What the Mormons Know About Welfare

The Wall Street Journal ^ | February 18, 2012 | NAOMI SCHAEFER RILEY

[JustTheTruth]

... Mitt Romney said he was "not concerned about the very poor" but would fix America's social safety net ...

But if he wants to see a welfare system that lets almost no one fall through the cracks while at the same time ensuring that its beneficiaries don't become lifelong dependents, he could look to his own church.

(snip)

Launched during the Great Depression, the Mormon welfare system was designed by church leaders as a way to match the ... unemployed faithful with ... temporary labor. As storehouse manager ... explains, goods and services were traded so that if a father needed food for his family he could get some in exchange for, say, repairing the fence of a widow down the road.

(snip)

... "Our primary purpose was to set up insofar as it might be possible, a system under which the curse of idleness would be done away with, the evils of a dole abolished and independence, industry, thrift and self respect be once more established among our people. The aim of the Church is help the people to help themselves. Work is to be re-enthroned as the ruling principle of the lives of our Church membership."

(snip)

. . . the primary source of capital support is the Mormons' monthly fast, as church members are asked to contribute what they would have spent on two meals. Many give much more, says Mr. Foster.

It is safe to assume that Mr. Romney's (...) donations are supporting the kind of safety net that government can never hope to create. Jesus may have said the poor will always be with you, but he didn't say Medicaid would.

(WSJ - must excerpt)

[svcw]

My uncle a former bishop asked for proof of income, his reasoning how do we reconcile the books, and how does the member prove they are tithing 10%.
A family friend does show W2 from the previous year and they are billed monthly for their “tithe”.
My cousin has some one come to his house demanding his tithe, the figure is based on the last year he tithed and some sort of percent increase. (He has been trying to get his names off the rolls for more than a decade.)

[svcw]

So?
I like the choir (mostly because I have an uncle who sings in it) but I still loath mormonism. One has nothing to do with the other.

[little jeremiah]

Copying for reference, thank you.

[Colofornian]

they [the LDS church] spend about $3 billion dollars every year giving aid, or about the same as what the LDS church spends on a shopping mall.

Next time a Mormon "prophet" re-revises the Bible (like Joseph Smith did), he can change Jesus' "the poor will always be with you" to: "the shopping poor will always be with you" -- thereby justifying the $3billion as a good Incorporated investment by Lds,Inc.

[Tennessee Nana]

In 1980, 72.8 percent of the population voted for Reagan.
___________________________________________

Exactly

They voted n a bloc against Carter because he had made the Mormons change their racist bigoted doctrines against blacks in 1978...

[AnTiw1]

" I'll touch just one. What you are calling "tithing sunday" is actually called "tithing settlement." Yes, you do meet with the bishop to declare your status (i.e. if you have paid a "full" tithing). Only this happens in December, not tax time. You don't bring your w2 because you haven't even received it yet. And you are the one that claims if you are a full tith payer or not - not the bishop. He just marks down what you say. (I am sure if the number seems off, the bishop would ask you about it). And most folks have been paying though out the year, so there isn't any "how do you wish to pay" going on. Any bishop who does what you are describing is an aberration. "

congratulations...i didn't remember the name right

i also forgot there even were fast offerings...thats a freebie just for you

but i remember people bringing documentation because they were required to and i dont care what you say

youre the typical mormon and thats what i want everyone to see

your 'testimony' on this board reveals the truth behind every mormon facade to the uninitiated better than anything -i- could have said

they wont fall for the lds happy family meat grinder thanks to you

so you celebrate your victory and ill celebrate mine

if any part of my life in your p t barnum cult has faded from my memory since 1979 then i thank my ever loving GOD for it and beg Him to finish the job

that is my testimony Amen

[Elsie]

But I can go you one better...In my daughters garage...

Only slightly.

OUR barn cat resides (when he feels like it) in the old plastic doghouse the 4 goats used to get in when they were young. (I doubt that little Gracie could fit in it now)

It has a raised floor of a chuck of sheetmetal roofing nailed to a couple of 2*4's with a lightbulb underneath.

Radiant heated flooring: PBBBT!

It sits on the deck right outside the kitchen window so he can call for supper easily.

Oh; did I mention he has wall-to-wall carpet in it?

[Elsie]

"I think I'm allergic to my GARMENT."

[Elsie]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPMqFSHNxhU&feature=related

[Elsie]

It is manned by volunteers, people from the church.

[Elsie]

But you ought to be asking questions about this...

Not to worry, Ronnie, we are!

We are...

