In CBS’s ‘60 Minutes’ segment on church finances, it missed the sweeping rags-to-riches history of faith

SALT LAKE CITY — On Sunday night, the CBS news program “60 Minutes” aired a segment about the financial assets of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The story rehashed widely reported items about the church’s investments and spending and one man’s criticisms, a self-described “whistleblower” who once worked with church investments.

Deseret News reported that what the “60 Minutes” segment about the church’s finances and other reports often miss is the sweeping and at times poverty-ridden history that helps explain the church’s finances and decision-making today, including its modern-day record of self-sufficiency that sustains a global church.

Today, the church has a stock portfolio worth tens of billions of dollars. “60 Minutes,” said some have estimated the church’s assets total as much as $150 billion, though it didn’t provide a source for that figure. The church does not publicize how much money it has so it can keep the focus on its religious mission, Bishop W. Christopher Waddell, first counselor in the Presiding Bishopric, told “60 Minutes.”

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