Church Statement Issued Following CBS ‘60 Minutes’ Report

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints released a statement following a CBS ’60 Minutes’ Report covering the handling of funds:

The Church believes in being financially responsible by carefully ensuring it has adequate resources available to fulfill its divinely appointed responsibilities. To Church members who support the work of salvation through living the gospel of Jesus Christ, caring for those in need, inviting all to receive the gospel and uniting families for eternity, we’ll continue to move forward consistent with the gospel of Jesus Christ which makes this world a better place.

It’s unfortunate ‘60 Minutes’ sought to elevate a story based on unfounded allegations by a former employee who has a different view on how the Church should manage its resources.

You can learn more about the report from Tad Walch’s Desert News article here, a snippet of which you can find below. > In CBS’s ‘60 Minutes’ segment on church finances, it missed the sweeping rags-to-riches history of faith

On Sunday night, the CBS news program “60 Minutes” aired a segment about the financial assets of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The story rehashed widely reported items about the church’s investments and spending and one man’s criticisms, a self-described “whistleblower” who once worked with church investments.

What the “60 Minutes” segment about the church’s finances and other reports often miss is the sweeping and at times poverty-ridden history that helps explain the church’s finances and decision-making today, including its modern-day record of self-sufficiency that sustains a global church.

Sixty years ago, a financial crisis engulfed the church and threatened to become the worst in the faith’s history, one historian wrote. That’s saying something for a church with a storied past of economic distress.

For example, an apostle once secured new loans in New York City hours before the church would have defaulted on a large payment with a San Francisco bank. He awoke despondent that morning, aware that a run on the two banks owned by the church threatened to wipe out the last of its deposits. If he had failed, the church’s credit rating would have been ruined and debtors would have sued to seize church assets, according to the late historian Ronald Walker.

In 1962, the church ran a $32 million deficit. With red ink soaking the church’s books again in early 1963 and its financial officers worried they wouldn’t be able to meet payroll for church employees, President David O. McKay moved decisively. He changed the assignment of one the counselors in his First Presidency who had overseen church finances, historians say.

Read the rest of the article here > In CBS’s ‘60 Minutes’ segment on church finances, it missed the sweeping rags-to-riches history of faith