Dear Readers,
Merry Christmas.
Happy New Year.
I like to follow the newsroom http://www.newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/. One recent article, at the other end of this link: http://www.newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/news-releases-stories/news-article-highlights-church-s-preparedness-for-hard-economic-times talked about the Church’s Welfare Square in Salt Lake City, Utah, and the Church’s food storage program. It was a good article.
I’m not much of a traveler, I really have not been a lot of places in the world, mostly because travel is expensive, but in August 2007, my wife and I spent a week in Salt Lake City, Utah. We went to a lot of the temples around the Salt Lake City area, including the historic Salt Lake City temple. We saw the Church Office Building, Temple Square, the Relief Society Building, the Tabernacle, the new Conference Center, a live recording of an episode of Music and the Spoken Word by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in the Conference Center, an organ recital in the Conference Center, the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, which I think used to be called the Hotel Utah. (I’m pretty sure that it was in that building, the Hotel Utah, where my father proposed marriage to my mother. Ah… isn’t that sweet?) We also went to the Provo temple, where my parents got married, and we went by Brigham Young University, where my father and mother met.
Let’s see… what else did we do? We hung out with one of my old missionary companions who lives in the Salt Lake City area. We saw a house that Brigham Young lived in, a free Church-sponsored concert in a park near Temple Square, and… oh yeah, we saw the grave of Brigham Young. (Brigham Young’s grave, by the way, is hard to find. I don’t think the Church advertises it very much. My wife and I only found it because some nice locals showed us where it was. Brigham Young’s grave is surprisingly low-key, too. It doesn’t have a gigantic pyramid on top of it or anything.)
Going to Salt Lake City made me feel like a pilgrim. I know Salt Lake City isn’t a “holy city” and Mormons aren’t required to take a trip there, but still, there’s so much history in Salt Lake City. It’s amazing. And the amount of LDS church buildings there, oh my goodness! When you drive on the Interstate 15 through Provo and Salt Lake City, you can see steeples and steeples and steeples! I think one time I could see five different church steeples in one glance.
One of the neatest things we did is that on Sunday morning we happened to go to the same ward as the Prophet and President of the Church at the time, Gordon B. Hinckley! It was a complete coincidence (or was it?) and… it’s a story for a different blog post.
What I really wanted to talk to you about today was Welfare Square. My wife and I took a tour of it, and let me tell you, that was one of the places that my wife and I felt the Spirit the most. Out of all those historic places we visited in Salt Lake City and the surrounding area, the Welfare Square had a unique, spiritual impact on my heart and mind. If you ever get a chance to spend some time in Salt Lake City, I recommend taking the Welfare Square tour. It was amazing to see first-hand what the church is doing to help people out.
I’ve talked some on Telemoonfa Time about how I’m a fiscal conservative, how I’m a fan of economics professor Milton Friedman and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and President Ronald Reagan and how I’m an opponent of socialism and the recent $700 billion bail-out plan that the US Congress recently passed. Those facts might persuade you to believe that I am not compassionate, that I do not want to help the lower classes rise from poverty.
But let me take this opportunity to assure you that Telemoonfa is compassionate. I do care about the poor. I want them to be more comfortable. I really do.
I just think that the LDS church does a better job of distributing charity than the US government does.
Sincerely,
Telemoonfa
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
it's not charity that is needed, to an extent it's just an even playing field, assured opportunity, whether or not that opportunity is taken. And then, to that segment of society, that always has and always will need charity, yes, for them we need sources of compassion.
but move over to the point, what are christianity and socialism all about anyway? i know socialism is a trigger word, but please try to look beyond the cultural saturation of the word for a moment. Christ said in Matthew 25:35-40 in my own paraphasing: if he is hungry, feed him; if he is naked, clothe him; if he is thirsty, give him drink; if he is a stranger and has no place to stay, take him into your house and give him a bed.These are lofty traits indeed, and i by no means claim to attain them. but lets try to read what is the spirit of the words. help take care of your fellow human.
now i understand socialism to be a society of people who take care of the basic living necessities of all the people in that society. and churchs for their part do a lot of good. but they do have a religious view that influencess their effort. there needs to be a governing body separate from church, or any religion, which is why human society formed government which Could, through its means, take care of the basic life necessities (i believe education should be one of them), without restricting the growth and ingenuity of the human population.
just because we have not realized its essence (socialism) in good working form in human society does not mean that it is not possible or unworthy. and let's face it, a strict capitalist worldview that your ecominists tout is one of the reasons there was the need for a 700 billion dollar bailout, and a 50 billion dollar Maddoff ponzi scam.
just things to think about.
