The Mormon Corporate Empire
Bound to provoke controversy, this impressively researched study by two social scientists (Heinerman is also a Mormon) charges that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has developed an $8-billion financial/corporate empire whose influence on U.S. society is of concern. Once small and much-persecuted, and now widely respected, the Mormon church, the authors contend, is a "rising, authoritarian, powerful group," with some five million members worldwide, whose little-understood purpose is to supersede other religions and take "political and economic control" of the U.S. in preparation for the Second Coming. Heinerman and Shupe detail the church's diverse financial holdings (including broadcasting resources that "dwarf" those of electronic evangelists like Jerry Falwell); its "extraordinary" influence in government and military circles (the FBI and CIA recruit heavily among Mormons), where "para-patriotic" followers often feel an ultimate allegiance to the church. Chiding the media for accepting the church's carefully cultivated "benign" image, the authors argue that this crusading group, seeking to bring about a theocracy in the U.S., demands close scrutiny.Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.