The fourfold purposes of the LDS Church!

[UtahDan]

I wonder what this will translate into in terms of church programs and initiatives. Does anyone else get the feeling that making this "policy" or "doctrinal" statement is setting the stage for something else? It seems like it is putting the authority in place to be a reference point for members for whatever they are about to be asked to do.

[Moliere]

I read through the comments on the SLTrib website. Pretty eye opening stuff. I've never read through them before on anything dealing with the church. All I want to say is that I'm glad I don't live in Utah anymore. I'll take my baptists and evangelists in the south anyday over some of the bent up aggression that resides against the church in Utah.

It's funny that people think that the church is just now going to start emphasizing help for the poor and needy. I can attest that the church has a very good name in this regard in the gulf states after the recent hurricanes and subsequent clean up. The church has always done humanitarian work and service projects. It will now just get more emphasis, which is a great thing.

[SoonerCoug]

I can't think of how I really want to say this. I guess I'll just observe that putting helping live people on the same level of importance as helping dead people seems great to me.

I would even go so far as to say that helping dead people is overrated.

[Indy Coug]

God is no respecter of mortality status.

[UtahDan]

It's funny that people think that the church is just now going to start emphasizing help for the poor and needy. I can attest that the church has a very good name in this regard in the gulf states after the recent hurricanes and subsequent clean up. The church has always done humanitarian work and service projects. It will now just get more emphasis, which is a great thing.

The church does do a great deal behind the scenes that it doesn't get a whole lot of credit for from its critics. With that said, I think I am safe in saying that it spends on feeding the poor and clothing the naked so to speak doesn't come into the zip code of the billiions it spent on downtown development, so I am willing to forgive the cynicism. I know that issue is a dead horse, but I think this development brings it back to life. It makes me wonder, at least little, whether TSM didn't approve of that particularly and wants a shift of focus.

If TSM is the prophet who is remembered really pushing the members to be more charitable toward the poor, and then follows it up by really putting the church's money where its mouth is that will be incredibly faith affirming to me. As I say above, I wonder if this is the first step in an attempt to shift the culture and the thinking that will be followed by a redirecting of our efforts.

[Sleeping in EQ]

Excellent.

This could shift Mormon culture. Although as a liberal Mormon I feel like I've been given a toe hold, I see this as a benefit to everyone who gets involved.

[UtahDan]

God is no respecter of mortality status.

I agree. I would just love to see service to the poor be elevated in the rhetoric and the culture to the place where temple service currently resides. We rightly talk a lot about the temple and revere the importance of what is done there. I hope this is the first step toward putting charity toward the poor on equal footing with temple work. Does that make sense?

[Pheidippides]

Yes and no. There specific boxes on the donation slip for humanitarian aid and for fast offerings. Donations to humanitarian aid go to SLC and are used by the church (mainly the presiding bishopric) for a lot of the humanitarian aid work done throughout the world.

Fast offerings are typically kept at the stake level and tracked at the ward level. If there are more needs in a ward than can be funded by ward members, then the stake can allocate funds from another ward in the stake to help out. If a stake has excess funds (some affluent areas obviously fall in this area) then those are taken by SLC and used for other areas for fast offerings or used for humanitarian aid.

At least this is how I remember it working.

I think this is still correct (with the caveat below). Our guidelines for FO usage are that we should remain in the black. We easily do so. I think the stake has the same edict.

The one caveat is that the money does not stay at the local level - it's all accounting and no real cash. FO cash is swept out of the local account to the church HQ after every deposit, as with tithing. As with the ward budget, the numbers are all made up, and prevailing wisdom is that the church will continue to honor the checks we write no matter what our internal numbers say.

[kccougar]

But I will say this...

I am curious as to how the Church is going to roll this out, because I am not kicking anymore in:

Financially -

Tithing
Fast Offering
Friends of Scouting
Missionary Fund
School Fundraisers
Sheriffs/Police/Fire Department

Time -

Church
Volunteer work at School
Coaching Softball
Homeless Shelter stuff (has a soft spot in my heart)

The Church already gets plenty from me, so I hope they are going to be a little more judicious with what is already contributed.

Sounds like you are already "with the program". Why would you be bothered if there is a renewed emphasis?

[Indy Coug]

The church does do a great deal behind the scenes that it doesn't get a whole lot of credit for from its critics. With that said, I think I am safe in saying that it spends on feeding the poor and clothing the naked so to speak doesn't come into the zip code of the billiions it spent on downtown development, so I am willing to forgive the cynicism.

I understand the grumpiness some have about the downtown development, but spending money on the development isn't an empty expenditure; it's an investment that if properly managed, will realize a return.

[Indy Coug]

I agree. I would just love to see service to the poor be elevated in the rhetoric and the culture to the place where temple service currently resides. We rightly talk a lot about the temple and revere the importance of what is done there. I hope this is the first step toward putting charity toward the poor on equal footing with temple work. Does that make sense?

Maybe this announcement has more value for you lawyer/doctor types that live in upper or upper-middle class wards shielded from the church units and neighborhoods where poverty are reality, not concepts.

However, being in a branch where poverty and all its attendant miseries overwhelm those that suffer from them and those that attempt to help them, I can't possibly fathom how this announcement will make one iota of difference.

[jay santos]

I understand the grumpiness some have about the downtown development, but spending money on the development isn't an empty expenditure; it's an investment that if properly managed, will realize a return.

Agree. I'm really getting sick of people criticizing the church for this real estate investment. It's an investment. It was done with the financial arm of the church. It may turn out to be a bad investment, but that's a different matter. It's a financial matter and done with funds that don't comingle with the funds the church uses from tithing and fast offerings.

[JohnnyLingo]

Maybe this announcement has more value for you lawyer/doctor types that live in upper or upper-middle class wards shielded from the church units and neighborhoods where poverty are reality, not concepts.

However, being in a branch where poverty and all its attendant miseries overwhelm those that suffer from them and those that attempt to help them, I can't possibly fathom how this announcement will make one iota of difference.

Smackdown. Wow.

[UtahDan]

Maybe this announcement has more value for you lawyer/doctor types predominantly white well off members that live in upper or upper-middle class wards in Utah, shielded from the church units and neighborhoods where poverty are reality, not concepts.

That is really unfair and unnecessarily hurtful. It is also not true in my case, not remotely. Have no fear, I fixed it for you.

In my experience, wards outside of the inter-mountain west are rarely small enough to cover an area where you don't come face to face with poverty. I know in my ward, for example, there is a lot of focus on helping members in need. In my community, there is a great deal of serious poverty and the LDS wards (there are two) are more or less alone among the many churches here in not making any efforts to help people who don't sit in our pews. It just isn't part of our mission...or isn't it any more? That is my point and why I am encouraged.

[jay santos]

Maybe this announcement has more value for you lawyer/doctor types that live in upper or upper-middle class wards shielded from the church units and neighborhoods where poverty are reality, not concepts.

However, being in a branch where poverty and all its attendant miseries overwhelm those that suffer from them and those that attempt to help them, I can't possibly fathom how this announcement will make one iota of difference.

Here's how I think it's significant. This is my summary of the three-fold mission of the church:

1. For dead people: our mission is to get your information straight and do temple work for you

2. For church members: our mission is to help meet all of your spiritual and/or physical needs (including helping the poor)

3. For non-members: our mission is to convert you to the church

There is no stated goal to help relieve suffering or help the temporal affairs of the 6 billion non-LDS in the world, only to baptize them. You can obviously point to LDS efforts in disaster relief, third world aid, homeless shelters, etc., but it's been missing in the formal three-fold mission language.