With regards to the LDS church leaders, they are often made to the members to look as if they live modest lives for no financial gain as leaders of the church. This fits right along with the no paid clergy claim often tossed about in church meetings. Being unpaid definitely is true of the lower level leadership, but there have been many reasons found to believe higher up positions do come with compensation.
Before you read this, don’t think I’m a person who cares if they are paid. Of course they are. It only makes sense. Why shouldn’t they be paid. Any head of any corporation is well paid. What bothers me though is how they put on a show of modest living, and act as if they aren’t getting rich off the church. But are they really getting rich? We may never know for sure. Yet, I see things that make me wonder.
I’ve read things about them receiving some sort of stipend for living, paid for housing via special loans from the church, free education for their kids, medical, bodyguards, paid for cars, and of course travel. If any of this is true, none of it bothers me. Sure if you add it all up, it probably makes for a very comfortable living with little fear for providing for the future. If one could put a dollar amount on it, it’s probably quite high. But this all makes sense, and even still seems modest for the size of the corporation they run.
Where things may change a little is in their having positions on boards of many private companies, both owned by the church and privately all because of their being heads of the church. At my last job we had a board made up partly of local business owners as well, and they were all compensated for being on that board. I doubt these church leaders aren’t also compensated for this. But how many boards? Again, who knows. I've heard some work with a large bank board, and others have sat on insurance company boards. Even if the insurance company failed, it seems natural to assume they also sit on many other boards for the many private companies ran by the church. This could all add up to quite a bit of money, that isn’t normally even considered when trying to know if they make a lot of money as church leaders, but all is a direct result of being church leaders. Check out this video of them being introduced as members of the board for a large company that was owned by the church. I found it interesting to learn that a past bishop of mine worked for this company as well, made a very good living there, and went on to become a member of a stake presidency. It seems like the businesses and the higher callings might have some connection. Guess I shouldn’t have thought I’d ever be a bishop. Yes this is all crazy speculation. Go ahead and give me a tin foil hat and call me crazy.
Anyhow, back to the apostles. It’s hard enough to know about the church’s finances. But what of how the apostles make a living beyond the church’s providing for them. People often like to point out the modesty of one of their homes as a defense. But this job requires one to fill a role, which includes not flaunting your wealth, so that’s just what you do. It’s part of the job. Yesterday something new caught my attention. My wife was thumbing through the latest mail catalog from Deseret Book. In addition to wonderful books like the Not even once club (bleh), and stuff for my kids that says “I belong to the church…” almost every page had a book written by a member of the 15. It got me thinking. This could be quite a money maker. So I started looking for books listed as written by the leaders. I wanted books that while they may be about church content, were not part of the church curriculum. This would make them likely to be personal ventures for personal gain rather than church ventures. I found 118 books by the top 15. I’m guessing there’s more, and this doesn’t include many books I found they were listed in that were from “general authorities” and also the books written by their family members. Some of them have written a lot of books. No not all books are profitable, but if you’ve done 118 of them, and you have a loyal customer base that even tunes in to your mid conference infomercial for your books twice a year, you probably are making some very good money on this. Not to mention you probably have some pretty good sway with a certain bookstore and tv station to help sell your books. This could also just be the tip of the merchandising they may get in on. Of course, this is all speculation, but it kinda walks like a duck doesn’t it?
Again, I really don’t care if they make millions even. I just get bothered by how the members view them as modestly living, not paid, and even giving without getting. It’s a bogus image. It’s a mirage.
One thing to consider is that even if a book is not profitable the author stands to make a good amount of money because they are typically paid a base and royalties independent of the profitability. Additionally, the fact that there are so many books is a strong indicator that they are quite profitable.
ReplyDeleteI had long thought of the fact that these books are a significant source of income. However, I appreciate you putting together the list and showing that every single one of them has done at least one big - my assumption based on that, is that there is a system set up to help them with the process. Likewise, I find it telling that those who have been in the top 12 for a while typically have several books.
Thanks for your comment. Even while I'm looking at this and it causes me to wonder, it really gives me no real knowable numbers. When I look at money with regards to the church or its leaders, I see it kind of like looking at the brush strokes of an unfinished painting. If I look at each brush stroke, I will have no idea what I'm looking at. But if I look at all the strokes, I can begin to see what the picture is suppose to look like, even if I can't see the final painting. Unfortunately, with no open accountability from the church, all we can do is look at as many brush strokes as we can find, and try to figure what the bigger picture is.
ReplyDeleteAfter I put down these thoughts, I started thinking about all of the additional merchandising these men are able to do, the consumer demand created by their positions, and the channels they have control of to sell such products. When people compare them to other CEOs and say get over it, I agree and I don't. It's not that they are doing anything differently than any other person in their position in a major corporation or with equal fame would do...it's the false image and lack of transparency that bugs me. I don't fault people for these types of business decisions, but I want honesty, and to not feel mislead in my purchase.