Las Vegas Review-Journal

Mormon church rivals Catholic

- Kimball Shinkoskey, Woods Cross, Utah

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has amassed wealth today like the Catholic Church did in its medieval heyday. The LDS church, based on several reports, holds upward of $100 billion in unspent tithing assets. The medieval church taxed (tithed) the population­s of European nations so exhaustive­ly that kings of nations protested that they couldn’t get enough revenue to run their own countries. Utah tax coffers suffer this way, too.

Like the Catholic Church, the LDS church claims an uninterrup­ted descent of religious authority from Christ to its own present-day leader.

The LDS church operates in a steeply hierarchic­al, Catholic, papal-style mode of church government, much like monarchy operates in the secular government world.

The LDS church builds magnificen­t temples (167 in current operation) like the Catholic system of monumental cathedrals (some 193).

Mormons operate on a works-based, sacraments-based system of salvation. Following the church program/commandmen­ts and participat­ing in church sacraments/ordinances produces salvation/spiritual elevation, rather than the bornagain, belief- or faith-based system of Protestant­ism.

Mormons want to spread their wings over all the earth by means of evangelism, imposing an organizati­on and theologica­l orthodoxy that precludes much variety and may even threaten religious freedom, at least within its own ranks. The Catholic church operated the same way in medieval times.

Mormons want to be mainstream in America like Catholics are the world over. It seems they have arrived.

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