The Mormon Church sued a prominent member of the Huntsman family for fraud.

James Huntsman, brother of the former ambassador, presidential candidate and Utah governor Jon Huntsman, and a member of a wealthy and influential family, filed a federal lawsuit against the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Tuesday. He claimed that the church, widely known as the Mormon Church, had defrauded him in millions of dollars in donations by inducing him to think that his money would be spent on charitable causes. Why is a member of one of Utah’s most prominent families accusing the church of fraud?

It has to do with the idea of ​​“tithes” and the way a giant institution like the Mormon Church manages its wealth.

Mormons, as they were previously known (they are “Latter-day Saints,” under a new directive from President Russell M. Nelson), are some of the most generous people in the country. According to a 2020 study, Utah led the country in the percentage of people who donate money and the percentage of income that people donate. This is largely because the church encourages its members to donate 10% of their income in tithes.

Tithes are a very common concept among religious institutions; the Mormon Church seems to be better at encouraging its members to pay their share and better at maintaining control. By the end of the year, church members must declare to the church whether they are paying tithing or only partially or not. Those who do not pay tithing do not have access to the temples, where the most secret and sacred religious events take place. Tithing money, say the faithful, goes to the church’s operating costs, as well as to missionary work, charity, educational institutions and temple building.

In 2019, the Washington Post (which was also the first to report the case) reported that the church had not spent as much on these religious causes as many members assumed: $ 100 billion was deposited, unused, in accounts marked for charitable purposes.

Many of the faithful were disturbed to learn that the church has accumulated so much wealth with donations, sometimes from people who donated despite experiencing personal financial discomfort. Others were upset by the secret nature of the church’s finances and felt betrayed by the feeling that they had been deceived. (Religious institutions do not have to report their income and assets, as other nonprofits do.) Others still wondered if the church was violating federal tax laws.

The president of the church’s nonprofit investment division justified the stockpile of such a vast fortune, arguing that it would be used “in the case of Christ’s second coming”, according to a complaint reported by the Post. Senator Mitt Romney at the time joked that he was “happy” that the church had saved money “for a rainy decade”.

The Huntsman lawsuit, however, has to do with more than just the big change: according to the 2019 Post report, the church has been accused of misusing some of its tax-free donations to support an insurance company run by church and a shopping mall jointly administered by the church and a real estate company. Huntsman’s action refers to that report, accusing the church of lying about the use of its donations and “secretly lin[ing] their own pockets, using the funds to develop a multibillion-dollar commercial real estate and insurance empire that had nothing to do with charity. ”(The church said that no tithing money was used to buy or develop the mall’s property or to help with the insurance company.)

The lawsuit is aimed at the church returning Huntsman’s donations. But it also probably comes in a statement. As with many religious institutions in the United States, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is losing actively engaged young people; some of these young people, the Church knows, are being pushed aside by conservative culture and the way the Church deals with LGBTQ issues. Huntsman, the 50-year-old owner of a film distribution company in Southern California, said he hoped to give his reimbursed donations to “organizations and communities whose members have been marginalized by the Church’s teachings and doctrines, including donations to charities they support LGBTQ, African American and women’s rights. “

Concerns about secrecy and trust predate the Post’s report on church finances. In December, the church was attacked with several lawsuits accusing it of covering up decades of sexual abuse among Scout troops. (The church historically had a close connection with the Boy Scouts; it cut ties in 2018 after the Boy Scouts announced they would allow girls to participate).

Many ex-Mormons, as they call themselves, include the vastness of the church’s wealth when discussing their reasons for leaving. For these critics, the institution was a victim of greed and lied to its members for years.

The church is an important player when it comes to national and international charity. He recently announced that he was donating $ 20 million to UNICEF’s global mass vaccination efforts. And there is no evidence that church leaders are living a life of extravagant luxury. Instead, it seems, many Mormons feel betrayed by the idea of ​​a church that held its adherents financially responsible, but was not willing to do the same for itself.