Tue, December 21, 2021
A billionaire from Utah announced he's officially resigning this week from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and pledged to donate $600,000 to an LGBTQ advocacy group, the Salt Lake Tribune first reported.
Why it matters: The letter, dated Dec. 23, is a rare public criticism of the church by a high-profile figure. Tech executive Jeff Green wrote: "I believe the Mormon Church has hindered global progress in women’s rights, civil rights and racial equality, and LGBTQ+ rights."
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Driving the news: Green, chair and CEO of The Trade Desk, left more than a decade ago and has since moved to California, but he wrote to President Russell Nelson to say that he wanted to make it official and have his records removed, according to the Tribune, which obtained the letter Monday.
What else he's saying: "While most members are good people trying to do right, I believe the church is actively and currently doing harm in the world," Green wrote.
"The church leadership is not honest about its history, its finances, and its advocacy," he continued.
Green pledged $600,000 to Equality Utah, with "almost half of the fund will go to a new scholarship program to help LGBTQ+ students in Utah," the billionaire said.
Of note: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 2019 said it would allow children of LGBTQ+ parents to be baptized and receive blessings from the church, in a reversal of a 2015 decision.
The church announced then that same-sex marriages would not be considered apostasy. Instead, any "immoral conduct in heterosexual or homosexual relationships will be treated in the same way."
Representatives for the church did not immediately respond to Axios' request for comment.
The Salt Lake Temple, at Temple Square is shown on Oct. 5, 2019, in Salt Lake City. A billionaire who is believed to be the wealthiest person originally from Utah has formally renounced his membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and rebuked the faith on social issues and LGBTQ rights. Jeff T. Green, who has pledged to donate 90% of his estimated $5 billion advertising-technology wealth, starting with a donation to a LGBTQ-rights group in the state, the Salt Lake Tribune reported. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)More
Tue, December 21, 2021
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — An advertising-technology billionaire has formally resigned his membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and rebuked the faith over social issues and LGBTQ rights in an unusual public move.
Jeff T. Green has pledged to donate 90% of his estimated $5 billion fortune, starting with a $600,000 donation to the LGBTQ-rights group Equality Utah, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.
Green said in a Monday resignation letter to church President Russell M. Nelson that he hasn’t been active in the faith widely known as Mormon for more than a decade but wanted to make his departure official and remove his name from membership records.
“I believe the Mormon church has hindered global progress in women’s rights, civil rights and racial equality, and LGBTQ+ rights,” he wrote. Eleven family members and a friend formally resigned along with him.
The church didn't immediately return a message from The Associated Press seeking comment Tuesday, but in recent years has shown a willingness to engage on LGBTQ rights that is unusual for a conservative faith. It maintains its doctrinal opposition to same-sex marriage and intimacy, but the faith didn't block a 2019 ban on so-called conversion therapy in Utah and in November high-ranking leader Dallin Oaks called for a recognition of both religious rights and LGBTQ rights.
Still, the church has taken positions over the years that have been deeply painful for many in the LGBTQ community. Green, for his part, said most church members “are good people trying to do right,” but he also worries about the faith’s transparency around its history and finances.
Green, 44, now lives in Southern California. He is the CEO and chairman of The Trade Desk, an advertising-technology firm he founded in 2009.
He also mentioned concerns about a $100 billion investment portfolio held by the faith. It was the subject of an Internal Revenue Service whistleblower complaint in 2019, from a former employee who charged the church had improperly built it up using member donations that are supposed to go to charitable causes.
Leaders have defended how the church uses and invests member donations, saying most is used for operational and humanitarian needs, but a portion is safeguarded to build a reserve for the future. The faith annually spends about $1 billion on humanitarian and welfare aid, leaders have said.
The church has also come under criticism for conservative social positions. Women do not hold the priesthood in the faith, and Black men could not until the 1970s.
In recent years, though, the faith has worked with the NAACP and donated nearly $10 million for initiatives to help Black Americans. It has also worked with Equality Utah to pass a state LGBTQ nondiscrimination law, with religious exemptions.
