“Wealthy Mormon publicly leaves the LDS Church”: Forbes billionaire rips organized religion

-

Jeff Green


… “doing harm to the world”


Organized religion is taking a major hit from all sides, particularly Christian denominations. However, this broadside by one of the wealthiest members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was indeed a thorn into a side that it did not need. 


Jeff Green is a billionaire who recently pledged to give away 90 percent of what he has earned in his lifetime because he believes that organized religion that was so vital in his life is no longer. 


The wealthiest native of Utah sent a letter to the Mormon leadership announcing his leaving the denomination and condemning them for a variety of reasons. 


Here is that story. 


"Doing harm to the world"


While being specific about the Latter Day Saints, which he says he loved as a child and gave him tremendous direction, Green has lambasted organized religion too with his words,


Utah's wealthiest native son, who pledged last month to give away at least 90 percent of his wealth, has formally broken ties with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, excoriating the organization on its hoarded wealth and civil-rights record on his way out the door.


In an explosive 900-word letter sent Monday to LDS President Russell Nelson, Jeff T. Green lambasted the Mormon church, saying that while he believed most members were “good people trying to do right,” he also believed “the church is actively and currently doing harm in the world.”


“The church leadership is not honest about its history, its finances, and its advocacy,” Green, a former Mormon missionary and Brigham Young University graduate, added. “I believe the Mormon church has hindered global progress in women’s rights, civil rights and racial equality, and LGBTQ+ rights.”


AJ McDougall, “Utah’s Richest Native Rips Mormon Church in Letter Announcing His Resignation as Member,” The Daily Beast, December 21, 2021


It gets worse


Green moved from Utah many years ago, and he makes clear that the church is being hypocritical,


Green, the 44-year-old CEO and chairman of advertising tech firm The Trade Desk, is worth an estimated $4.9 billion, according to the Forbes Billionaires List. He currently resides in Southern California, having informally left the Mormon church “more than a decade ago—not believing, attending, or practicing,” according to his letter, which he said marked his official and immediate withdrawal from the church.


“Although I have deep love for many Mormons and gratitude for many things that have come into my life through Mormonism, I have not considered myself a member for many years, and I’d like to make clear to you and others that I am not a member,” he wrote to Nelson.


Taking the church, Utah’s largest nonprofit, to task over its “more than $100 billion in assets,” Green demanded the organization do “more to help the world and its members.” Mormons, “often poor,” give to the Church “expecting the blessings of heaven,” he wrote.


AJ McDougall, The Daily Beast, December 21, 2021


Not the church of my childhood


Green’s family was essentially shunned for a variety of reasons by the church, but the wealthy man wants to tell them that he no longer wants to be listed as a Mormon,


Green echoed [his cousin’s] recollection of an idyllic childhood, and how crucial his faith had been to him growing up. “The most positive part of our childhood wasn’t the strong connection we had with our parents but to the community,” he told the Tribune. “I am deeply grateful to that community and its amazing people, including my ancestors who made great sacrifices in the name of God and the community.”


But Green reiterated in his letter that his mind was made up, adding, “After today, the only contact I want from the church is a single letter of confirmation to let me know that I am no longer listed as a member.”


AJ McDougall, The Daily Beast, December 21, 2021


Just another blow to the woes of organized religion in America.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

On the feast of St. Joseph, an evaluation of a “Josephite marriage”

-
Image
… Catholic view is Mary remained virginal March 19 is the feast of St. Joseph, and since we are children were taught by nuns of the St. Joseph’s order, we knew about the man.  However, many people are not aware that Joseph and Mary lived a celibate life, according to the Catholic Church.  Today, there exists within the Catholic Church what is called a Josephite Marriage. I had never heard of it, so I did some investigating.  Here is what I found. Catholic view of celibate marriage I had read about this because of a piece in the New York Times about a man whose parents, with four children, applied to the church to enter into a Josephite marriage. Today, many priests think that such a thing is abhorrent, but not all of them.  So, what is a Josephite marriage? There appear to be two forms of the Sacrament of Marriage, one that we could call the “ordinary form,” the other that one might call the “extraordinary form.”  While both are the same vocati...
Read more

Refuse to take communion from sinful priests: I turned the tables on one

-
Image
“Sixty-nine percent of all American Catholics do not believe that the host and wine that they receive is actually the body and blood of Jesus Christ”  How do Catholics know which priests are in the state of grace? If a priest or bishop is in a state of sin, should he be dispensing the body of Christ? This is a story about why I refused communion from a sinful priest. How could I know if a priest is sinful?  No one actually knows this but God himself.  However, I can know about a sinful priest in the same way that they they make the judgment about us, postulating that some of us are unworthy of receiving communion.  Important: I am in a state of grace with God, but not with the church. However, my guess is that many of those who take communion at a Catholic mass is in a state of sin.  Which is as Jesus would have wanted it. Still, how would a priest or bishop or cardinal know if someone is in a state of sin? Only God knows what is in our hearts and souls. An...
Read more

American Christian leaders have supported ex-atheist Putin over the years, praising his “morality”

-
Image
Putin’s morality is “higher than our own” … the brutal dictator is hardly a follower of Christ How times have changed. Vladimir Putin became a hero to American conservatives, particular those who call themselves “Christians.” They praised him as a leader with better morality than Americans.  Putin was an atheist for years as a member of the Communist Party in the USSR, which prosecuted anyone who followed God. He was a leader of the KGB that brutally enforced those policies and killed anyone who deviated from them.  Yet, over the past 15 years, American evangelical leaders have praised Putin, the brutal leader who is now being denigrated worldwide for his immoral and illegal invasion of and war in Ukraine.  In fact, one religious figure even praised Putin as having better morality than the American president.  And now? The worm has turned, and the snakes have started slithering away from adulation of Putin — though not all of them.  Why? Frankli...
Read more