did you know that the history of the Mormon religion is a history of corporations?

the LDS religion is self-supported with no paid clergy......the tax-paying businesses they own make that possible.

Literally. They certainly did make the LDS a money-making business proposition. It has been speculated upon since Joseph Smith died under mysterious violent circumstances that he was bleeding his new religion and subsequent church dry, while his mental state was becoming more and more overtly bizarre. And so, the powers that be decided--under Brigham Young the "Power Broker" who couldn't let go of his new cash cow" -- that Smith must go for the "good" of the whole.

And so, he did. Why did Brigham Young travel then sit at a train station all day two full towns away from where he could have, taking the one person in the entire congregation that was known for his honesty, whiling away the time until one half hour before Smith was overtaken by the "mob"?

Young never made it to his "destination"... because there was no train scheduled that day for such. And he knew it. "Pat Alibi", convenient kicker for the team. What? Is truth never stranger than fiction? Do you believe a history teacher would make kids learn about religions rather than the Civil War when they should be studying the Civil War? I'm inclined to agree.....

Just because a business is successful doesn't always make it a good thing in the eyes of a holy God. Ask drug-running cartel kingpins if they enjoy their financial successes, too.

Like Phrog said, the LDS church makes different business ventures to help make sure that funds such as tithing and fast offerings which have specific purposes that are meant for service, humanitarian aide, construction of meeting houses and temples, etc go to those purpose.

The Church also uses funds from business ventures to help restore, beautify, and develop areas that have no direct purpose from tithing and fast offering funds in both 3rd world countries and metropolitan areas such as was mentioned about the City Creek development in Salt Lake City.

Gosh, I didn't know that. What are those corporations today?

I'm sure you got an A+ and can tell us all about it.

joseph smith was able to get his friends to sell their farms to fund the book of mormon

charles russell owned a drapery business which he expanded and sold at a huge profit ,

many of the modern day tv. evangelists are trained motivational speakers who are experts at the big sell of their tapes ,dvd. books , cd, etc. and this is where they make the money. plus they hire top accountants to keep taxes down to a bare minimum

Yep, most recently culminating in a $5,000,000,000 investment in the City Creek Centre, a shopping mall in downtown Salt Lake City.

It takes a serious real estate corporation to shell out that kind of dough.

They have a history of mysticism, violence and false doctrine, I know about that. Corporations?, I didn't know about that.