Another prominent onetime Latter-day Saint sued the faith this year, accusing it of fraud and seeking to recover millions of dollars in contributions. James Huntsman is a member of one of Utah’s most well-known families and brother of a former governor. The suit was later tossed out
Jeff Green: Tech billionaire leaves Mormon church and blasts it in searing open letter
Jeff Green: Tech billionaire leaves Mormon church and blasts it in searing open letter
Gustaf Kilander
Tue, December 21, 2021, 6:48 PM·4 min read
The richest person from Utah, billionaire and tech CEO Jeff Green, slammed the Mormon church in a letter announcing his official withdrawal from the religious community.
Mr Green, who promised in November to give away at least 90 per cent of his vast wealth, wrote a 90-word letter in which he blasted the organisation for hoarding money and having a poor record on civil rights.
The letter was sent on Monday to the president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Russell Nelson, with Mr Green saying that he thinks most members of the church are “good people trying to do right”, but that “the church is actively and currently doing harm in the world”.
“The church leadership is not honest about its history, its finances, and its advocacy,” Mr Green added. “I believe the Mormon church has hindered global progress in women’s rights, civil rights, and racial equality, and LGBTQ+ rights.”
Mr Green is a former Mormon missionary and graduated from Brigham Young University, a private school in Provo, Utah founded by Mr Young in 1875 and which is sponsored by the church.
Mr Green’s next major donation will be $600,000 going to Equality Utah, with the billionaire writing in the letter that “almost half of the fund will go to a new scholarship program to help LGBTQ+ students in Utah,” including students who “may need or want to leave” Brigham Young University.
The 44-year-old is the CEO and chairman of The Trade Desk, a tech firm. He’s estimated to be worth $4.9bn.
Mr Green currently lives in Southern California and originally left the church “more than a decade ago—not believing, attending, or practicing”. He said the letter marked his official exit from the church.
“Although I have deep love for many Mormons and gratitude for many things that have come into my life through Mormonism, I have not considered myself a member for many years, and I’d like to make clear to you and others that I am not a member,” Mr Green wrote.
The CEO noted that the church has “more than $100bn in assets” and argued that they should do “more to help the world and its members”.
He added that Mormons are “often poor” but that they still give to the church “expecting the blessings of heaven”.
“Instead, I think the church has exploited its members and their need for hope to build temples, build shopping malls, and cattle ranches… rather than alleviating human suffering in or out of the church,” Mr Green wrote.
Mr Green, who has three children, is leaving the religion alongside 11 members of his family as well as a friend. His sister, Jennifer Gaerte, told The Salt Lake Tribune that she had “that picture-perfect Mormon family” until her husband’s brother died, leading her to go into “into survival mode”. Her husband didn’t attend church while he was grieving his brother, which prompted Ms Gaerte’s family to be shunned, with other children at times throwing rocks at her’s.
Ms Gaerte went to a leader in the church and requested to be released from LDS youth organization the Young Women. The church leader said she would become an inactive member if she was released from the group. “If you won’t release me, I’ll release myself,” she said.
Mr Green’s cousin, Doug Whittemore, said his upbringing had been “wonderful” but that parts of the religion bothered him.
“Something was not clicking for me intuitively,” Mr Whittemore said. “It was pragmatic, but I could never buy into the [religious] concepts, and the teachings were about as far-fetched as you could believe.”
When he chose not to become a missionary, he was shunned by his family. “A lot of them wouldn’t talk to me for years and that still persists to this day.” Mr Whittemore now lives in Dallas, Texas.
Mr Green also said his childhood had been a good one and that his faith had been important to him as he grew up.
“The most positive part of our childhood wasn’t the strong connection we had with our parents but to the community,” he told The Tribune. “I am deeply grateful to that community and its amazing people, including my ancestors who made great sacrifices in the name of God and the community.”
But Mr Green added in his letter that “after today, the only contact I want from the church is a single letter of confirmation to let me know that I am no longer listed as a member”.
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