Without Disclosing My True Identity
Educational System,” Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 30 May 2011, Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., 9 Jul. 2011
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_Educational_System#Elementary_and_secondary_schools.)
As of July 2011, there were 134 operating temples in the world, 10 under construction, and 16
announced. http://lds.org/church/temples/find-a-temple?lang=eng. A simple search of the word
“temples” in the Ensign resulted in over 6,000 hits in the magazine.
See also Boyd K. Packer, “To Be Learned is Good If...,” Ensign, Nov. 1992: 71. “Because there
were no public schools, the Church opened schools. Even in our own generation, schools have been
established where there were none. ...As public schools became available, most of the Church schools
were closed. At once, seminaries and institutes of religion were established in many nations. ...Some
few schools are left over from that pioneering period, Brigham Young University and Ricks College
among them. ...Now BYU is full to the brim and running over. It serves an ever-decreasing
percentage of our college-age youth at an ever-increasing cost per student.”
(^24) “The [Church’s] investments in stocks, bonds, and church-controlled businesses were worth
$6 billion as of 1997, and...church-owned agricultural and commercial real estate then had a value of an
additional $5 billion. ...The worth of other categories of assets: U.S. meetinghouses and temples, $12
billion; foreign meetinghouses and temples, $6 billion; schools and miscellaneous, $1 billion.
“Stocks and directly owned businesses produce perhaps $600 million more in cash income.
The estimated yearly annual revenues total $5.9 billion, or by the more conservative reckoning, just
under $5 billion. Per capita, no other religion comes close to such figures. ...The strict secrecy with
which the hierarchy guards the financial facts is unique for a church of this size. Officials refuse to
divulge routine information that other religions are happy to provide over the phone to donors or
inquirers. If the LDS Church were a U.S. corporation, by revenues it would rank around the
midpoint number 243 on the Fortune 500 list. [The LDS religion] is by far the richest religion in the
United States per capita, with $25 to $30 billion in estimated assets and $5 to $6 billion more in
estimated annual income.” (Richard N. Ostling and Joan K. Ostling, Mormon America: The Power and
the Promise, Rev ed. [New York: HarperOne, 2007] 117–18, 127, back cover.)
(^25) Known as City Creek Center. See Appendix 5, n. 13.
(^26) “The Conference Center is truly a feat of engineering. It contains a 21,000-seat auditorium
with a 7,667-pipe organ and no visible support beams, plus a 900-seat proscenium-style theater and
1,300 parking spaces below the building on four levels. It also boasts four acres of landscaped roof
with trees, an alpine meadow of grasses and wildflowers, fountains, and a waterfall. The main
support beam for the Conference Center weighs 621 tons, and the electrical wiring is over 50,000
miles in total length.” (“Conference Center,” Utah.com, 2011, Utah.com LC, 9 Jul. 2011
http://www.utah.com/mormon/conference_center.htm.)
“[T]he Conference Center is considered to be the largest theater auditorium in the world; the
next nearest holds only about half as many people.” (“Behind the Scenes at General Conference,”
Church News and Events on LDS.org, 25 Mar. 2011, Intellectual Reserve, Inc., 9 Jul. 2011
http://lds.org/church/news/behind-the-scenes-at-general-conference?lang=eng.)
See also the following sites for more photos and stats: “For a Decade, Magnificent Conference
Center Has Provided Venue for General Conference,” MormonNewsroom.org, 3 Apr. 2010, Intellectual
Reserve, Inc., 28 Feb. 2012 http://newsroom.lds.org/article/for-a-decade-magnificent-conference-
center-has-provided-venue-for-general-conference;
“Conference Center,” Lds.org, 2010, Intellectual Reserve, Inc., 28 Feb. 2012
http://lds.org/placestovisit/eng/visitors-centers/conference-center; and
“LDS Conference Center,” UAD.org, Utah Association of the Deaf, Inc., 28 Feb. 2012
http://www.uad.org/academicbowl/conference_center.htm
(^27) BOM, 1 Nephi 14:10; 13:6–8.
(^28) SNS, chapter 5, specifically page 87.
(^29) SNS, 107–9.
(^30) Brodie, 265; emphasis added.
(^31) “Deaths | Able,” Deseret News, 31 Dec. 1884:16 (incorrect spelling of “Abel” retained).