Mormons prepared for hard times-doctrine of self-reliance, service keeps storehouses stocked

MSNBC / The Associated Press ^ | December 26, 2008

[2ndDivisionVet]

SALT LAKE CITY-Bishop's Storehouse looks like any other grocery store at first glance: The shelves are neatly lined with canned goods and the smell of fresh bread wafts through the aisles.

But there are no cash registers. The fruits and vegetables, just-made cheeses and milk are free — a safety net for those in need provided by the 13 million members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

"We like to call it the best food money can't buy," said Jim Goodrich, who oversees the storehouse and other facilities on the church's 13-plus-acre Welfare Square.

Mormons may be among the country's best prepared to weather the current economic hard times. Since the Great Depression, church leaders have preached a doctrine of self-reliance and selflessness, calling on members to plan for their own future while tending to the needs of others.

"It's a critical component of our theology," said Bishop David Burton, a senior church administrator who oversees the faith's worldwide welfare and humanitarian services programs.

Year's supply of emergency food Members are encouraged to squirrel away a few months' worth of living expenses and stock a one-year supply of emergency food. Church handouts, classes and a Web site describe how to prepare, store and cook with emergency food supplies so nothing goes to waste.

Each month, members skip two meals and give the money they would have spent on food to church welfare programs, paying for the commodities, clothing, job training and other services made available to the needy.

The church also works in partnership with other faith traditions and local social service agencies to share surplus commodities and support services.

Goodrich's Welfare Square is the heart of the program.

[Stourme]

Better to listen to Christ but leave this life earlier than to ignore His teachings and live a few more weeks/months. Our reward is not here in this life. Hording the food would be its own reward and there would be no reward in heaven.

Thanks Spiff. :) Beautifully said.

[Stourme]

But what if those strangers accept the food you give them and then decide they want it all? Would you sacrifice the safety and lives of your family to do the Christian thing?

I hope and pray that never happens. We LDS are not pacifists. And I really don't want to be put into a position where I'd have to hurt someone.

[driftdiver]

They will one at a time.

[NVDave]

Heh.

The CO sent word back to the Fabulous Buchanan that the Mormons were not so easily dealt with...

and the Fabulous One backed down.

Want to know the other irony about that period? Do some homework on the issue of “states’ rights” — the Democrats were flapping their yaps about this idea as a way to allow southern states to continue owning slaves.... and then the issue of polygamy in Utah came up. If states’ rights were going to be carried forward as a national ideal, then Utah could be admitted with polygamy being legal.

The Democrats were hoisted on a petard of their own making, and they turned on the Mormons with a vicious back-stabbing in order for them to maintain power at all costs. This was in a period after the Dredd Scott decision, and the Democrat Party could see that they were on the losing side of the slavery argument.

There’s a reason why Mormon folks vote Republican, and it isn’t because of anything recent. I delight in explaining that whole period of history to the lunatic liberals today...

[DE88]

I guess I must be lucky. I have never had any prolonged periods of unemployment. Is that something Mormon’s face on a regular basis? I have also never experienced the threat of starvation. Is this something that happens regularly in that part of the country? I guess it must be since so many adhere to this stockpiling of foodstuffs.

[Vietnam Vet From New Mexico]

Thanks Jerry. Plan to do the same as soon as spring gets here.

[tiki]

I’m not Mormon but I am prepared and I have Mormon friends who have helped me prepare, my husband said that about the low-lifes too and said that there was no way you could shoot them all. I said we could dig ditches and put sharpened bamboo sticks in them, he thought that was reasonable.

[tiki]

I have a camp trailer and I know a canyon that we could defend, if we had to.

[Vigilanteman]

Thanks. I’d figured as much because the Mormons are still in Utah and Buchanan has been demoted to the most popular of the worst president’s list. The National Park Service won’t even maintain his home here in this state as they do for other presidents. It is under the State Department of Parks and Recreation. Pretty county, I’ve driven through it. I probably should stop and go through the home sometime. I’ve heard they are adamant that Buchanan wasn’t a Nancy Boy, but most of the evidence I’ve examined strongly suggests otherwise.

[NVDave]

Most of what I’ve been able to find about Buchanan strongly suggests he was homosexual. Of that we’re in agreement. There’s nothing that “nails the case shut” but for all the nattering by the gays today that Lincoln was a homosexual, the difference in the evidence between the two is night and day. With Lincoln, one has to ascribe all manner of extraordinary interpretation to make the case.

With Buchanan... it isn’t at all difficult or a stretch.