D. Michael Quinn-The Mormon Hierarchy: Wealth & Corporate Power

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seer stone
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D. Michael Quinn-The Mormon Hierarchy: Wealth & Corporate Power

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D. Michael Quinn did a book signing and seminar on his new book The Mormon Hiearchy: Wealth & Corporate Power at the Benchmark bookstore on October 25th. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkeUvoU ... e=youtu.be

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inho
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Re: D. Michael Quinn-The Mormon Hierarchy: Wealth & Corporate Power

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I haven't read the book yet, but I listened to an over two hours long presentation Quinn has given:
https://huffduffer.com/austinarchibald/430403
I was surprised how positive view on church finances Quinn has. He is not currently member, so he has no reason to try to make the church looks better than it really is. In the presentation Quinn even uses words like faith-promoting.

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Re: D. Michael Quinn-The Mormon Hierarchy: Wealth & Corporate Power

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Quinn was excommunicated many years ago. His book reviews have a couple people saying its anti-Mormon.
I don't know if this is true but just putting it out there so you can use discernment and discretion and so people don't just walk in blind. A source being outside the church doesn't make the church look better. Why would you trust someone who doesn't follow or believe what you do to teach you about your church or doctrine?

Joseph Smith was concerned with the history of the Church coming from inspired sources in his day. Just something to think about.

Mosiah 23:14 And also trust no one to be your teacher nor your minister, except he be a man of God, walking in his ways and keeping his commandments.

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inho
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Re: D. Michael Quinn-The Mormon Hierarchy: Wealth & Corporate Power

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gardener4life wrote: October 31st, 2017, 3:39 pm His book reviews have a couple people saying its anti-Mormon.
I think those reviewers have misunderstood the book. I know that ex-mormons were eagerly waiting for the book, because they thought that it would uncover the dark secrets of the corporate church. However, if you listen to D. Michael Quinn talk about the book himself, you get totally different picture. His view on the way church handles its finances is very positive.

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Re: D. Michael Quinn-The Mormon Hierarchy: Wealth & Corporate Power

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I don't know what Quinn's book is about and I probably won't read it, but I had a few small experiences that gave me a very positive impression of the way the church handles its finances, at least as far as its internal procedures. First, when I was an accounting student at BYU I was really trying to get an on-campus job related to accounting so I applied and interviewed for an internal auditor job. I absolutely 100% bombed the interview with the director of internal audit. It was a spectacular failure. HOWEVER, I found it interesting that he said the purpose of the job was to document all of financial procedures on campus to comply with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Even though BYU and the Church are private institutions, and therefore not subject to the act, President Hinckley wanted the Church and all of its affiliates to meet or exceed the accounting and control standards required by public companies.

Second, I had an Investments class at BYU where our professor invited the head of the Church's financial management department to speak to us. I know there are people here who would disagree with me, but once again I was very impressed with the man and what he had to say and how the church invested its funds.

Third, as a former big 4 auditor and active CPA, I have been a ward clerk and a stake finance clerk and I assume it will forever be my doom to be a stake auditor, and although one of my audit professors at BYU made a little bit of fun of the church's audit program, I have still been impressed at the importance placed on following good procedures at the local level and requiring accountability and providing training.

Fourth, the church is audited by one of the big four accounting firms. When I was a student it was PwC. Say what you want about the large accounting firms, but they won't take you as a client unless they believe you have integrity and will be honest to them.

Maybe his book is on how the funds are used or something like that and not so much on how they are protected and reported, but I am still impressed by how the church does things or at least tries to do things.

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Re: D. Michael Quinn-The Mormon Hierarchy: Wealth & Corporate Power

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That video and part of the podcast I listed to were very good. Quinn is a very interesting fellow. Much of what he said about the way the church conducts itself was very interesting and like he said, "faith promoting." I think much of what he discovered will be a surprise to those who criticize the church's use of funds. Most of it seems to be used the way we hope it would be used, a vast amount in billions subsidizing church resources to members in foreign countries all over the world in aid that dwarfs the humanitarian numbers and this doesn't get reported. Members of the church and communities benefit heavily from the influence of the church in these poorer countries and even Great Britain. All things considered, the church's wealthiest members subsidize resources of other members in poorer countries to the tune of BILLIONS each year. There's much more but that alone was really news to me, I had not considered those things to the degree that Quinn explained.

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Re: D. Michael Quinn-The Mormon Hierarchy: Wealth & Corporate Power

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Watching this video, I felt like Quinn, even though excommunicated, his testimony was strengthened after researching the government of the church, possibly through his thorough research of writing this book. He seemed astonished that the First Presidency and member of the Quorum made much less than many of the bureaucrats (administrative heads within the church offices). In the Q&A time after his seminar, it was brought up that the CEO of Red Cross made over a million a month, while the President of the Church only receives $120,000 a month as a comparison between two successful charitable organizations.

It seems to me that Quinn is a person who doesn't want his integrity as an author to be misconstrued as misleading his readers. I received the impression that he would only print whatever is true by disclosing everything with complete transparency, backed up by reliable sources whether it was good or bad for the church. Obviously, he was quite impressed with the handling of the finances of the church.

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