Mormon gangster hustles Africans: In a despicable display of greed, the leader of the Mormon church tells poor Africans that giving the church money will end their poverty.

Russell Marion Nelson Sr., President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was in Nairobi, Kenya, earlier this week “to deliver a message from the Lord.”

The message: God needs your money, and if you don’t want to be poor, you have to give the Mormon church 10% of your income.

Nelson told the crowd in Nairobi:

We preach tithing to the poor people of the world because the poor people of the world have had cycles of poverty, generation after generation. That same poverty continues from one generation to another, until people pay their tithing.

The statement is despicable and deceitful, but not a surprise. The Mormon church has a well documented history of preying on the poor. For example, at the April 2017 General Conference, one Mormon leader told the gathering of the faithful that the financial needs of the church come before everything else, even feeding your family.

Speaking at the annual conference, Elder Valeri V. Cordón told a story about how his father chose to tithe before providing food for his hungry and poverty stricken family, suggesting that one should pay the church, even if it means your family starves.

As for the Mormon church’s efforts to proselytize in Africa, there is some bitter and ugly irony at play, given the church’s profoundly racist past. In fact, historically, the Mormon church has always been a bigoted, narrow minded, and morally corrupt institution. Indeed, up until 1978, the church taught that black people were spiritually and morally inferior beings, and barred men of African descent from entering the clergy.

However, it should come as no surprise that in the end it is green, the color of money, that trumps all other colors when it comes to the greed and avarice of the Mormon church.

Bottom line: President Nelson and the Mormon church are running a spiritual protection racket, telling the African people and others to pay up or suffer in poverty. It is a despicable practice, but not unique to the Mormon church. Indeed, wherever there is a church, there will be someone leading the church telling you to give them money or else you will be punished by God.

It is an immoral, but profitable business model.