The Mormon Church Welfare Surprise
February 18, 2012
Mormon volunteers are often first responders in disasters.
We have been asked to offer an article published this week by The Wall Street Journal about the Mormon welfare system. You may not know that one of the chief partners of the Red Cross, The Salvation Army, and Catholic Charities, is the Mormon Church. Income tax records have indicated it is also a main charity of Mitt an Ann Romney, and for good reason. Mormons are hailed for their disaster relief and grassroots volunteer efforts. Today the Wall Street Journal takes an inside look at the LDS’ own remarkable welfare system which keeps its members OFF of government welfare and provides food, goods, and jobs for the needy and emergencies throughout the world. The ruling principle of their welfare system? Help yourself.
“Ever since Mitt Romney said he was “not concerned about the very poor” but would fix America’s social safety net “if it needs repair,” conservatives and liberals have been frantically making suggestions. Gov. Romney says he would consider options like restructuring Medicaid. 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.
As I ride in a golf cart through a new 15-acre warehouse on the outskirts of Utah’s capital, I can’t help but wonder: How many Wal-Marts would fit in her
How many burgers can you make from 4,400 industrial pallets of frozen meat? And how do they keep this place cleaner than my kitchen floor?
Dedicated last month, the Bishops Central Storehouse contains a two-year supply of food to support the Mormon church’s welfare system in the U.S. and
One of dozens of worldwide aid centers of the LDS Church
Canada (primarily for church members in need) and its humanitarian program, which sends food, medical supplies and other necessities to the needy (of all faiths) world-wide.
In addition to goods from canned peaches to emergency generators, the facility also houses the church’s own trucking company, complete with 43 tractors and 98 trailers, as well as a one-year supply of fuel, parts and tires for the vehicles. Just in case.
The storehouse is not only a kind of physical marvel—it has been built to withstand an earthquake with a magnitude as high as 7.5—but also a symbol of strength and self-sufficiency.
Launched during the Great Depression, the Mormon welfare system was designed by church leaders as a way to match the armies of the unemployed faithful with some of the nearby farms that needed temporary labor. As storehouse manager Richard Humpherys 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.
In 1936, Heber Grant, one of the church leaders, reported the reasoning behind this effort: “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.”
Read more about how they do it… here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204792404577227173888056682.html?KEYWORDS=mormon+welfare
This is one of the reasons I left the Catholic religiond & joined the Mormon church. The people here CARE really truely care. And we also help cook the meals other churches serve for holidays for the poor, ect… People really need to see Mormons for who we are, not who they think we are from silly stories. TY for this article 🙂
Well placed article. I think Mitt would probably use this as a pattern for the MUCH NEEDED welfare reform in this country. LDS folks take a lot of heat in the press – being called a cult and so forth but rarely does the press take a good hard look at the GOOD LDS welfare services and charities do throughout the world. I firmly believe in what Heber J. Grant said.
If the US could or would implement these welfare policies we could really improve our American society at large. Plus use all of the otherwise wasted welfare resources for improving other areas of our country that need money and energy like education.
I am not LDS BUT I have read and agree with so many principals they embrace. They welcome the public to their canning and food storage facilities, has super sound advice on how to live financially….really they are just a really good bunch of folks. They DO take care of their own!