The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - Questions and Answers

[FormerCubmaster 26]

On 8/2/2022 at 11:17 AM, fred8033 said:

Question #1 - TCJC has deep pockets but do those pockets extend to incidents that happen at a specific church temple / specific troop?  I compare it to Catholic churches where collectively they have huge assets, but legally they are very separate.  Diocese are individually incorporated.  Many of the local churches are even not legally owned by the diocese.  Is that similar with TCJC?  Or is there a stronger legal ownership connection to the national TCJC ?  

Yes.  There is a single corporation sole out of Salt Lake City that holds the deed to every LDS meetinghouse [actually two or three, but they are all indisputably under the control of the church’s central governing body].  All member donations are forwarded to Salt Lake City each week, and the central church leadership then turns around and funds each congregation’s annual operating budget on a per capita basis.  All congregational bishops, too, are individually formally approved by Salt Lake prior to their ordination.

(That’s how it works in the LDS Church within the USA, anyways.  Other countries may run a little differently depending on laws governing nonprofit operation, restrictions on international funds transfers, and so on.  But to the extent legally possible, the church’s operations up to and including its financial holdings are very tightly controlled out of Salt Lake.  A financial judgment against one congregation is effectually a financial judgment against all of them.)

Edited August 7, 2022 by FormerCubmaster

[fred8033 1592]

38 minutes ago, FormerCubmaster said:

Yes.  There is a single corporation sole out of Salt Lake City that holds the deed to every LDS meetinghouse [actually two or three, but they are all indisputably under the control of the church’s central governing body].  All member donations are forwarded to Salt Lake City each week, and the central church leadership then turns around and funds each congregation’s annual operating budget on a per capita basis.  All congregational bishops, too, are individually formally approved by Salt Lake prior to their ordination.

(That’s how it works in the LDS Church within the USA, anyways.  Other countries may run a little differently depending on laws governing nonprofit operation, restrictions on international funds transfers, and so on.  But to the extent legally possible, the church’s operations up to and including its financial holdings are very tightly controlled out of Salt Lake.  A financial judgment against one congregation is effectually a financial judgment against all of them.)

Thank you for the answer  !!!!!

Wow.  Even if two or three legal entities, those are massive deep, deep pockets to sue.  .... FYI ... I periodically have to look up TCJC.  It's not a common abbreviation for LDS without LDS tacked on.  

Edited August 7, 2022 by fred8033

[FormerCubmaster 26]

5 minutes ago, fred8033 said:

.  .... FYI ... I periodically have to look up TCJC.  It's not a common abbreviation for LDS without LDS tacked on.  

Yeah, I’ve frankly never seen it outside of discussions of the BSA bankruptcy.  But, when in Rome . . . 🙂

[malraux 369]

7 hours ago, FormerCubmaster said:

Yeah, I’ve frankly never seen it outside of discussions of the BSA bankruptcy.  But, when in Rome . . . 🙂

They announced a name change right around the time they exited the BSA.

[FormerCubmaster 26]

7 hours ago, malraux said:

They announced a name change right around the time they exited the BSA.

Sort of.  It’s had the same formal name since 1837-ish (“The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints”).  The issue has always been that the full name is kind of a mouthful and lends itself to shortening; and there’s been some back-and-forth from the church leadership over the years about whether “Mormon” was an appropriate short form since the term as an appellation both was coined by detractors of the church and tends to distract from what we see as our commitment to Jesus.  About every twenty or thirty years we get direction from church leaders saying “please, lay off the ‘Mormon’ thing”, and we spend a few years trying to change our ways, but we never quite pull ourselves out of the inertia,  

The most recent initiative has had a bit more “oomph” as church institutions like the former “Mormon Tabernacle Choir” and “Mormon Youth Symphony” have been been officially renamed and members have been asked to avoid even the “LDS” acronym.  While the gesture of many on this forum (and the bankruptcy court) who have substituted “TCJC” for “LDS” is very much appreciated, I don’t see “TCJC” getting any traction within the church itself. 

 

[skeptic 992]

1 hour ago, FormerCubmaster said:

Sort of.  It’s had the same formal name since 1837-ish (“The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints”).  The issue has always been that the full name is kind of a mouthful and lends itself to shortening; and there’s been some back-and-forth from the church leadership over the years about whether “Mormon” was an appropriate short form since the term as an appellation both was coined by detractors of the church and tends to distract from what we see as our commitment to Jesus.  About every twenty or thirty years we get direction from church leaders saying “please, lay off the ‘Mormon’ thing”, and we spend a few years trying to change our ways, but we never quite pull ourselves out of the inertia,  

The most recent initiative has had a bit more “oomph” as church institutions like the former “Mormon Tabernacle Choir” and “Mormon Youth Symphony” have been been officially renamed and members have been asked to avoid even the “LDS” acronym.  While the gesture of many on this forum (and the bankruptcy court) who have substituted “TCJC” for “LDS” is very much appreciated, I don’t see “TCJC” getting any traction within the church itself. 

 

Off and on through the years I have tried to point out the inclusion of the name of Jesus Christ in their longer name, which I understood to be the official one.  Am fairly certain the usage of Mormon comes from the Book of Mormon, and that book has seemed to me to be the reason so many "Christians" have refused to recognize them as "Christians".  For me, it has always been what verifies to me that they are one of the many off shoots of the larger family of Christians.  While the extra book has never been something I have found acceptible for my own Christian belief, it also does not remove the "fact" they also include the more accepted other two books of the Bible.  It is in many ways similar to my views of Jehovah's Witnesses and to some extent Christian Scientists.   And there are a few more that are pretty restrictive form my mind.  Perhaps I am too simplistic in my personal definition of what a Christian is.  As I see it; if someone believes in Christ, no matter what the variants attached, they still are part of the Christian family.  Not a debate for me, so please refrain.  Just as most of us have little knowledge or understanding of other world wide beliefs, or simply do not feel they are real, those that have them have that right.  And, I also believe it will all get sorted out in some manner at a future time in our spiritual existences.  

[fred8033 1592]

On 8/7/2022 at 12:22 PM, FormerCubmaster said:

...  “Mormon Tabernacle Choir” and “Mormon Youth Symphony” have been been officially renamed ...

That's a huge branding loss.  Tabernacle choir is rather generic and few know what/where Temple Square is.  I fear this will be long-term like The Artist Formerly known as Prince.  We will have a choir formerly known as the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

Edited August 8, 2022 by fred8033

[fred8033 1592]

... we got bounced ...       ... too controversial. 

Edited August 9, 2022 by fred8033