"We're being asked what help can be given....our best assessment right now is to make a contribution to fast offerings. The help will come from you through the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Any suggestions or lists of rental homes and apartments in our area is going to be appreciated! Thank you so much! Love from Paradise."
What?, just when you thought it couldn’t get any more obnoxious! What’s wrong with People donating directly themselves? The church isn’t giving, the people who give them money, ala “ fast offerings” A way for the church to get tons of money, give a tiny amount to the fire victims and getthe credit themselves Sick to take advantage of a disaster to their benefit I’d be nice if a brave soul could publish that out in the open ( the original piece, that doesn’t doesn’t show this site)
"What’s wrong with People donating directly themselves?"
...well, some of those collected (extorted, guilted) monies will help with the LDS marketing campaign, to include TV spots, radio ads, and, of course t-shirt production...maybe some logo'd water bottles also.
Last year in our little corner of SoCal where a bunch of houses burned, a couple of guys started out by getting breakfast burritos for firefighters, and a few days later they had a big center set up at our small country store with tons of donated food, equipment, clothes, cash, and a volunteer army of guys who went and helped people fell burned trees, sift though destroyed homes for heirlooms and get set up in temporary housing.
They already have money and even a fund for disaster relief. Rather than tap into those sources, however, they want to raise additional money, money that they will control. By the time the geriatrics in SLC approve the usage of the fast offerings, the fires will have been contained. Ultimately only a fraction of the offerings will get to the areas where it could be helpful.
This is about as cynical a maneuver as one could imagine. Bravo, Q15.
I wasn't sure if it was an official church directive or not.
My sense was that someone asked their friends or family in Paradise how they could help and this was the response. Then that message had been shared to the poster's FB friends. So it sounds like someone asked a higher up in the Church (because god forbid one would rely on one's own judgement!) and this was the message they got.
I find it kind of sad that someone couldn't simply follow their own instincts and make a decision to help without consulting the church.
I seem to remember this happening before when there was a tsunami in south east Asia about 12-15 years ago, they said over the pulpit to be more generous with the fast offerings because the church was going to send the money over right away. Come to find out it never got sent, piles of money piled up, and people were still starving. Shortly after the tithing receipts started to be printed "all donations are to be used at our discretion."
anono this week Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > "all donations are to be used at our > discretion."
I know no one wants to hear it, but this is also true of the American Red Cross. Specific disasters are used to do fundraising, but the funds are not necessarily allocated to the specific disaster that prompted the donation.
Human Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > anono this week Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > "all donations are to be used at our discretion." > > I know no one wants to hear it, but this is also true of the American Red Cross. Specific disasters are used to do fundraising, but the funds are not necessarily allocated to the specific disaster that prompted the donation.
The Red Cross Says what it is doing. And they DO-lots.
LDS Tithing receipts say things like 'Building Fund', 'Missionary Fund', 'Disaster Relief', fast 'offering' [you "offer" it to the 'church'; they don't offer it to anybody], scripture chasing, etc.
THEN it says - after families/ individually give/ "offer" millions and millions of dollars, every year - those funds you gave, for these specific categories, will go into one fund.
Dishonest 101: Mormon JS wrote the book on it LDS 'tithing' is focused on taking, not giving
The income levels vary. 12% below poverty line. Median income about 32k, that's decent but not extraordinary for CA.many are retired and not relying only on that income but on savings.
CaitLynn Jenner lost her house, but she was not inside Paradise. The fire is massive and affects many communities.
Some have insurance. Some don't.
Their biggest challenge isn't necessarily financial for all, but finances will help.
For example,they just lost their customary medical care. They need to relocate to a place they can get a doctor.Just one more example because I don't want to preach.
Basically entire communities were destroyed including all their support systems. When you don't have a community you can't rely on each other any more for things like day care or elder care and they now need to pay more.
So yeah, in short some are quite wealthy. Others not. All are challenged somehow.