[Elsie]

... about what the people could do for themselves if they hadn’t been dragooned into believing that government was the only answer to this.”

Or that MORMONism had to only correct answer to it as well.

[Elsie]

Reagan simply didn't detest the Mormons enough for some of y'all.

He hadn't been Dead Dunked yet...

[Elsie]

In 1980, 72.8 percent of the population voted for Reagan.
In 1984, 74.5 percent of the population voted for him.

Yeah, yeah, yeah....

I KNOW that I ain't no REAGAN; but whatcha gonna do???

[goat granny]

OMG Elsie, that's a belly laugh.....you win, radiant heat flooring does it....goat granny....with mouth agape..followed by wall to wall carpet. :O)

[Elsie]

And yes, I’m a member of the LDS church, and am frankly amazed at the vitriol from some of you on this site from time to time. Not all, there is hope yet...

Yup; that VITROL stuff can be CATCHING iff'n y'all don't watch out!!

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Questions put to Joseph Smith: "'Do you believe the Bible?' [Smith:]'If we do, we are the only people under heaven that does, for there are none of the religious sects of the day that do'. When asked 'Will everybody be damned, but Mormons'? [Smith replied] 'Yes, and a great portion of them, unless they repent, and work righteousness." (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 119).

Joseph Smith: "for the teachers of religion of the different sects understood the same passages of scripture so differently as to destroy all confidence in settling the question by an appeal to the Bible" (from Pearl of Great Price 1:12). "What is it that inspires professors of Christianity generally with a hope of salvation? It is that smooth, sophisticated influence of the devil, by which he deceives the whole world" (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p.270).

 

 

 

Brigham Young stated this repeatedly: "When the light came to me I saw that all the so-called Christian world was grovelling in darkness" (Journal of Discourses 5:73); "The Christian world, so-called, are heathens as to the knowledge of the salvation of God" (Journal of Discourses 8:171); "With a regard to true theology, a more ignorant people never lived than the present so-called Christian world" (Journal of Discourses 8:199); "And who is there that acknowledges [God's] hand? ...You may wander east, west, north, and south, and you cannot find it in any church or government on the earth, except the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" (Journal of Discourses , vol. 6, p.24); "Should you ask why we differ from other Christians, as they are called, it is simply because they are not Christians as the New Testament defines Christianity" (Journal of Discourses 10:230).

 

 

 

Orson Pratt proclaimed: "Both Catholics and Protestants are nothing less than the 'whore of Babylon' whom the Lord denounces by the mouth of John the Revelator as having corrupted all the earth by their fornications and wickedness. Any person who shall be so corrupt as to receive a holy ordinance of the Gospel from the ministers of any of these apostate churches will be sent down to hell with them, unless they repent" (The Seer, p. 255).

 

 

 

Orson Pratt also said: "This great apostasy commenced about the close of the first century of the Christian era, and it has been waxing worse and worse from then until now" (Journal of Discourses

, vol.18, p.44) and: "But as there has been no Christian Church on the earth for a great many centuries past, until the present century, the people have lost sight of the pattern that God has given according to which the Christian Church should be established, and they have denominated a great variety of people Christian Churches, because they profess to be ...But there has been a long apostasy, during which the nations have been cursed with apostate churches in great abundance" (Journal of Discourses , 18:172).

 

 

President John Taylor stated: "Christianity...is a perfect pack of nonsense...the devil could not invent a better engine to spread his work than the Christianity of the nineteenth century." (Journal of Discourses , vol. 6, p.167); "Where shall we look for the true order or authority of God? It cannot be found in any nation of Christendom." (Journal of Discourses , 10:127).

 

 

 

James Talmage said: "A self-suggesting interpretation of history indicates that there has been a great departure from the way of salvation as laid down by the Savior, a universal apostasy from the Church of Christ". (A Study of the Articles of Faith, p.182).

 

 

 

President Joseph Fielding Smith said: "Doctrines were corrupted, authority lost, and a false order of religion took the place of the gospel of Jesus Christ, just as it had been the case in former dispensations, and the people were left in spiritual darkness." (Doctrines of Salvation, p.266). "For hundreds of years the world was wrapped in a veil of spiritual darkness, until there was not one fundamental truth belonging to the place of salvation ...Joseph Smith declared that in the year 1820 the Lord revealed to him that all the 'Christian' churches were in error, teaching for commandments the doctrines of men" (Doctrines of Salvation, vol. 3, p.282).

