Salt Lake City (AP) —Billionaires in Advertising Technology have officially resigned from membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, blaming social issues and their beliefs in LGBTQ rights in unusual public moves.
Jeff T. Green has promised to donate 90% of his estimated $ 5 billion in property. This begins with a $ 600,000 donation to LGBTQ rights group Equality Utah. The Salt Lake Tribune reported..
Green, in a resignation addressed to President Russell M. Nelson on Monday, has been inactive for more than a decade in the belief widely known as Mormon, but officially announced his departure and removed his name from membership records. Said I wanted to.
“I think the Mormon Church has hampered the global advancement of women’s rights, civil rights and racial equality, and LGBTQ + rights,” he writes. Eleven family members and friends officially resigned with him.
The Church did not immediately return a message from the Associated Press asking for comment on Tuesday, but in recent years it has shown a willingness to engage in LGBTQ rights, which is rare for conservative beliefs. While maintaining doctrinal opposition to same-sex marriage and intimacy, faith did not prevent a ban on so-called conversion therapy in Utah in 2019, and in November high-ranking leader Darin Oaks held religious rights and LGBTQ. Right to seek approval for both.
Still, the church has been in a very painful position for many years in the LGBTQ community. Green said that most church members are “good people trying to do the right thing,” but they are also worried about the transparency of their historical and financial beliefs.
44-year-old Green currently lives in Southern California. He is the CEO and chairman of The Trade Desk, an advertising technology company founded in 2009.
He also mentioned concerns about the $ 100 billion investment portfolio held by the faith. This was the subject of a complaint from a whistleblower at the Internal Revenue Service in 2019. This is because a former employee who accused the church improperly built the church using the donations of members who were supposed to donate for charitable purposes.
Leaders advocate how the church uses and invests in member donations, mostly for operational and humanitarian needs, but some for the future. Protected to make a reserve for. Leaders state that this belief spends about $ 1 billion annually on humanitarian and welfare aid.
The church has also been criticized for its conservative social position. Females did not keep the priesthood in faith, and black men could not do it until the 1970s.
But in recent years, Faith has worked with the NAACP to donate nearly $ 10 million to an initiative to help black Americans. We also worked with Utah Equality to pass the state’s LGBTQ indiscriminate law with religious exemptions.
Another prominent Latter-day Saint has accused the faith of fraud this year and has sought to recover millions of dollars in donations. James Huntsman is one of Utah’s most famous families and brother of the former governor. The suit was later thrown out.