I imagine a lot of people who live near Paradise are like a family connection who died a few years back. He left my sister (who basically acted as family support to him in his last few years despite no genetic connection) a small property with a single wide and two nearly derelict cars. She is reasonably well off and the property was worth so little to her that she hadn't gotten around to figuring out what to do with it. It has probably burned to the ground.
...my brother is a Battalion Chief with Cal Fire. He is constantly re-deloyed to the different state hot -spots from his home base in East County San Diego. The one thing he tells me is that in a lot of these fires, the State preventative funding, for whatever reason, has been redirected, or used for other state programs. These fires are repeated on a seasonal basis, or it would seem. He also tells me that the State's budget for firebreaks, clearing of dead trees and vegetation, and the like are nearly depleted, or even non-existant at this point. So, I suppose we can expect more of these events???.........bad.
Concerned Citizen 2.0 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > ...my brother is a Battalion Chief with Cal Fire. > He is constantly re-deloyed to the different state > hot -spots from his home base in East County San > Diego. The one thing he tells me is that in a lot > of these fires, the State preventative funding, > for whatever reason, has been redirected, or used > for other state programs. These fires are > repeated on a seasonal basis, or it would seem. > He also tells me that the State's budget for > firebreaks, clearing of dead trees and vegetation, > and the like are nearly depleted, or even > non-existant at this point. So, I suppose we can > expect more of these events???.........bad.
(From the "Oroville" thread)
A few years ago, I had to check on a facility in the hinterlands of Butte County. I and a coworker drove through what seemed like endless tunnels of overgrown, dry brush to get there. It would have been too dense to walk through and hard to imagine deer getting through it.
I remembered my dad hacking through such brush to rescue a lost boy. By the time Pop reached him, the boy’s clothes and shoes we completely sheared off him by dense manzanita.
And that’s what I was looking at—-brush that you’d need an ax to get out of. It was scary. I wondered how Butte County got away with that—-where there were homes and even residential-care facilities down dirt roads deep in tinder. How did they get the permits?
I commented to my coworker that if there were a fire, they’d never get out alive. I was never so glad to get back on the main highway.
...it probably will help. Help replace a black-mold-ridden AC system in some old, tumble-down Ward building, where strange, debilitating respiratory conditions have been reoccurring over the years.
On the radio this am, the church was grateful that no members or missionaries were hurt, despite burning down two churches. They said there was some kind of Stake roster of folks who would take in displaced members. I always wonder when the church makes these kind of comments why they don't seem to care about those who are not members. Never mentioned, ever. Weird?
My TBM Mom said that members are being asked to collect and donate clothing and other durable goods for the fire victims. This is from a Nor Cal ward/stake.
A friend only gives to the Salvation Army. When his family truly needed help, one of the things they did was make sure he and his sister had a Christmas. He says that while he was old enough to understand, his sister wasn't...
kathleen Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Notice the stake centers aren't used as evacuation > centers? > > Maybe it's because fire victims aren't in the mood > to clean toilets.
This is very interesting.
The Woodland Hills LDS church [wardhouse?], on Deseret Drive, is "across the street" from a mandatory evacuation area.
I wonder what, if anything, they have been doing to help their neighbors, or the firefighters, up to "now" [means: the time when the mandatory evacuation order went into effect].
If these LDS premises are now part of the mandatory evacuation order, what were they doing BEFORE?
EDITED TO ADD: There is now a mandatory evacuation order for all of Calabasas (whose city limits begin "across the street" from Mulholland Drive, which is the main street for Deseret Drive). As I understand the situation, all of Calabasas, and all of Hidden Hills, are now under mandatory evacuation. (If someone has better information, please correct what I have said here! Thank you.)
More info: www.ktla.com
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/11/2018 10:59PM by Tevai.
kathleen Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Do your ward buildings and stake centers have > tall, spikey iron fences and gates around them? > > > Ours do. > > They look like Maleficent's castle.
The last time I noticed, my memory says that the LDS church building was surrounded by open lawns. (It is in a residential area.)
I haven't been by that particular area in a couple of years, and I wasn't paying that much attention when I was last there, so my memory may not be accurate.