How the Mormon Church is Setting Itself up for a Financial Scandal

Ryan McKnight
Aug 9, 2017 · 5 min read

In case you have been living under a rock (or you are part of the 99% of the world that doesn’t care about Mormonism), let me bring you up to speed on the never ending debate between the LDS Church and their institutionalized discrimination against members of the LGBTQ community…

Will the Mormon Church ever make the shift, similar to what they did in 1978 with individuals who were contaminated with Negro blood, to welcome members of the LGBTQ community in full fellowship? And by full fellowship I mean the ability to get married in the temple.

There really is no dominant theory out there as to how this issue plays out over time. Many people see the Church being forced to change by various different social pressures and just as many see the Church never budging. The reasoning behind both positions is as varied as the people putting forth the predictions.

I have written and spoken on the subject from both angles. I am not trying to ride the fence. I actually think the Church will never change on the matter, but my hope that they will change leads me to often discuss the path by which they would be able to achieve such a desired outcome.

I have gone into detail on my YouTube channel about why I don’t think they will ever change. I won’t rehash that here, but at the core of my reasoning is the fact that it would be too disruptive to the base truth claims of the Church and there will never be a majority of tithe payers calling for, or approving, the change.

Whenever I bring this up to people they inevitable have the same two counter arguments:

1. The government will force the change by threatening to take away their tax exempt status.

2. Pressure from the NCAA and its member schools will become to great that they will be forced to change.

Maybe. But I don’t think it as cut and dry as people want to believe.

Removing the Tax Exempt Status

This sound really sexy. The IRS coming in and telling the Church that if they don’t accept LGBTQ people in full fellowship they will have to start paying taxes on that sweet cash flow known as tithing. As the theory goes, the beloved Brethren, inspired by 2 parts greed and 1 part Jesus, will cave in so as to retain the coveted capital that is totally not used for anything other than, building god’s many and much needed vacation homes, maintaining chapels and giving money to orphans.

But there is are problems with this theory.

First of all, any attempt like this would be heavily challenged by the Church. This challenge would inevitable go all the way to the U.S. Supreme court and I think it would be far from a slam dunk to assume that any SCOTUS would side with the IRS.

But let’s say that the IRS does win that case. The church could easily just start paying taxes on tithing. The taxes would only be on the amount after deductions for charity, operating expenses, etc. They are already paying taxes on their for-profit enterprises, it would not be that big of an adjustment to start paying on the non-prophet part.

The change to paying taxes will allow the Church to satisfy its tithing base who don’t want Homos kissing in the temple and it would feed into their beloved persecution complex. Seems like a win-win for them.

Pressure Directed Towards the BYU Sports Programs

One of the turning points in repealing the celestial ostracization of black people was when multiple universities around the country either boycotted or threatened to boycott the BYU athletic department. One could logically conclude that similar pressures could be implemented now and would yield the same results.

This theory, like the previous one, greatly underestimates the threat LGBTQ acceptance poses to Mormon doctrine. The church will not cave on this matter easily.

Let’s assume that the NCAA comes out and says, to be a member of our league you must let gay people hold hands in public and let’s assume that the mandate holds legal water. I think the church will simply divest itself from BYU. They will establish a Board of Trustee to run the University amd completely cut ties. It can still be a religious university with a proclivity towards Mormonism, but they can change their policies on homoerotic hand holding (and other things) without posing a threat to the precious teachings of a 19th century connoisseur of fine wine and even finer women.

And don’t worry about that tuition that is subsidized by the hard earned dollars donated by good Mormons from around the world. The church can set up a scholarship fund for any temple worthy Mormon who attends BYU. The scholarship would probably be considered charity so they would even be able to deduct it from their taxable revenue. Everyone wins!!

Let us not forget the biggest boost the Mormon Church will get from this change. This move would fuel persecution complex like no other incident in modern history.

‘The world is so wicked they took our university away! Quick, stock up on food storage!’

Unintended Consequences

Like with everything in life, our actions have unintended consequences. Over the next 20 years the Mormon Church’s hatred for gay love is going to be a major, if not the number one, factor for people leaving the church. The trend we are seeing now, and would expect to continue to see, is that the best and the brightest are leaving. Over time this shrinks the leadership pool. The pool will never completely dry out, but I envision a time with the vast majority of active Mormons are either lower class/less educated or charlatans.

Both of those groups already exist in the Church now, but over time they would become more of the dominant demographic. As the Church struggles to fill high leadership positions that require a certain level of education and business acumen, one of these charlatans will finally break his way inside. Once one of them gets access to some of the purse strings there will be an inevitable misappropriation of funds and it will be a huge black eye on the Church, accelerating the rate at which people leave.

So, if I could make a plea to the overlords…Please, if you won’t do it for the improved mental health of our young LGBTQ peeps, please change your policies so you don’t get taken to the cleaners by some scam artist. I would hate for you to lose all that money.

Bow your heads and say yes.

Ryan McKnight has a Master’s Degree in Accounting from UNLV. He is a regulatory auditor for the government, an Adjunct Professor at the local Community College and the founder of MormonLeaks.io.

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