Mormons Ramp Up Building New Temples, Membership is Flat

The of new temple construction is skyrocketing. This while the Mormon membership is flat. What are they thinking?

We need only look at the beautiful Catholic buildings being shuttered across the U.S. to see what awaits the Mormons. Or, in the case of down the street from me, a huge and magnificent Christian Science church building from the 1950's was hauled off as rumble. 

Money accumulated by the Mormon church is estimated at between $32 and $100 Billion. It is thought to be the richest denomination in the world, richer than the Catholic Church. 

I would guess those inside the Mormon hierarchy are thinking like some others in Christianity. "We need to have the buildings ready for the crush of new members that will come after this temporary slowdown." There is always the notion also big intimidating building are like billboards advertising the strength and permanency of the denomination. As the link points out, a new temple is being built in Norway where there are only a handful of members. Do leaders think, "Build and they will come." 

When one sees empty and decaying church buildings it is more discouraging, to me at least, than empty public buildings. The public buildings were put there for a need at the time and were sincerely thought to be in the public's interest. Abandoned church buildings were more likely influenced by religious beliefs that a god would guide people to the doors or some such nonsense. Abandoned church buildings are not altogether different than money poured into defending sex abuse among clergy. Their defense was put in place after prayer and strange notions of how money from poor people should be spent. From the clergy's point of view it should be spent to benefit clergy. 

Even though the Mormon church have many billions of dollars stashed away, it can have a precarious future. If the firehose of money keeps coming in a few mistakes can be handled easily. But if prolific spending continues when revenue drops things can get dicey in a hurry. The S & L crisis of a few decades ago showed how fast billion dollar corporations can melt down.