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Isn’t Children’s Hospital in Utah one example of the church being involved in caring for the poor and sick and needy? I don’t know much about it, but know it is Non-profit, and as the church uses funds to run it … it clearly has a practical mission to help and give back, not for free…but many churches get into this hospital business with saintly intentions (even if it becomes a corporation at some point to run daily operations…the mission is grounded correctly). It gets messy once it becomes temporal “how to do it” even if there is a celestial vision behind it. I think the church is smart with their investments, but always trying to balance the righteous endeavors to be involved with against the fiscal stewardship to make sure they aren’t just giving it away.
There has to be more examples…welfare farms, developing countries and education??? I don’t know. Stuff like that.
Are you talking about Primary Children’s Hospital? It was once owned by the church, but the church-owned hospitals were sold to Intermountain HealthCare a few decades ago. The church hasn’t been in the hospital business for quite some time.
Humanitarian Funds is also a big area where “church funds” go out. I can’t spell out the details but our Stake has requested and received a massive funds allocation for an interfaith humanitarian need.
It’s been an amazing experience watching the process.
gospeltangents wrote:
Are you talking about Primary Children’s Hospital?It was once owned by the church, but the church-owned hospitals were sold to Intermountain HealthCare a few decades ago. The church hasn’t been in the hospital business for quite some time.
yes…that was what I was thinking…and thanks for reminding me…they did sell that off.
mom3 wrote:
Humanitarian Funds is also a big area where “church funds” go out.
That’s a better example…thanks
:thumbup: The Church donates FAR more in Humanitarian aid than most people realize. I would add the educational subsidies for the BYUs, as well as the expanding Pathways program. Those also are massive investments.
SamBee wrote:
Unlike certain other charities, they’re rubbish at publicizing the fact.
I think they might actually go by this ideal:
Quote:Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
The large, helping hands initià tives get publicized in order to try to help people understand we aren’t an isolationist cult; most of the humanitarian efforts don’t get huge publicity, especially in areas where it would be counter-productive to have people know aid was coming from a Christian source. DarkJedi wrote:
SamBee wrote:
Unlike certain other charities, they’re rubbish at publicizing the fact.
I think they might actually go by this ideal:
Quote:Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
I sympathize with this but it does play into the hands of the people who say the LDS is just there to make money.
I’ll play devil’s advocate. Who really knows? Not broadcasting alms can be an apologetic for someone that hasn’t given any alms. I’m not saying this is the case, I’m just saying there’s no way of knowing.
I remember one instance where the church did publicize something. It was several months ago, maybe even a year. They stated that they had donated x billion dollars in humanitarian aid in the last several decades. Someone did the math and IIRC it worked out to 40 million per year. There were arguments on both sides of that number. Some saying that the 40 million included fast offerings and the monetary value of volunteer hours in an effort to make the church’s humanitarian effort look even smaller. Others saying the 40 million was narrowly defined and didn’t include the value of many other humanitarian efforts.
I lean towards the latter but I admit that there’s no way for me to know.
I do know for sure, since I know a couple of people involved in the humanitarian efforts. That figure was the cash donations. It didn’t include the vast majority of what has been given. Having said that, nibbled is correct. Publicizing anything will generate apologetics and criticism, no matter what the numbers are.
The challenge whether to disclose or not gets even messier because a bunch of people get to influence that decision. I am watching it happen from the sidelines in my local area. The top leadership made no request for it. But regional people want it. Only time will tell. nibbler wrote:
I know this is wrong but I could really go for a salisbury steak right now.
Do you want gravy on that sir?My “cafeteria Mormonism” is definitely tied to the things I have lost a testimony of or that I’m struggling to regain a testimony of… One of those things being how literal “prophecy” is from our modern prophets. I believe that God speaks through them, but I do not believe that everything they speak is from God. -I don’t think Heavenly Father needs me to wear garments. They are soooooo uncomfortable and ugly. I really just can’t wear them.
-I don’t think 10% tithing is necessary. I do think donating our time and our money is very important, I just don’t have a testimony in the hard rule of 10% to the church.
-I don’t think 3 hours of church is necessary. Really, that’s crazy. We just attend sacrament meeting.
-I think it’s fine to spend money on a Sunday. Sunday is a family day for me, so if we want to go out to dinner as a family, we do it.
-I completely disagree with the church’s stance on LGBTs.
-I’m not sure how I feel about Joseph Smith
When I look at my list, it really doesn’t seem like that big of a deal… but it is a HUGE deal because 3 of those things disqualify me for a temple recommend.
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