How high can it fly?

Honestly, I think that some critics of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are deranged.  I can understand coming to the conclusion that the Church’s truth claims are false.  What I can’t understand and what I regard as very likely unhinged is jumping from that conclusion to the further conclusion that absolutely everything that the Church and its leaders do is (some combination or other of) evil, deceptive, dishonest, ridiculous, and worthy of sneering contempt.  Yet I see online comments from a number of people who are apparently unable to see a single positive feature in any leader of the Church or in the Church itself.  The case that has struck me most recently involves the tragic accidental death of a senior missionary, which, to at least a few, demonstrates the Church to be greedy, callous, irresponsible, and, as always, culpable and deserving of condemnation.  So far as I’m able to remember, I’ve never felt the need for such an attitude toward any significant group or system of beliefs with which I differ.

On a not necessarily related note:  When I first heard of the hoard of money accumulated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its investment or financial management arm, Ensign Peak Advisors, I think that it had allegedly reached fifty billion dollars.  Soon thereafter, it had supposedly doubled to a hundred billion dollars.  Relatively quickly, online critics next had it soaring to two hundred billion.  And a couple of days ago I read an online claim that it is now approaching half a trillion.  That’s five hundred billion dollars.  Trying to get some perspective on this, I’ve seen estimates that place the global M2 money supply as of early 2025 (i.e., cash, checking accounts, and certain savings) at more than $90 trillion, which leads me to believe that the current plausible upper limit for allegations regarding the size of the estimated Ensign Peak fund may be somewhat less than $100 trillion.  But then again, the total value of world financial assets and investments, including derivatives and stock markets, probably goes into the quadrillions, which makes me think that estimates of Ensign Peak’s holdings can still potentially go much, much higher.  I’m currently trying to find a way to retain the folks at Ensign Peak to manage my personal investment portfolio.  If I’m successful in my attempt, I expect to be a multibillionaire by Christmas.

We got started on our filming at Cove Fort really early this morning, in order to be finished before the fort opened to visitors at 10 AM.  Our focus for the filming there was on relations between Latter-day Saint pioneers in Utah Territory and the Native Americans who were already present when the pioneers arrived.  (We’ve already conducted a few interviews on the subject with scholars and experts.)  The story is complex, and it’s not always a comfortable one.  I look forward to making these and other episodes of our Becoming Brigham series as widely available as we know how to do.  We would welcome help to get the word out when the time comes from social media influencers and from other organizations — we won’t be charging for these; we’ll make them freely accessible online — and I would personally welcome suggestions regarding how best to get them before the public.

Yesterday, during a break in our filming efforts at Cove Fort — our crew were repositioning the three cameras to a new location — Aaron Sherinian came over to introduce himself.  With his wife and two daughters, he explained, he was visiting Cove Fort as part of an attempt to get to know Utah after recently relocating to the state.  We had a brief but pleasant chat.  I very much enjoyed his recent keynote address at the 2025 FAIR Conference, and I told him so.  (See this article from the Deseret News: “Latter-day Saint communications manager asks church members to ‘move off the sidelines’: Communication Department director shared statistics he called a ‘wondrous reality check’ about faith and the church.”). He responded, with a smile, that not everybody on the internet seemed to enjoy it.

As one or two of y0u may perhaps have noticed, I’ve recently been paying quite a bit of attention to the question of slavery and/or servitude in territorial Utah (e.g., here and here).  One little-known aspect of the question involves the slave trade among Native Americans that had been going on for many generations in the region prior to the arrival of the Latter-day Saints.  Here is a brief article on the topic from the Church, with a couple of bibliographical recommendations:  “Indian Slavery and Indentured Servitude.”  If you’re at all interested in the topic, I commend it to your notice.

I again call your attention to new photographs from the construction site of the Cody Wyoming Temple.  You will recall that opponents of that temple lamented the fact that it would blot out the night sky, loom oppressively over the city of Cody, and block views of the surrounding mountains.  As the massive 9,950-square-foot building marches inexorably on to its decreed completion, you can see from these photographs how those grim prophecies continue to be sadly fulfilled.

Finally, here’s yet another item that I’ve retrieved from the Christopher Hitchens Memorial “How Religion Poisons Everything” File™:  “‘No one has to go hungry’: Church donates nearly 30,000 pounds of food in New Jersey: Rise leaders say the support of Latter-day Saints helps them bring dignity, nourishment and hope to hundreds of local families.”  Can there be any forgiveness when, as they do here, theists attempt to interfere with the food supply of needy people?