Those Wealthy Mormons!

It probably is because so many people know members who are doctors or dentists or lawyers or administrators and don’t know all of the middle-lower class members.

Also, the average educational level in the LDS Church is higher than most Christian denomination. That certainly contributes.

Over the last few years, I have heard a couple different comments from non-LDS people about Mormons. The comments were all stating that: ALL MORMONS ARE WEALTHY. The first time I heard a comment it was, “How come all Mormons and Jews are rich? What is up with THAT??”…This has become a theme that keeps coming up in my community…Anyone else seeing this? Anyone know where or why it started?

That definitely isn’t true in Utah; here you will see Mormons in practically every career imaginable (teachers, cops, painters, salesmen, mechanics, plumbers, factory workers, etc.) from some of the lowest paying to the highest paying and everything in between. These people saying this probably only know a few Mormons that just happened to be wealthy and are generalizing based on that. I do wonder if in some communities in California or other states Church members are more likely to fall away or never move there to begin with if they are not a doctor, dentist, lawyer, engineer, etc. especially if they conform to the traditional LDS expectation that women should be full-time stay-at-home mothers with a large number of children simply because the costs of living are higher than in Utah, Idaho, etc. and maybe going to BYU or some other relatively church-friendly college environment helps them remain active long enough to get married in the temple whereas many that start working full-time after high school or even missions are exposed to the outside world more and generally have a harder time following the LDS life script than they would if they lived in Utah or Idaho surrounded by many other active Mormons.

I think it is a very interesting stereotype Mormons get associated with beyond everyday life. Mormons also get the hype for being “very good businessmen” on the high level (think Mitt Romney, the Marriotts, etc). It feels like most articles I’ve read about “famous Mormons” these days are addressing the question of why Mormons are “so good” in business, and no longer hovering around the Osmonds like it might have been before.

What is interesting to me is how overlooked Mormons get in the entertainment business. There is a huge concentration of successful practicing Mormons, non-practicing Mormons, and ex-Mormons in the entertainment world, especially the music scene, for us making up such a small percentage of the American population, and yet this doesn’t get tied into the Mormon stereotype that I’ve seen like “businessmen” does. I don’t know why this is.

I might be showing my (young) age here, but I mean, just look at this list of Mormon (or ex-Mormon) celebrities. Some of them are so high-profile:

Music

David Archuleta

Alex Boye’

Christina Aguilera (Ex-Mormon…parents were married in the Temple but divorced before she was 8. She’s spoken out against the Church for its stance on LGBTQ marriage before).

Jewel (Non-practicing, ex?)

Derek and Julianne Hough (Non-practicing, although Julianne seems to still identify). Dancers.

Lindsey Sterling. Violinist.

Gladys Knight

Rock Music

Arcade Fire Members (Non-praciting, ex?)

Panic! at the Disco Lead Singer (Ex-Mormon)

Warren Devon (Ex-Mormon)

The Used Lead Singer (Ex-Mormon)

Neon Trees members (Tyler Glenn, the lead singer, is now non-practicing, ex).

Imagine Dragons members

Acting

Amy Adams (Ex-Mormon). The star of the Disney movie Enchanted, the Muppets Movie, and is Lois Lane in the new Superman.

Aaron Eckhart (Ex-Mormon). Harvey Dent/Two Face in the Nolan Batman movie. Well-known character actor.

Paul Walker (Ex-Mormon). Fast & Furious movies.

Ryan Gosling (Ex-Mormon). Big heartthrob for a lot of girls. Famous for the Notebook.

Eliza Dushku (Non-practicing, ex?)

Katherine Heigl (Non-practicing, although seems to somewhat still identify)

Comedy

Chelsea Handler (Ex-Mormon). Raised by a Mormon mom and Jewish dad.

Jon Heder. Of Napoleon Dynamite fame.

