The intensity surrounding this recent scandal du jour seems to have largely subsided. Those — including myself — who trusted and revered the Church’s leaders prior to the Washington Post‘s exposé still trust and revere them. Such folks faithfully paid their tithes to the Church, and they still do. Those who despised the Church before the Post article appeared continue to despise the Church. They withheld their tithes, and they still do.
But I’ve recalled a little experience that is, today, almost precisely one year old. It’s relevant to this subject.
Over Christmas vacation last year, I accompanied a tour group to Egypt that had been organized by the Cruise Lady company. As the time arrived to return from Egypt to the United States, however, our flight out of Cairo was suddenly cancelled. My wife and I and our son and another couple were obliged to find a different way home. When the dust had settled and we had worked out our return flights, we found ourselves obliged to spend a night in Paris. (Quelle horreur!)
I posted a note about that night on my blog (“Midnight in Paris”).
Anyway, the time finally came for us to catch our plane for the flight from Paris to Salt Lake City. As we waited to board, we noticed that Gérald Caussé, the Presiding Bishop of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was also waiting there with his wife and several members of his family. (The Caussés are French, and they were home for the holidays.)
The husband in the couple with whom we were traveling is extremely prominent in Utah economic circles — that’s perhaps an understatement — and he knows Bishop Caussé, who is the principal person responsible for the economic and financial affairs of the Church. I also know Bishop Caussé, though not nearly as well. We chatted while waiting for the plane to board.
Here’s the small takeaway: When we finally took our seats on the plane, Bishop Caussé and his family were seated about six or eight rows ahead of us. They weren’t on a private jet. They weren’t even flying business class. They were in economy class — in what I like to call “peasant class” or “sardine class” — like us. Center section. No window seats.
This is the man charged with directing the Church’s temporal affairs. The General Authority most directly connected with the alleged $100 billion nest egg that triggered the recent controversy. (See “”Church presiding bishop details how tithing and donations are used: ‘It’s about building a reserve of the church, and ultimately, all of those funds will be used for church purposes,’ Bishop Gérald Caussé says.”) If Bishop Caussé was profiting from that purported $100,000,000,000.00 reserve fund on that flight, I certainly could see no sign of it.
And, while we’re at it, here are a couple of significant links regarding the financial controversy that you may or may not have seen. The first comes from Nate Oman, one of the very best students I’ve ever had at BYU:
“‘Mormon Land’: Law prof discusses history of church finances, why it stopped reporting them, and why it should start disclosing them again.”
The second comes from Kathleen Flake:
“Kathleen Flake: ‘Mormonism and its Money’ is a power struggle we’ve seen before”
The fuller version of her argument occurs here:
“Mormonism and its Money: This is a power struggle, not a moral or even fiscal conundrum, and one that we’ve seen before.”
Since I’ve just returned from spending a fair amount of time in Virginia, it seems apt to me that both live there. Nate is the Rollins Professor of Law at William & Mary Law School, in Williamsburg. Kathleen is the Richard Lyman Bushman Professor of Mormon Studies at the University of Virginia, in Charlottesville.
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/danpeterson/2019/12/lds-inc-part-19.html
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