Yeah, socialism is great in theory. And in some respects socialism is similar to the United Order, or the law of consecration as taught and briefly practiced by the LDS church, before the Mormons went to the Salt Lake Valley. But the law of consecration is really the higher law. We pay tithing and fast offering for now, but eventually I believe Mormons will give everything to the Lord and then the Lord will re-distribute the wealth as He sees fit. (It's also good to remember, before you think that I’ll force people into living the law of consecration, that Zion will be composed not of robots or brainwashed or threatened people, but of faithful volunteers. Mormons won't be coerced or bullied into living the law of consecration.)
But socialism in practice is a different story. It seems like socialism/communism has not worked in real life as well as capitalism has. One good (bad?) example of communism in practice was the gulags of the USSR.
Should we give socialism another shot? I don't think so. I really think that experience has shown that private business and private charitable organizations in a free marketplace do a better job of distributing money than government-run operations do.
Ponder this: “Fundamentally, there are only two ways of coordinating the economic activity of millions. One is central direction involving the use of coercion – the technique of the army and of the modern totalitarian state. The other is voluntary cooperation of individuals- the technique of the market place.” That’s from “Free to Choose” by Milton Friedman.
Hooray for capitalism! (But I don’t say “hooray” for amoral, godless capitalism. Maddoff was not morally cool. I know he was Jewish, but he did not live up to his religious principles.)
About your comment, "there needs to be a governing body separate from church, or any religion,” yeah… sort of. I sort of agree with you. I’m a first amendment supporter. I don’t think that the US government should establish a state religion that everybody is forced to practice, and I think the US government should be sensitive to lots of different religions, to a reasonable extent.
However, I do think that this country is fundamentally Christian. I mean, every single President has been Christian. I think it’s safe to say that most politicians profess Christianity. Congress says Christian-sounding prayers to start their meetings. People still put their hands on Bibles in courtrooms, don’t they, before they act as witnesses? Abraham Lincoln quoted the Bible all the time, the Founding Fathers and the Pilgrims were basically Christian, so… Christianity seems to be in the fabric of our nation.
I’m afraid that we can’t have our prosperity and liberty without having the Christianity and Christian morality which brought our prosperity and liberty about. That’s a bold claim, I know, but here’s some scripture from 2 Nephi, chapter 1, that says what I’m saying, only a lot lot lot better: (I added the stuff in brackets)
6 Wherefore, I, Lehi, prophesy according to the workings of the Spirit which is in me, that there shall anone come into this land [America] save they shall be brought by the hand of the Lord.
7 Wherefore, this aland [America] is consecrated unto him whom he shall bring. And if it so be that they shall serve him according to the commandments which he hath given, it shall be a land of bliberty unto them; wherefore, they shall never be brought down into captivity; if so, it shall be because of iniquity; for if iniquity shall abound ccursed shall be the land for their sakes, but unto the righteous it shall be blessed forever.
8 And behold, it is wisdom that this land should be akept as yet from the knowledge of other bnations; for behold, many nations would overrun the land, that there would be no place for an inheritance.
9 Wherefore, I, Lehi, have obtained a apromise, that binasmuch as those whom the Lord God shall bring out of the land of Jerusalem shall keep his commandments, they shall cprosper upon the face of this land; and they shall be kept from all other nations, that they may possess this land unto themselves. And if it so be that they shall dkeep his commandments they shall be blessed upon the face of this land, and there shall be none to molest them, nor to take away the land of their einheritance; and they shall dwell safely forever.
10 But behold, when the time cometh that they shall dwindle in aunbelief, after they have received so great blessings from the hand of the Lord—having a knowledge of the creation of the earth, and all men, knowing the great and marvelous works of the Lord from the creation of the world; having power given them to do all things by faith; having all the commandments from the beginning, and having been brought by his infinite goodness into this precious land of promise—behold, I say, if the day shall come that they will reject the Holy One of Israel, the true bMessiah, their Redeemer and their God, behold, the judgments of him that is cjust shall rest upon them.
11 Yea, he will bring aother nations unto them, and he will give unto them power, and he will take away from them the lands of their possessions, and he will cause them to be bscattered and smitten.
Oh, and I just thought of something else. I like the homily, "Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater."
In this case, capitalism is the baby, and the bathwater is Maddoff and the current economic recession.
oh... but maybe that's not a good analogy.
Here's another homily: "There's always a few bad apples." Maddoff was a bad apple. My old boss Moe from camp last summer was a bad apple. But the capitalistic system is still good!
Post a Comment