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/1999/09/when-a-loved-one-struggles-with-same-sex-attraction?lang=eng North Star founder comments https://truthwinsout.org/pressrelease/2014/01/38796/ North Star staff https://truthwinsout.org/news/2013/07/36344/ North Star founder defense of conversion therapy https://nypost.com/2013/07/22/a-low-attack-on-same-sex-therapy/ North Star support group criteria https://www.northstarlds.org/join-facebook-mens North Star President's Message https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5ca12d887fdcb87df5da2b9f/t/5d3e724604588900019087ad/1564373583142/North+Star+President+Message+Winter+2018.pdf HB 399 https://le.utah.gov/~2019/bills/static/HB0399.html Psychologist Licensing Act Rule https://rules.utah.gov/publicat/code/r156/r156-61.htm Mormon church opposes LGBTQ 'conversion therapy' ban https://apnews.com/da5c04204c194e11a5836495f36d818d SL Tribune church opposing conversion therapy ban article https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2019/10/21/lds-church-says-proposed/ Church's press release opposing act https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/statement-proposed-rule-sexual-orientation-gender-identity-change LDS Church defends its objections to proposed gay conversion therapy ban https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rXWY-HPQHA

Media of Great Price:First Reformed (2017) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6053438

Light of Gazalem:https://www.theverge.com/2019/10/31/20941626/teamtrees-youtuber-charity-fundraiser-climate-change-trees-musk-dorsey-pewdiepie

I watched it so you don't have to. We go through every talk given during General Conference of October 2019 from Oaks to Oaks and back to Oaks again, we try to identify what slipped through the cracks of media reporting on this semiannual GC. It's a long one! Hopefully the length makes up for the month hiatus as Braden moved and I was on a 3-week road trip. Patrons of the show get an extra hour of podcast about the General Women's session. Please get us to our next Patreon goal to make Braden suffer through the April 2020 Conference with me!!!

https://www.patreon.com/GlassBoxPod

Show links:

Website http://www.glassboxpodcast.com/index.html

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