Q: What companies are owned by the Mormon Church?
According to Forbes:
“Deseret Management is owned by DMC Reserve Trust, a religious, educational and charitable trust affiliated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. The company operates as a holding company for operations including: radio and television broadcasting (Bonneville International Corp.); book retailing (Deseret Book); real estate investment and management (Zions Securities and Hawaii Reserves); insurance (Beneficial Life Insurance Company); a newspaper (the Deseret News); and agriculture (Ag Reserves).”
Here is a list of such companies.
For further information, we suggest the following book, which may be available from your public library (or may be ordered from Amazon.com):
Ostling, Richard N., and Joan K. Ostling. Mormon America: The Power and the Promise. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1999. See especially chapter 7.
The following books are older but still may be of some interest:
Heinerman, John, and Anson Shupe. The Mormon Corporate Empire. Boston: Beacon Press, 1985.
Gottlieb, Robert, and Peter Wiley. America’s Saints: The Rise of Mormon Power. New York: Putnam’s Sons, 1984.
Neither the Southern Baptist Convention nor the North American Mission Board takes any official stance or position as to whether Christians should do business with these companies. It is reasonable, though, to draw a distinction in such matters between companies owned by the LDS Church and companies owned, or owned in part, by individual members of the LDS Church.
Published March 30, 2016
