english → English transcript

LDS Church is now the second largest private landowner in the U.S.

You know, it's because, oh, they're these pastors, you know, sexually abusing kids.

No, it's because the whole system is broken.

They're worth $300 billion, and it's all for-profit ventures registered as churches.

Wow. $300 billion?

$300 billion in market assets.

The LDS Church will hit a trillion in market assets in the next decade.

The LDS Church petitioned the IRS to add the term auxiliary in front of church in the sixties.

And it was men's clubs back in the day.

So men would meet up, smoke cigars, you know, hang out, talk.

And they're like, this is technically church.

And so the IRS added this term auxiliary to their definition.

Well, there's no clear, black-and-white definition of what an auxiliary is.

So if there's no definition, anything can be an auxiliary.

So the LDS Church registers its investment fund as an auxiliary,

which means that auxiliary is technically a church.

It gets the same benefits that the church gets.

Flash forward 27 years.

They're worth $300 billion, and it's all for-profit ventures registered as churches.

Wow. $300 billion?

$300 billion in market assets.

The LDS Church will hit a trillion in market assets in the next decade,

all under the guise of a religious institution.

And the crazy part is that not one dollar of that.

Now it's a hedge fund because they're hedging.

Not a single dollar of that fund has ever gone to humanitarian purposes or even the church.

So if you're a shrewd businessman, you start a church and you can do whatever you want.

And so you wonder why, oh man, Christianity is getting a bad rap right now.

You know, it's because, oh, they're these pastors, you know,

sexually abusing kids.

No, it's because the whole system is broken, the legal system.

So that's what needs to be reformed.

Yeah, I mean, we see this all the time.

I mean, pastors with runways behind their house, four private jets.

I mean, I know it's insane.

Well, the private jet can be registered as a house of worship in Texas,

so you don't pay tax on the jets.

Huh? It can be registered as what?

As a house of worship because you pray on it.

So a private jet, a $21 million jet is tax-free because it's a house of worship.

Is that an auxiliary as well?

It's just an asset of the church, but it's a house of worship.

It's part of it.

It's your building, basically.

The IRS sees it as your building.

So with these loopholes, you could basically purchase just about any vehicle, any plane,

any piece of real estate, any building.

And a lot of times, so the LDS Church is now the second largest private landowner in the US.

two point three million acres.

Wow.

Tax-free.

All under the guise of religion and freedom of religion.

And none of this goes to…

They have farms, and this is where the LDS Church is very interesting,

and I really want to dissect the LDS Church with you.

They have farms, and so they say, hey, we're building our storehouse.

So this is Old Testament Torah.

So we're going to have goods and supplies in the storehouse, sufficient in God's storehouse.

So they're quoting Malachi.

And if you've tithed to us, if you've given your full tithe,

you're going to get to enjoy the benefits of our storehouse

if there's a natural disaster or if Jesus comes.

So they're building their conglomerate, demanding you give tithes,

ten percent of your gross revenue to them,

and then you'll be able to benefit from us if something happens.

And here's the kicker.

If you don't give your full tithe, you don't get to benefit.

How do they know?

Oh, they look at your bank statements.

They turn in their bank statements?

Every year at the LDS Church, you have to go in,

and I can't remember what it's called, but it's a meeting with your bishop,

and you have to discuss your finances.

And he says, have you been a full tithe payer?

And if you haven't, it's literally you're docked.

And if you're not a full tithe payer, you don't get your temple recommend.

And if you don't have your temple recommend,

you don't get to get to heaven with your family.

So we've built these institutions,

and I'm going to give the benefit of the doubt here,

with good intentions,

and they've become the middleman of God's resources.

And here's a question.

Christ told to give to two things.

Do you know what those two things are in the Bible?

Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's,

so pay your taxes,

and then give to God the things that are God's.

Churches don't pay taxes, and then they've…

So this is Christ talking to you, Sean.

Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's,

and give to God the things that are God's.

Well, the church has moved right in the middle

of you giving your resources to God,

and said, we'll disperse these for you.

Christ never told you to give it to an institution.

He never…

This is the big one, too.

He never told you to give it to the house of God.

He never told you to give it to the temple,

because you are the temple.

He told us to pay taxes?

Yeah.

I'm a little disappointed in that.

Yeah, well, because he said, I don't care about Caesar.

Caesar's going to come and go.

Taxes are going to go up and down.

Don't care about worldly things.

He's literally saying, just pay.

Whatever he asks you, pay.

Don't stress it.

So this is an interesting conversation about,

so why was tax exemption created in the first place?

So in 1913, the government is looking at all these businesses out in the US,

and they say, man, there's about 12,000 organizations,

12,000 businesses building what we call social capital.

So they're in their local communities,

because there's no TV, there's no internet,

and there's no planes yet.

So your world is what's really around you,

within your 40 mile range, really.

And so there's these 12,000 organizations building social capital.

And the idea of this is, hey, even if Nathan doesn't have kids,

I want the park down the street to be nice and safe for other people's kids.

So raising social capital, local social capital means

I'm helping my local community

and driving what development economists call human flourishing.

So what businesses in our community are raising the level of human flourishing?

And that's what they defined as the nonprofits.

So they said there's these unique businesses

that are strictly there to benefit the community.

They're not after capital profits.

They're really here for the benefit of the community.

So we're going to do this special carve out,

and this is 1913,

and we're going to call it a nonprofit sector.

12,000 organizations,

and this includes churches, got that exemption in 1913.

Today, there's 1.9 million nonprofits.

So it's an explosion in the sector,

and it's tied to technology.

So every time a tech boom happens,

the nonprofit sector explodes

because people see it as a way to offload money

because the regulations are archaic.

But so there's about 12,000 organizations.

This includes religious exemptions.

Flash forward a couple decades,

and the IRS has to in effect now define a church

because churches are now saying,

hey, we're a nonprofit.

We're building local social capital,

which they were, and some are.

We're helping the homeless.

We're housing the unhoused.

We're helping foster care.

Single mothers were really the backbone of our community,

which churches, which these institutions,

because remember the church is just the people,

but the building itself was really for the community.

They do community meals together.

They were there for the community.

So the IRS in effect had to define a church

so they could grant tax exemption.

So this always blows people away.

The IRS used one organization as the model

to shove every religion into.

And that one organization was the Salvation Army.

So they looked at the Salvation Army.

They said, the Salvation Army is doing good things.

Let's go in.

And they created 14 points and said,

this is what the Salvation Army does.

So this is what church is.

So every church, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism,

Christianity, Judaism, you name it,

is tucked into that same 14 points.

And it is, you need a house of worship.

So you need a physical location.

You need basically a board of elders,

someone to steer it.

You need a creed or a form of worship.

You need childcare so you can raise the next generation.

So when you look at churches today,

they're based solely off these 14 points.

So when you say it's not bad, it's not bad,

but that's not church.

It's literally just replicas of the Salvation Army.

And then you apply a level of entrepreneurialism

on top of that.

And man, the sky's the limit, if that makes sense.

And so now today there's 400,000 churches in the US.

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