In my post yesterday, I addressed why loyal latter-day Saints should not be part of any movement to push the Church toward greater financial disclosure. You can read that here.

Today I would like to address a different but related issue, which is the many, many practical problems with financial disclosure in a private institution like the Church.

Notice the word “private.” This is essential. Government, which is a public institution, has completely different rules than a private institution. This concept goes back centuries and is part of British common law, which formed the foundations for our own laws. Government belongs to “all of us” (presumably), and because you are part of the institution of “all of us” you should be allowed to have transparency of how government spends its money. So, you can go to your local town hall and ask to see the budget, and everything should be there. I have actually done this, and in every town where I have lived, disclosure is pretty complete. This is a good thing.

Private institutions are not expected to make “complete disclosure.” This is an easy concept but often misunderstood.

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There is a movement afoot among some Latter-day Saints to petition the church to fully disclose its finances. I know some of the people involved in this movement, and I think they are good people, but they appear to me to gravely misunderstand the principles behind tithing and Church finances. I would encourage people to read (or re-read) this talk from Pres. Hinckley.

Here are some highlights:

I think I speak for my Brethren when I say that we are constantly aware of the great and sacred trust imposed upon us as officers of the Church, charged with responsibility for husbanding those financial resources which belong to the Lord. We know that the funds are not ours to spend. We know that we are accountable to the Lord for the stewardship given us. We must be prudent. We must be conservative. We must be careful.

I recall that when I was a boy I raised a question with my father, who was my stake president, concerning the expenditure of Church funds. He reminded me that mine is the God-given obligation to pay my tithes and offerings. When I do so, that which I give is no longer mine. It belongs to the Lord to whom I consecrate it. What the authorities of the Church do with it need not concern me. They are answerable to the Lord, who will require an accounting at their hands.

Here is the key: the money for which you are asking an accounting is not yours. It is the Lord’s. Stop questioning the Lord.

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After Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans and Mississippi in 2005, among the first responders were an emergency team from the Church. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints maintains a group of trucks in the southeast United States that is dispatched right after a storm to help people who may have lost their homes and their lives. My former stake president, an executive at Ryder trucks, helped plan this emergency response unit.

The trucks are filled with just about everything needed: food, water, clothing, blankets, first aid. Then trucks roll in with chain saws, gasoline, more food, tents and other emergency gear. As you may remember, government on all levels completely failed the victims of Hurricane Katrina, but the Church did not. We gave comfort to hundreds of thousands of people within hours after the storm.

But the effort did not end there. Thousands of volunteers from throughout the southeast poured into the stricken area for months afterward to help people rebuild their homes. I helped organize one trip, which is described here. Twenty-eight people from South Florida drove in five vans from Miami to southern Mississippi to help people rebuild their homes. As I say in the story, a Baptist minister, hostile to the Mormons, said he would never say a bad word again after seeing the outpouring of Christian love.

The absolutely disgusting hit job on the Church by Businessweek magazine of course ignores the difference between a secular business and a Church that exists to bring people to Christ. The story makes a passing reference to humanitarian efforts but of course ignores successes like Hurricane Katrina.
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Elder Uchtdorf throws out the ball at “Mormon Night” at Dodgers stadium. For 25 years, the Dodgers have had “Mormon Night,” and more than 8,000 LDS people showed up this year.

I thought this picture of one of my favorite apostles was very charming. Please feel free to add your own (respectful) captions.

If you were truly compassionate, you would not think you can force others to be virtuous. Force never results in virtue. Force begets more force, which creates the opposite of virtue.

If you were truly compassionate, you would constantly remind yourself of the golden rule. You should treat people like you want to be treated. So, if you do not want people with guns to come and steal your property, you should not promote policies where people with guns take other peoples’ property (and then justify it because it is “the government”).

If you were truly compassionate, you would think carefully about how you deal with your neighbors. Are you a busy-body? Do you constantly interfere in their lives? Do you go to their homes to steal their cars because they have two cars and you only have one? Well, if you do not do this in your personal life, why is it suddenly OK if “the government” does it?

If you were truly compassionate, you would realize that making people dependent on government welfare hinders their progress and retards their growth. Difficult times make us stronger. We learn self-reliance by facing difficult times. People will not better themselves if they can, instead, simply get a government check. You would weep when you go to a poor inner city neighborhood and see entire generations ruined by “good intentions.”

If you were truly compassionate, you would help the poor through service and encourage others to voluntarily do the same. You would be a great example to those around you, but you would not spend your time worrying about other peoples’ choices and how you must compel them to be generous or make the same choices you have made.
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