They’re polite, family focused and rather good at basketball. They’re stringent about pre-marital sex and drinking alcohol or coffee. Sure, there was polygamy back in the early days of the church, but they don’t believe in that any more.
But what many don’t realise is that they’ve been part of New Zealand’s national furniture for over 150 years, producing All Blacks and even a Prime Minister.
When I first began looking into the Mormon church, it was for an investigative project on the richest registered charities in the country for NZME’s BusinessDesk.
Those early questions about tithes, tax exemptions and temples developed into a two-year investigation and a six-part podcast into how the LDS built a system that protects the church’s wealth and reputation – and helps shield sexual predators from the law.
It left me asking: how far has the Mormon church gone to cover up abuse?
But it all started with the money. On some counts, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the wealthiest church in the world.
It has assets worth an estimated US$260 billion ($428b), more than the annual GDP of New Zealand.
It took in about US$6b last year from its 17.3 million members donating – or tithing -10% of their gross income. Over the past two centuries, this practice has allowed the church to build a vast investment portfolio that delivered an estimated US$24.5b in profits in 2023.
In New Zealand, it received $53 million in donations from followers in 2023. The church claims to have 109,000 members in Aotearoa, although the 2018 Census put it at 54,000. Since 2007, it has received $686m in donations from its followers, who are predominantly Pasifika and Māori.
This scale of revenue has enabled the church to build a huge new temple in the south of Auckland. The New Zealand church’s 2023 financial statements list $102m in assets under construction.
Sitting on a hill on Redoubt Road, with the spire reaching nearly 60m into the sky, it can be seen all over the suburb and is unmissable when driving in or out of south Auckland. The opening date is expected to be announced soon.
Another temple – at more than $37m – is set to dominate the skyline of the Aotea suburb of Porirua. It’s part of a massive expansion in the number of temples the church is building worldwide, despite membership growth flatlining.
I wanted to know how the church became so successful in Aotearoa.
In episode one of Heaven’s Helpline, “The Business of Saving Souls”, I talk to former missionary Marlin Dean, who opens up about his extraordinary success at converting people into the church on the streets of Sydney.
He explains how missionaries like him used classic sales tactics, targeting people’s emotions to capture them at their most vulnerable.
“Crying as an emotion would be translated to feeling the spirit,” Dean told me.
“So if they cry, they buy - that was how I viewed it.”
We sought comment from the church in response to the allegations discussed in this series.
The church, in a statement, said: “As followers of Jesus Christ, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints abhor abuse of any kind. As a church, we invest heavily on prevention and response; and will continue to do so. Our priority is the welfare of the victim and following the law of the land with respect to the abuser facing the consequences of their actions.”
You can read the church’s full statement here.
Heaven’s Helpline is available at iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. The series was made with the support of NZ On Air. For more on this series, go to nzherald.co.nz/heavenshelpline.
