I must admit this pretty much sums up how I feel about the Mormons.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is a business more than a religion. The church organization, or company as I will refer to it at times in this article, brings in more than $20 billion annually from its member donation, sales and over 100 companies they are directly a part of. As with many successful companies, they put a majority of that money back into the business through funding missionaries and their training (to recruit new members), sustaining 18+ radio stations and constructing new facilities (14 new temples are currently in the works). While their statistics for new members are impressive (over 300,000 each year for the past decade), one has to wonder if their techniques to gain new members and the fulfillment of the inflated expectations of those new members are moral. With all the new members that are signed up to the church by missionaries each year, they are fed information that is partly correct, but also not the whole story. It is very similar to a new car advertisement on television. They will show the car racing through the streets without any other cars on the road, rave about the gas mileage (which cannot be obtained by driving the way they just demonstrated), and how you can get it for 1.99% financing and less than $300 a month. The truth of the matter is it will get 25% less fuel economy than they post (because no one drives 50 mph on the highway needed to get those numbers) and unless you have a credit score of 720+, you will not get anything close to that interest rate or a payment even below $400 a month. The Mormon "business" is very similar. The missionaries paint this terrific this picture of everyone abstaining from tobacco, alcohol, etc. and a very clean-cut image of the average member. The idea of eternal marriage and happiness is stressed beyond belief in their initial discussions. After three visits, you will be asked to join the church and agree to all their regulations. How can the span of a few weeks (or even shorter) be enough time to research enough about a religion, I mean business, and commit to their rules, which you don't know a majority of them?
Yet, with all these promises of a fabulous, simple life through the church, only 46% of members attend church services even once per month! As a former member, I would suggest some of the reasons a lot of people don't go regularly is they didn't go to church services regularly before they were LDS, they have done things against the regulations of the church and don't want to face scrutiny, have better things to do for a majority of Sundays, and find the services to be about as interesting as the average church service - not very.
Another point that needs some analysis is the subject of tithing. While donating to worthwhile causes is a great thing and good use of money, requiring 10% from families that may not have 10% to really spare in their lives is unrealistic. The idea is that donating money to the Mormon business will bring money and fortune (non-monetary) to you and your family, almost a "pay it forward" concept. Donating this 10% for your entire life can have a major effect on your financial position when you retire. If a family only has the 10% to spare each month (because ideally the wife would not work and exclusively take care of the kids and help inside the church) and put that towards tithing, they would be living month-to-month, not accomplishing anything towards the future. If they invested that 10%, they could retire a millionaire with ease and live comfortably in their elder years. This is not the case for every Mormon family, but there are many who are pressured or convinced to tithe 10%, when they don't really have that money to spare.
Membership is expected to grow to over 23 million over the next 20 years, which is a scary thought for all the people who have researched the business, found obvious holes in the concepts, and wish it would fade away as more and more people know the facts. The future of the church from a financial standpoint is very strong and will likely continue for a long time. Members will continue to sign up, thinking this religion will transform their lives and allow them to live forever because they carried out God's work during their time on Earth. Attendance numbers will remain low because of how the church is constructed, but in a business it is all about numbers. At the end of the day, the business known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is a very profitable and successful business.
http://voices.yahoo.com/why-mormon-religion-more-like-business-than-443297.html?cat=3
