LDS INC bragging about donating food IN THEIR OWN TOWN

[_Lucretia MacEvil]

Actually, good for them. Hope they do it more often.

Yeah, here is their business plan:

1. Coerce money from membership.

2. Buy a cannery, can terrible bland tasting food under very unsanitary conditions.
2b. Force the member who gave you money in the first place to work at the cannery for free. No need to ensure they wash their hands after taking a dump or piss while working there. Encourage sick members to sneeze and cough on the open food.

3. Take the expired food and dump it on local food banks. They save money this way as they do not have pay to properly dispose of the expired rotting canned food. Other stores and food producers must pay to dump expired food, NOT LDS INC!

4. Break their arm patting themselves on the back for helping the needy of Salt Lake City.

5. Build a giant cathedral of consumption next to the mega'nacle.

Really, unsanitary conditions? I have little experience of church farm stuff as I didn't live where there was much of anything functioning, although I have a vague memory of canning chili and it having to be thrown out because it accidentally got over-salted.

[_Hoops]

I'm not convinced anyone should be criticized for helping. Hungry people were fed, isn't that enough?

[_jon]

I am of the opinion that we only see 1/10th of 1% of all the good the LDS church does.

The fact is, even though the LDS church as a whole is a massive corporation, I believe it is composed of very giving, spiritual and kind members.

I highly doubt that the 15 have much say in what gets donated where. There are people below them who are in charge of providing aid. And I believe that there is a LOT of aid given that we don't ever hear about.

Scottie, again I partially agree.
I also believe there are lots of members who do lots of selfless acts and give lots of time and effort to good causes, all without public notice. God bless those people.

However (sounds marginally better than 'but') we do know for a fact that the Church institution quantifies exactly how much it gives in terms of aid (time and material and cash) because it's published. The Church institution gave $88 million in total last year - that's total time, material and cash. The last 26 years it totals $1.3 billion.
On the face of it that's great, a huge help - but I find it is overshadowed because the Church institution spends significantly more than this on non charitable items.

It causes me brain ache to try and make it all sit comfortably with me.

[_hatersinmyward]

20 years ago...

It's not Oct 5, 1991.

Give us a link with Yesterday's Date.

[_Scottie]

However (sounds marginally better than 'but') we do know for a fact that the Church institution quantifies exactly how much it gives in terms of aid (time and material and cash) because it's published. The Church institution gave $88 million in total last year - that's total time, material and cash. The last 26 years it totals $1.3 billion.
On the face of it that's great, a huge help - but I find it is overshadowed because the Church institution spends significantly more than this on non charitable items.

It causes me brain ache to try and make it all sit comfortably with me.

I didn't realize those numbers were published.

I do agree that the church could do more with the funds that it has. Of course, I believe we ALL could do more with the funds that we have.

What do you believe would be a proper amount of charitable money, time and materials? 15%? 40%? 80%?

I'm just not sure there is a line where critics would say, "it's all good. The church doesn't need to give any more to charity."

[_Scottie]

20 years ago...

It's not Oct 5, 1991.

Give us a link with Yesterday's Date.

LOL

Good catch!

[_moksha]

... right there behind the Deseret brand eye shadow.

KA

I knew those magic markers were multipurpose.

[_hugh jass]

I am of the opinion that we only see 1/10th of 1% of all the good the LDS church does.

The fact is, even though the LDS church as a whole is a massive corporation, I believe it is composed of very giving, spiritual and kind members.

I highly doubt that the 15 have much say in what gets donated where. There are people below them who are in charge of providing aid. And I believe that there is a LOT of aid given that we don't ever hear about.

I am sure there are individual Mormon members who are genuinely kind to others.

HOWEVER, LDS Inc is exactly that, Incorporated.

They will not do anything unless it it is beneficial to the corporation.

Every penny they give out is an investment.

They must keep their members happy and also attract new ones.

[_keithb]

Scottie, I understand your angst.
Personally I am in two minds on stuff like this.
I think it's great that the Church does good works.
But...
I wish it was what the Church did most and I wish that they didn't seek PR for it.

I am of the opinion that we only see 1/10th of 1% of all the good the LDS church does.

The fact is, even though the LDS church as a whole is a massive corporation, I believe it is composed of very giving, spiritual and kind members.

I highly doubt that the 15 have much say in what gets donated where. There are people below them who are in charge of providing aid. And I believe that there is a LOT of aid given that we don't ever hear about.

I heard a rumor once that they provided all of the wheelchair ramps for the subway in Monterrey Mexico without taking credit for it (but I have no official sources to support this). I am sure that there are other projects like that out there as well.

For me, I have to keep perspective. My realization that God doesn't exist doesn't bring with it the baggage of believing that the Mormon church is automatically an evil organization. Indeed, I still believe that they do a lot to help people live better lives. However, I just wish that they would do even more, even to the point of making it their focus in life.

I can hardly expect that -- whether God exists or not -- a life spent helping others can be considered a waste. Charity brings with it its own rewards.

[_jon]

I do agree that the church could do more with the funds that it has. Of course, I believe we ALL could do more with the funds that we have.

What do you believe would be a proper amount of charitable money, time and materials? 15%? 40%? 80%?

I'm just not sure there is a line where critics would say, "it's all good. The church doesn't need to give any more to charity."

The Church receives circa $2 billion in tithing each year (extrapolated from published financial accounts of the Church in the UK).

I would expect all of that to go towards charitable functions - so I have an idea/suggestion for if and when I get surveyed by the Church.

In theory, the Church could reduce tithing to 5%, and make sure it all went to charitable causes. Then the Church could ask for specific donations on top for: GA stipends, Financial investments, Temple Building, Educational materials, BYU etc and people could then decide for themselves which areas to support.