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Two initial points lest this post evoke all manner of silliness:

1. There is absolutely no evidence that the Mormon Church’s reluctance to disclose details about its finances are the result of any corruption. All evidence points to an honest stewardship.

2. It is absolutely fine for a religious institution to invest money to make money.

Having established those principles, I would like to suggest that the church be open about its finances as a way of modelling wise and ethical stewardship for the benefit of its members. This thought came to me as I read an interview with the Church of England’s “Head of Responsible Investment.” Some interesting things that came out of the interview:

The CofE has a £6.1 billion investment portfolio. This is obviously needed to help pay for the running of churches and the payment of clergy salaries and pensions, among other things. Big institutions need big money.

Parishes contribute just under £1 billion a year to the Church’s coffers.

The Church Commissioners’ first legal duty is to maximise the return on the assets of which they have stewardship. Doing so ethically is a moral but not a legal duty.

The Ethical Investment Advisory Group (EIAG) advises the Church Commissioners on how to invest money ethically.

Usury: there has been a development over the centuries. Calvin taught that lending money to help people set up businesses was acceptable. For this reason, the Church invests in high-street banks but not pay-day lenders (except when it does; see below).

We live in a “messy and ambiguous” world. Some investments are off the table (defence, tobacco, gambling) but following the chain of investments can lift a lid on some dubious practices. For example, the Church recently discovered it was indirectly helping to fund a pay-day lending company (Wonga), whose practices the Church had condemned. This was embarrassing.

The Church’s concern for ethical investment can lead a public conversation. The Wonga thing helped shed more light on pay-day lending, which has led to better regulation of the sector. Another specific example: the Church invested in Glencore but a link with the Anglican Church in Zambia highlighted the problem of sulphur-dioxide pollution, a problem Glencore is now addressing. (“No-one wants the CofE being critical as an investor, because it can result in negative publicity.”)

The Church is beginning to set-up credit unions as an alternative to pay-day lending.

Venture capital is tricky as you don’t know how it will ultimately be invested (cf Wonga).

The Commissioners’ target is to make a return on investments that is the Retail Price Index plus five per cent. They have met this for the last twenty years.

The Church of England is the state religion in a country whose economy is built on financial services. A church head-quartered in London cannot escape the City.

“Jesus spoke about money more than many other subjects.”

This last point is important. Christianity needs an ethic of money if we are to live with mammon. If The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were to open up its financial affairs to public scrutiny it might better demonstrate how the kingdom of God can engage with capitalism in a way that blesses lives. We need to make money but we also need to do so in a way that minimises, as best this fallen world can allow, the blood and horror to which our money might contribute. Churches can and should lead the way here.

I have no idea if the church invests ethically. If it doesn’t it should; if it does, it would be a tremendously prophetic gift if it were to tell us.

(P.S. Mormonism needs a St. Paul’s Institute as well.)