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Quinn’s interview on RadioWest where Fabrizio keeps trying to get him to criticize the Church’s mall-building and cooperate nature really increased my testimony and brought peace where I had struggled to understand. He described how the burden of building infastructure which used to be born by members locally, which would servely overburden members in the developing world, is now handled centrally because of the Church’s corporate investments.
Does Quinn discuss the Church’s investments, such as the City Creek housing, office and retail complex that has been attacked by critics of the Church? My own view is that such critics love thinking about what they could do with other peoples’ money, and don’t appreciate the fact that sustainable charitable contributions are funded by income. It seems to me that Salt Lake is fortunate that the Church is willing to invest its own funds into maintaining the downtown as a livable and inviting environment. Additionally, as the Church grows into the future, it needs the capacity to expand its administrative facilities, and City Creek is a good way to preserve that capacity for future growth.
Larry
Were you surprised at the lack of data that Quinn had from what might be termed “inside ” information and relied exclusively almost on extrapolations for 2010- the point being the church does have very tight control on its financial information and its release outside church structures.
I was also surprised he did not attempt to determine net worth or worth of estates of current Church leaders who have passed away . For example
The value of GBH ‘s estate may have given clues to his compensation as a GA and president of the church. I wonder if probate and estate info is protected in utah for church officials.
Thanx for your insightful review.
Much of what D. Michael Quinn has written has previously been notoriously bad history. It is nice to find that in this instance, though he is not familiar with economics, he has done a reasonably good job of dealing with a topic that might have been an occasion to bash the way the Brethren have dealt with financial matters.