If you've been to Salt Lake City anytime in the last year or so, I'm sure you're aware of the massive hole across the street from Temple Square. Over the next few years we will see this hole slowly build heavenwards as the City Creek Center approaches its 2012 completion. The City Creek Center will be a 20 acre project (3 city blocks) consisting of shopping, offices, and residential units. It's meant to be similar to the Gateway Mall, a few blocks east. If you want more information about this center, you can check their website.
The center is primarily funded by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (the Mormons). The expected price tag is roughly $1.5 billion. This should encourage an obvious question. What in the world is a church doing building a $1.5 billion mall? I'm really surprised this has not had more airtime in the media. In fact, I've heard little to no discussion of this question.
First of all, it just seems odd that a church has any business building a mall. How does that help spread the gospel of Jesus Christ? How does that aid in any of the three-fold purposes of the church (proclaim the gospel, redeem the dead, and perfect the saints)? If anyone can provide an answer to this, I am extremely intrigued, honestly.
The bigger problem in my mind is the quantity of money being appropriated to this project. $1.5 billion is a fairly large chunk of change. To put that into perspective, according to the church, $104.9 million was given as humanitarian aid in 2007 (source). And that's a substantial gain from the past, given that between 1985 and 2005, the church provided a total of $660 million in material assistance. That would be an average of $33 million per year for twenty years (source). It doesn't take a mathematical genius to see the discrepancy.
The church has released one statement regarding this. They have stated that tithing funds were not used. The money comes from other investments that the church has, specifically Property Reserve, Inc. The church, undoubtedly, has massive holdings and a massive amount of wealth. Their willingness to drop $1.5 billion is sufficient indication of that fact. But, this begs the question of where those holdings came from in the first place. My guess is that these holdings are a result of tithing funds donated by the millions of saints who've preceded myself. Maybe the church acquired these holdings through other actions, but I doubt it. If that is true, saying that the money is not tithing money is splitting hairs and a little dishonest.
That all aside, who cares where it came from? It's money that is at the disposal of the church. Regardless of where the money came from, it means that the church has decided that it is better to spend that money on a mall than to use it in helping people. I just can't imagine Jesus doing this sort of thing.
As I've stated above, I would love to hear answers to how this is reasonable. As is often the case, we don't always know the whole story. So, if there's something I'm missing, please let me know, so I can stop being annoyed by this.
Tragedy and Kitsch
5 hours ago
3 comments:
It is good to see that you haven't lost your edge, and you approach things with intelligence-tempered feeling as opposed to pure passion. I just found your blog though so give me some time to digest everything and do some reading, then I'll get back to you.
- Mark
Mike,
The Church is a major contributor, but how can you credit them with giving the complete 1.5 billion to the project?
Here is the list of sponsors found on the Downtown Rising website:
Bailey-Montague Graphic Design
Commerce CRG
Deseret Management Corporation
Deseret Morning News
Downtown Alliance
Eccles Foundation
Miller Entertainment Group
Newspaper Agency Corporation
O.C. Tanner
Penna Powers Brian Haynes
Questar
Salt Lake Chamber
Salt Lake City Corp.
Salt Lake County
State of Utah
Sam's Club
Sinclair Oil
Staker Parson Companies
The Boyer Company
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
The Salt Lake Tribune
University of Utah College of Architecture and Planning
Utah Chapter of the American Institute of Architects
Utah Transit Authority
Wilkinson Ferrari & Co.
Wasatch Properties
Zions Bank
With that list of supporters, it is plain to see why the church would want to be a part of improving the downtown area. As Salt Lake City grows, don't expect the church to sit idly by and watch.
Also, from your same link, I read that "according the LDS Philanthropies website, in 2005, the LDS Church had 3,512 humanitarian missionaries with a total of 738,821 days of volunteer labor and provided almost 1 billion dollars worth of goods and services in 163 countries." You pointed out a discrepancy in the price tag for a mall, and the amount of aide given. With this information, do you still believe there is a discrepancy in the two amounts?
As for your question regarding the mall's impact on the mission of the church, currently Temple Square is the most visited tourist attraction in Utah. There is a substantial missionary effort ("Proclaim the Gospel") centered around these visitors. The church has a vested interest in maintaining a prominent presence downtown, which will continue to attract visitors, create awareness and interest for the church, and ideally plant seeds of conversion, which will bring people to Christ.
Thanks for the chance to respond. Don't allow this to annoy you much longer. That's not the intention of the project.
Thank you for your response. I appreciate you taking the time to look at the provided sources. There are a few corrections I feel obligated to point out regarding your comment.
The list of sponsors provided is from the entire downtown rising iniative. City Creek Center is not the only project in the iniative. City Creek is a coinitiative between the church and Taubman Centers, Inc. You do make a good point in that we are not privy to the actual cash breakdown of the investment. I have always got the feeling that it was primarily a church investment, but I could be totally wrong.
With regards to the humanitarian numbers, you need to remember that the nearly one billion dollars is cumulative over the past twenty years. In other words, this mall costs more than the church gas spent on humanitarian aid in the past twenty years. Also note that much of this is in material assistance, which is likely donated goods from members. I have the highest regards for the church membership's willingness to help, evidenced by the massive number of hours volunteered.
I guess it ultimately comes down to a difference in opinion. I see $1.5 billion and I can't help thinking of all the good this could do if it were to go to schools in Africa, vaccines, AIDS prevention, or any number of other worthy endeavours. In light of these issues, I would love to see the church sit idly by as Salt Lake City grows.
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