 

 

 

More recent statements by apostle Bruce McConkie are also very clear: "Apostasy was universal...And this darkness still prevails except among those who have come to a knowledge of the restored gospel" (Doctrines of Salvation, vol 3, p.265); "Thus the signs of the times include the prevailing apostate darkness in the sects of Christendom and in the religious world in general" (The Millennial Messiah, p.403); "a perverted Christianity holds sway among the so-called Christians of apostate Christendom" (Mormon Doctrine, p.132); "virtually all the millions of apostate Christendom have abased themselves before the mythical throne of a mythical Christ whom they vainly suppose to be a spirit essence who is incorporeal uncreated, immaterial and three-in-one with the Father and Holy Spirit" (Mormon Doctrine, p.269); "Gnosticism is one of the great pagan philosophies which antedated Christ and the Christian Era and which was later commingled with pure Christianity to form the apostate religion that has prevailed in the world since the early days of that era." (Mormon Doctrine, p.316).

 

 

 

President George Q. Cannon said: "After the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized, there were only two churches upon the earth. They were known respectively as the Church of the Lamb of God and Babylon. The various organizations which are called churches throughout Christendom, though differing in their creeds and organizations, have one common origin. They all belong to Babylon" (Gospel Truth, p.324).

 

 

President Wilford Woodruff stated: "the Gospel of modern Christendom shuts up the Lord, and stops all communication with Him. I want nothing to do with such a Gospel, I would rather prefer the Gospel of the dark ages, so called" (Journal of Discourses , vol. 2, p.196).

[Elsie]

And nice unstated, but implied, threat at the end.

Yeah; you find those now and then...

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Media Letter

26 June 2008 — Salt Lake City (http://newsroom.lds.org/additional-resource/media-letter)

*The following is a letter from Elder Lance B. Wickman, General Counsel of the Church to publishers of major newspapers, TV stations and magazines. It was sent out on Tuesday, June 24, 2008.

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Recent events have focused the media spotlight on a polygamous sect near San Angelo, Texas, calling itself the “Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.” As you probably know, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has absolutely no affiliation with this polygamous sect. Decades ago, the founders of that sect rejected the doctrines of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, were excommunicated, and then started their own religion. To the best of our knowledge, no one at the Texas compound has ever been a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Unfortunately, however, some of the media coverage of the recent events in Texas has caused members of the public to confuse the doctrines and members of that group and our church. We have received numerous inquiries from confused members of the public who, by listening to less than careful media reports, have come to a grave misunderstanding about our respective doctrines and faith. Based on these media reports many have erroneously concluded that there is some affiliation between the two – or even worse, that they are one and the same.

Over the years, in a careful effort to distinguish itself, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has gone to significant lengths to protect its rights in the name of the church and related matters. Specifically, we have obtained registrations for the name “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,” “Mormon,” “Book of Mormon” and related trade and service marks from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and corresponding agencies in a significant number of foreign countries.

We are confident that you are committed to avoiding misleading statements that cause unwarranted confusion and that may disparage or infringe the intellectual property rights discussed above. Accordingly, we respectfully request the following:

1. As reflected in the AP Style Guide, we ask that you and your organization refrain from referring to members of that polygamous sect as “fundamentalist Mormons” or “fundamentalist” members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
2. We ask that, when reporting about this Texas-based polygamous sect or any other polygamous group, you avoid either explicitly or implicitly any inference that these groups are affiliated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
3. On those occasions when it may be necessary in your reporting to refer to the historical practice of plural marriage in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, that you make very clear that the Church does not condone the practice of polygamy and that it has been forbidden in the Church for over one hundred years. Moreover, we absolutely condemn arranged or forced “marriages” of underage girls to anyone under any circumstances.

Stated simply, we would like to be known and recognized for whom we are and what we believe, and not be inaccurately associated with beliefs and practices that we condemn in the strongest terms. We would be grateful if you could circulate or copy this letter to your editorial staff and to your legal counsel.

We thank you for your consideration of these important matters.

Sincerely,

Lance B. Wickman

General Counsel

[Elsie]

And nice unstated, but implied, threat at the end.

Yeah; you find those now and then...

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even at the beginning

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"Now if any of you will deny the plurality of wives, and continue to do so, I promise that you will be damned;

and I will go still further and say, take this revelation, or any other revelation that the Lord has given,

and deny it in your feelings, and I promise that you will be damned.

Brigham Young - JoD 3:266 (July 14, 1855)

[bert]

the bigot continues to be what she is

she craves, neigh, she begs for attention and forgiveness

[Elsie]

President Ronald Reagan’s administration was full of members of the Church.

And you MORMONs want a CHOCK more of them under ROMNEY!