Politicians (for good measure):

Harry Reid

Marco Rubio (Ex-Mormon)

Mitt Romney (of course)

Of course, not a completed list, just something I pulled up on the internet. And I don’t mean to speculate on anyone’s faith. I just think this “wealthy Mormon” and “Mormons are so good with business” stereotype is interesting. I think it’s also interesting there’s such a strong presence of successful Mormons/former Mormons in the rock industry but Mormonism never gets tied up with that…I guess that goes against our clean-cut, suite & tie image of the missionaries, doesn’t it?

I don’t see it where I have lived most of my life. I went to a Ward party in my old Ward outside the country last week as part of a trip. Massive poverty. It must just be that AP lives in an area that has a lot of wealthy Mormons…

Also, wealthy Mormons don’t make sense. People in the lower income brackets not only have low income to deal with, they have charitable donations which I think are a burden for many people. When you are a single parent earning $24000 a year, and you have to give up $2400 in tithing, that is hard. When you are earning $300 000 a year, it’s much easier to live comfortably, even after tax, if you adjust your life style. You still have $270,000 less taxes and probable school debt payments (if applicable)live on.

Now, to a traditional believer, what I just said is hokus.

I’ve given this quite a bit of thought since it was posted, actually. A lot of my thinking times comes while int he shower or driving, so it’s not always congruent with itself.

I am reminded of something my now returned missionary son said before his mission. He was thinking about his mission and about the kinds of people he would meet and possibly bring into the church. He noted that almost all of the people the missionaries here bring to church are jobless and without transportation. Most also have serious WoW issues and many are cohabiting. A few of them join the church after making some adjustments (and in one case I have mentioned here not made adjustments), but don’t remain. It is rare that the missionaries show up with a nice family where Dad and/or Mom have a job, own a home, and have a family car or two (I can’t ever remember such a time in the 25 years I’ve been here, actually). Our ward doesn’t have many baptisms. We had two converts last year, none so far this year. Both of last year’s are still active. The guy is mentally retarded but deemed appropriate for baptism. He has relatives that are members and bring him most of the time. He has a job as a cart boy/bagger at a local supermarket and his calling is greeter. The woman joined without her husband. She apparently has a decent job, drives herself, and is a family history consultant. Rich? Not by a long shot.

I also thought about our current membership. We did once have a guy who was a co-owner of a major construction company and judging by his tithing (which I saw as a bishopric member counting) was a multi-millionaire. The company actually ended up going under, he still lives in the ward but is retired, and again judging by the things he does, cars he drives, etc., has significantly cut back his spending. I would guess the next wealthiest members are a husband/wife engineer and teacher who are both approaching retirement and probably earn in the mid 100,000’s. We have a couple other engineers, a couple teachers, a doctor (who may rival the other couple, wife is a nurse who works part time), a retired dentist (as well as lots of other retired people, we’re an aging ward with a tiny Primary), and quite a few people who are general laborers/service workers who probably make no more than $35,000 as husband/wife. I wouldn’t consider any of them wealthy, and if I walked into our ward cold and judged people by the way they dressed, etc., would get the impression that Mormons are mostly uneducated and mostly lower middle class – and that would be true for the majority of people I see there.

I’m sure other wards are different, even wards nearby are different – the one with the major international corporation headquartered there has lots of professionals and the one with the college has several professors.

I’d be willing to bet that tithing and anti Mormon sentiment offset any work ethic and higher level of education. I’ve read that being LDS costs professionals about $10,000 per year in lower salaries, similar to single moms. Missions cost two years in lost wages. Senior missionaries sometimes struggle with employment after their later missions.

Every once I a while an article comes out extolling the virtues of Mormons (there was an article called God’s MBAs a few years ago) and I wonder if that skews opinions.

I do think active LDS live longer and healthier and that is worth a lot but that probably isn’t the wealth being referred to.

Easy solution; the Church says they don’t want you to tithe on lottery winnings or illegally obtained money. Given the rather large amounts involved in lotteries and illegal transactions, there’s a pretty good chance every cent in circulation right now has, at some point, been won in a lottery or used to buy something illegal.

Flimsiest tithing excuse I have ever heard. 😈