Wealth and Power in American Zion

This is an updated reprint of a minor classic in the socio-politics of religion, The Mormon Corporate Empire (by John Heinerman and Anson Shupe). This commercially successful (but scholarly respectable) exposé blends sociological analysis with investigative journalism and demonstrates: (1) that those who investigate the underbelly of large American religions will not only find "muck" but likely experience derision and even persecution; and (2) that no religion in American society, as a protected institution, can expect or ultimately receive sacrosanct status that exempts it from public accountability. This book provides a factual update on that power as well as the consequences for those who attempt to penetrate its closely-shielded subculture. The LDS Church is not simply another American denomination, and this book shows why.