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Controversies and Responses

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Controversies and Responses

Three distinct clusters run through the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' documented record, two of them already carrying their own dedicated accounts in this atlas.

The Priesthood and Temple Restriction barred men of Black African descent from priesthood ordination, and both men and women of that descent from temple ordinances, from the mid-nineteenth century, first clearly stated by Brigham Young in 1852 and not present under Joseph Smith, until it was lifted by revelation on 9 June 1978 and canonised as Official Declaration 2. The Church's 2013 Gospel Topics essay expressly disavowed the theories once advanced to justify it. Plural marriage was taught as a divine principle from the 1830s, defended through federal prosecution under the Edmunds-Tucker Act, which dissolved the Church's corporation and seized its property, and withdrawn by the 1890 Manifesto; a further 1904 statement ended the practice fully, and the Church now excommunicates for it.

The third cluster is ongoing. A February 2023 US Securities and Exchange Commission settlement order found that Ensign Peak Advisors, the Church's investment reserve fund, and the Church itself used thirteen shell companies from 1997 to 2019 to keep the fund's holdings, roughly 32 billion dollars by 2018, out of public 13F filings; Ensign Peak paid a 4 million dollar penalty and the Church 1 million. A former Ensign Peak manager's 2019 whistleblower complaint separately estimated the fund at more than 100 billion dollars, a figure the SEC order does not confirm. Public 13F filings have continued since the settlement; the most recent reports roughly 53.67 billion dollars.

Cross-Tradition Connections

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Sources
SEC Charges The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Its Investment Management Company for Disclosure Failures and Misstated Filings
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, 2023View the Source
Mormon Church Investment Fund Whistleblower Explains His Ensign Peak Allegations
CBS News, 60 Minutes, CBS News, 2023View the Source
Ensign Peak Advisors, Inc. Form 13F-HR, Period Ending March 31, 2026
US Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR filing system), 2026View the Source
Race and the Priesthood (Gospel Topics essay)
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2013View the Source
Edmunds-Tucker Act (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia contributors, Wikipedia, 2026View the Source
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