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Picking up on an earlier post, the SL Trib confirms that caring for the poor as a “new emphasis” for Church
The LDS Church is adding “to care for the poor and needy” to its longstanding “threefold mission,” which is to preach the LDS gospel, purify members’ lives and provide saving ordinances such as baptism to those who have died . . .
The new group of phrases will be described as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ “purposes,” rather than missions, and will be spelled out in the next edition of the LDS Church Handbook of Instructions , due out next year, church spokesman Scott Trotter confirmed this week.
“Caring for the poor and needy,” Trotter said, “has always been a basic tenet of the [LDS] Church.”
Exactly. But could this also be a smart move to publicly establish the Church as the unequivocal force for good it has always been?
It seems that a good percentage of the Church’s Newsroom press releases are about various welfare and charity projects the Church contributes to. And on a smaller level, stakes and wards do all kinds of charitable activities that never get mentioned.
And yet, as is the nature of news, they get scant attention. Instead, the Church only seems to merit headlines when it takes the relatively infrequent political stand. I would hazard a guess that over half of the national news mentions the Church has received this year are from last year’s Proposition 8 involvement.
The Church and its members have always had caring for the poor and the needy as a focus (Heck last night, our Young Men and Women went Christmas caroling (on a very cold Utah night) collecting coats and clothes for the poor – even before this all becomes “official” in the handbook). So it’s nice to see this important principle gain greater recognition, but it’s not new.
UPDATE: Thanks to KSL for the link too. The original post is here.
(Possibly) Related posts:
Tags: charity, proposition 8, welfare
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There is no question that the LDS Church, the Catholic Church and other churches that oppose marriage equality for gays and lesbians have done good deeds for the poor and needy. Of course, a number of other groups (religious and otherwise) that do not oppose oppose marrige equality have also done good deeds for the poor and needy.
The real issue–at least from my perspective–is that groups and individuals need to be held accountable for ALL of their actions. To the extent that an organization is heavily involved in a political campaign–such as the LDS Church in California with its support of Proposition 8 and the Catholic Church in Maine with Question 1–then it is appropriate that they receive scrutiny for their actions.
Organizations and individuals would, of course, prefer that they only get press for their “good” acts (i.e., feeding and clothing the poor etc.); however, when you become actively involved in the public square through substantial involvement in political campaigns, you should not expect to avoid scrutiny.
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Stephen – You make a fair point that no one can pick and choose which of their actions should deserve coverage. My point is that the coverage is incredibly skewed to covering the political aspects of the Church which greatly discounts so much of what the Church really does and is about.
If one’s impression of the Church was only from how the news covered the Church this past year, they would probably think the Church was merely a political activist group. Despite how critics may feel, that is hardly the case and it does a disservice to the missions of the Church.
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I understand your point and your concerns how the extensive news coverage of Proposition 8 has impacted the public perception of the LDS Church.
However, from my perspective as a gainfully employed gay resident of California, my only interaction with the LDS Church during the past 18 months (other than driving by a LDS tabernacle every day) has been through the LDS Church’s efforts to take away my right to marry through the church’s strong support of Proposition 8. That effort, of course, was successful–at least for now.
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Stephen – That makes sense and I think your case supports my point. I’m sure there are many others like you as well. Many may disagree with the Church as to the proper definition of marriage but there is much more to it than that issue.
While those disagreements aren’t going away anytime soon, hopefully the Church can become better know for the many other things it does that everyone can support.
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So, what is your take on the update? I read it as not being added to the three-fold mission, but just receiving more emphasis. You?
http://www.mormontimes.com/around_church/general_authority/?id=12215&hStack=1
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m&m – As that article states:
In the upcoming handbook, caring for the poor and the needy will be stated as one of the church’s purposes, along with its well-recognized, three-fold mission statement.
My take is that is that jibes with what I posted originally.
Bishop Edgley didn’t say that it was going to be a fourth mission of the Church but that the handbook would do away with the traditional listing of missions of the Church and include them all in what was broadly considered the “purpose of the Church.” Perhaps like a mission statement. The impression I took was that in addition to including the traditional three missions the purpose would also include caring for the poor and needy.
So I don’t see a distinction.
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I think you are able to read that article a little more clearly because you heard him talk about it yourself. It felt a little fuzzy to me, to be honest. I almost read it as having the three-fold mission stay but adding this other focus as a separate thing. Your comment clarifies that for me, in saying that “the handbook would do away with the traditional listing of missions of the Church.”
It’s been strange to read about this more second-hand. I suppose perhaps that may be because this is a handbook issue, which to me suggests that it’s something less about formally and publicly defining ourselves but more about managing things at the local level.
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m&m – It may be just that I know what Bishop Edgely said and didn’t convey it clearly enough. Someone at T&S’s sideblog posted a link that suggests something similar. So there is some confusion.
I don’t want to overstate the change. It may just be a change in how these issues are discussed in the handbook. It’s not like the Church hasn’t been very involved in these things already.
I had no idea it would get this much attention. I thought it was an interesting development worth posting on but if I had know the SL Trib would call and that KSL would link here I may have had second thoughts. I don’t mind the traffic but ID’ing me as the source was little uncomfortable.
Incidentally, the day the SL Trib and KSL picked up the story my stake presidency called me in that night for an interview. I freaked. It turns out it was just about a calling. They didn’t even mention the blog until after they set me apart on Sunday and had a good laugh about it. Pretty funny timing.
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Yeah, the T&S sidebar was what I linked on to find that article, so that affected how I read the article, too.
Funny story about your calling. Thanks for the chuckle.
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