@eiznem - The mockery is in the cover. Making fun of a sacred event in any religion's history is tasteless bigotry... as is your comment signed with your "temple name".

?"You'll think what you will." One thing I learned through my divorce, as well as in this particular election year, is that people will think what they wanna think, and they'll find evidence to support it... and ignore evidence to the contrary. The lovely (and frustrating) karma of the situation is that eventually, the truth will out. What the LDS Church does with tithing money- investments to make the most of those dollars as well as direct charitable action- will be made known. (And regarding the Church's tax exempt status, doing things that look very "for profit"- Matthew 25:14-30)

newsroom.lds.org has a LDS response to the article many might be interested in reading.

Bloomberg ought to be ashamed of making fun of the LDS church with this magazine cover. The left wing media is showing exactly who THEY are- not the LDS church by this cover. I dare you to talk to the prophet himself & ask him questions about all of the church's holdings & what happens to all of the monies the LDS church takes in! Go ahead call him up and ask him for an interview- I know he would give you one. How about printing the TRUTH and show us you are not afraid of it! You are afraid that Mitt Romney will oust Obama so you print this type of GARBAGE! I can't believe what the media will resort to- Go ahead get the TRUTH, I bet you don't dare, because then America WILL vote Romney in & you KNOW it!

@psmithphd I agree with you that the golden rule should be followed to do unto others as you would have them do unto you. I believe Ward Bishop's expect members to be transparent about their finances when determining if they are paying a full tithe -- Why shouldn't the LDS Church do the same. In many years past they did publish their financials. The fact that this changed does lead to all kinds of suspicions by members and non-members. If everything is above board, what is their problem in being up front about their income and the use of those monies.

Why is it that there are more knowledgeable people out there who are not LDS members than there are members of that faith? If just half the LDS populace would just open their minds and start fact checking their statements that they have been spoon fed then this whole thing would not be an issue. This article is not an attempt to mock the LDS faith...however you read it. I can certainly see, and agree that all the faithful need to defend their beliefs. If you don't agree with the facts, you can't just make your own, or deny them. Intellectual honesty is just as important as spiritual honesty.

@psmithphd - (nice name and shameless self-promotion of your Ph.D. in both your comment and handle). You should read the article before complaining about it. You might learn something.

Mock? What did they say that was untrue and mocking in nature? If the church was more forthcoming about their numbers then it wouldn't have the appearance of mocking. If anything it's the church that is making itself into a joke by being so secretive about things they should be transparent about. -- Jacob (that's my temple name)

Kinda similar to South Park animation... Mormons will bounce back. They always do. I heard that when Book of Mormon: The Musical hit Broadway, instead of choosing to be offended by the treatment of their holy religious text, they set up a question and answer booth across the street and handed out free Book of Mormons to theater patrons. Too bad that faithful, well-intentioned members can't volunteer to go hand out accounting figures from the church offices across from news stands selling Bloomber Businessweek...

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS or Mormon) pays taxes on profits derived from all its commercial or profit-making entities. As to money donated freely by members like myself, similar to donations made by members of other religions and also those wishing to contribute, for example, to Stanford University (where I received my Ph.D.) and other educational institutions, these are used in our case in support of Church activities. Fast offerings which faithful members also pay go to help the poor and the needy. The great majority of our practicing members are, like myself, not wealthy, and many need to and receive help and support to the extent possible from other members. I hope our humanitarian efforts are well known by now. We believe also in helping others in times of emergency and thus the Mormon Helping Hands efforts, millions of hours of free volunteer labor, have been a blessing to many as has been attested by them. The article by Winter, which I have not read, probably did not mention or attempt to estimate thus the billions of dollars saved by government and others because of the services the Church and its members offer to its members and to those not of our faith. I don't intend this to be in any way an ad hominem questioning of the author, but she and others seeking to write or speak about us should try first to neutralize or at least temper their own biases and second to be fair and balanced before writing about others. She would do well also to follow the Golden Rule, to do unto others as she would wish them to do unto her. She is certainly a daughter of God, equal in worth to all of us, and for this reason we should seek, as in this case as Christ has taught us, to return good for evil. Phillip C. Smith, Ph.D.