The real wealth of the Church is its faithful, devoted members, Church leaders said in response to a Time magazine cover story estimating LDS assets.

In a written statement, Bruce Olsen, managing director of LDS Public Affairs, said the Aug. 4 article's "estimates of the Church's wealth and income are grossly exaggerated.""It would also have been well if they had pointed out that the bulk of the Church's assets are money-consuming assets, rather than money-producing."

The article addresses the steady growth of the Church, which is reflective of the international appeal of the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

"The real wealth of the Church is its faithful, devoted members who provide the income. The Church could not operate its many programs for its members very long on income from commercial enterprises," said the release.

The article – titled "Mormons Inc.: The Secret of America's Most Prosperous Religion" – summarized the Church's history, growing national and international membership, tithing and fast offering policies, theology (including its belief in Jesus Christ), welfare program, and extraordinary financial vibrancy.

"If it were a corporation its estimated annual gross income would place it midway through the FORTUNE 500, a little below Union Carbide and the Paine Webber Group but bigger than Nike and the Gap," the magazine wrote.

"And as long as corporate rankings are being bandied about, the church would make any list of the most admired: for straight dealing, company spirit, contributions to charity (even the non-Mormon kind) and a fiscal probity among its powerful leaders that would satisfy any shareholder group, if there were one."

Time detailed some of the Church's extensive holdings – including Deseret Cattle & Citrus Ranch outside of Orlando, Fla., which covers 312,000 acres; AgReserves, Inc., America's largest producer of nuts; Bonneville International Corp., the country's 14th largest radio chain; and Beneficial Life Insurance Co.

"There are richer churches than the one based in Salt Lake City: Roman Catholic holdings dwarf Mormon wealth," the article said. "But the Catholic Church has 45 times as many members. There is no major church in the U.S. as active as the Latter-day Saints in economic life, nor, per capita, as successful at it."

According to the magazine, donations account for the majority of Church income.

Lauding the Church's home teaching program, welfare system and social virtues, the magazine said Mormons have moved from a time of being "vilified to being venerated," pointing out that there are 15 Mormon members of the U.S. Congress and that both the FBI and CIA have instituted Mormon-recruitment plans.

The story also includes an interview with President Gordon B. Hinckley, who, Time said, has started an unprecedented campaign of international expansion.

"Our whole objective," President Hinckley told Time, "is to make bad men good and good men better, to improve people, to give them an understanding of their godly inheritance and of what they may become."

President Hinckley said, "We're celebrating this year the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the Mormon pioneers. From that pioneer beginning, in this desert valley where a plow had never before broken the soil, to what you see today . . . this is a story of success."