Today's intersection: Mormons buying Nebraska to convert Natives?

But seriously, what is the LDS church if not a white supremacist cult? Mormons are, of course, not christians at all so it's been front page news at the Cody Enterprise for months.

Farmland Reserve Inc., a nonprofit owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly known as the Mormon church, has been quietly buying up ranch land in Nebraska’s Sandhills for the past three decades. The Mormon Church now owns about 370,000 total acres of zoned agricultural land in Nebraska. It could soon become Nebraska’s largest landowner – passing Ted Turner, who has famously long occupied that No. 1 spot – if church representatives continue to buy land at their current pace. In Nebraska, the structure of corporations seems to work like this: the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints owns Farmland Reserve Inc., which owns the land ranched by AgReserves Inc. The church’s focus on ranching comes down to two factors, a good economic investment and preparedness for upheaval, said Betsy Gaines Quammen, historian and author of “American Zion: Cliven Bundy, God and Public Lands in the West.” Stockpiling food and resources to be prepared for upheaval before a religious event is a central part of Mormon theology, Quammen said. [Who’s Buying Nebraska? After shopping spree, Mormon church is top land purchaser]

LDS is not so much a religion as it is a social contract: probably why there is so much suspicion from Calvinists. Just seems like another pyramid scheme exacting pounds of flesh while employing tax-exempt status to me.

The Cheyenne River Youth Project reported that, in collaboration with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, it distributed 435 boxes of food to families on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation earlier this month. President Kevin White Bull of the Church of Jesus Christ’s Eagle Butte Branch expressed his gratitude for the November distribution. His wife, Sister Merrie White Bull, agreed; she is a Cheyenne River Sioux Tribal Council representative, and she has been a CRYP supporter since the youth project opened its doors in 1988. Church farms throughout North America produce crops and livestock, and after processing, food is shipped from a central storehouse in Salt Lake City, Utah, to nonprofit organizations across the continent. [CRYP serves 435 families in fall food distribution]

Cody's evangelical christians and members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints are quarreling over the erection of a temple. One respondent to a Cody Enterprise story quipped, "they're called McTemples. The only thing missing is a sign out front saying 'Billions Extorted.'"

The LDS church has dispatched a squadron of lawyers and PR experts from Salt Lake to demonstrate that the church can out-spend, out-talk, out-lawyer, and outlast any opposition – much as it has done elsewhere. The church has even played the victim card, a disingenuous turn that dishonors Cody’s long history as a tolerant and welcoming community. [Letter to the editor: LDS temple will cost far more than it gains]

On a Sandhills property in 2021 Turner Enterprises, Inc. and Turner Ranches announced the launch of the Turner Institute of Ecoagriculture, Inc. a 501(c)(3) public charity and agricultural research organization that will share a formal agreement, facilities and staff with the Center of Excellence for Bison Studies.