Maybe the Washington DC area Mormons are more guarded. But what a stoopid response to a commenter saying she didn’t want to have many kids.

“I’ll admit that there were drawbacks to being raised in poverty, but that also depends on your definition of success. I will have you know that not once did my family make use of government welfare. When we didn’t have enough to eat, our church provided food and we 7 children helped my parents earn it by washing windows and cleaning bathrooms and vacuuming floors in our meetinghouse.

If you define success as learning lessons in love and compassion that can’t be learned any other way, if you define success as engendering faith in God and strong family ties, if you define success as developing patriotic citizens who don’t spawn kids out of wedlock, steal, or do drugs, if you define success as presenting opportunities for people to serve one another out of the pure love of Christ, then our way worked just fine.

The government’s way of promoting generational poverty and reliance on the welfare state sucks big time. But even Jesus said the poor will always be with us.”

Sure, the Mormon church provides food to church members who pay a 10% tithe and who contribute extra labor. OTOH, your average community food pantry provides food for free and without question. Which way of doing things is more loving and compassionate?

As for having seven children that you can't afford -- to my way of thinking, it's not the smartest way of doing things. And you can bet those parents do not have an adequate retirement plan.

The second coming isn't a retirement plan?

Well, now that you mention it, I guess you could say that they are fully caught up on their afterlife insurance policies. Now all they have to do is to get through this troublesome thing called old age.

I did get help from the church and I wasn't paying tithing or attending church. Actually, I've met quite a few people who got help who weren't attending or weren't even members. One my "husband's" nonmormon gay friends was getting help FROM THE BISHOP who had been our singles ward bishop and got us married off.

When I found out about my brother's MIL getting help paying her house payment, who is an alcoholic and had been in jail at the time for beating up her boyfriend, and a few others, I decided to ask for help.

I knew the bishop as he had worked in a bishopric with my "husband". He gave me a little lecture. Asshole. He apologized to me later. He sent my "husband" a letter calling him to repentance, but I got four house payments paid, some bills paid, and food for about 1-1/2 years. I quit getting it when a new bishop was called as I didn't want to go in and talk to him. Despite other reports I've heard, their food was actually excellent. We still miss their spaghetti sauce and picante sauce, let alone toilet paper, etc.

They never asked me to work for them nor did they ask me to go to church or pay tithing.

They use the food program as a big advertisement of how wonderful they are and as a missionary tool. All the single mothers I worked with who I told to ask for help didn't get it. They were TR mormons. They were told to budget their money better.

I believe that's called bishop roulette.
I've known bishops who would do their best to assist anyone in need. I've also known bishops who would only help those who followed church rules that he established. And one bishop who wouldn't help a woman who left her husband when she found out he was sexually abusing their daughters. In that case the bishop said he wouldn't help because he knew the good priesthood brother would never do such a thing.

When I was in the Elder's Q. Presidency many years ago, in our weekly meeting with the Ward Welfare committee we often discussed who got what and why. Some investigators got help, while divorced members did not. Our Bishop I believe was a good man, but he was very "fond" of a divorced female investigator, and he was very willing to help her out. I kind of wondered about her since she was very very friendly to me in a way that was unsettling, I was also a ward scout leader and she was often contacting me about her son and changing the subject to meeting at her house.

It's not because they *wanted* 7 kids, it's because TSCC *told them* they SHOULD HAVE 7 kids, whether they could afford them or not.

Because "God."

My understanding is that in most cases, the church counsels a recipient of church welfare to seek government welfare first. Perhaps this person's family didn't receive government welfare because they didn't actually qualify for it and then the church stepped in to help.

There's no mention of the fact that the family was probably paying tithing in order to receive food from the church. If they hadn't paid tithing, church welfare may not have been needed.

want2bx Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> My understanding is that in most cases, the church
> counsels a recipient of church welfare to seek
> government welfare first. Perhaps this person's
> family didn't receive government welfare because
> they didn't actually qualify for it and then the
> church stepped in to help.
>
> There's no mention of the fact that the family was
> probably paying tithing in order to receive food
> from the church. If they hadn't paid tithing,
> church welfare may not have been needed.
---------------------

Decades ago now The EVILS of THE DOLE - was a big one for L-d$,inc. Church Welfare was the Gold Standard - and leaders made a big deal of it.

No self respecting member would go on Government Welfare.

Now it is the first choice and leaders tell members to ask the Government first.

What did I just read?

Someone's parents knowingly had more kids than they could afford and instead of using government help to maybe..learn a new skill so they could provide better for their children, they made the children scrub floors.
Dang, I will never complain about my parents again! Ha.

Side note..I have heard some good about church welfare, but the problem is some bishops do not help people. I'd actually have been willing to tithe if I KNEW they helped everyone in need, even if thry required an eventual game plan for long term financial health..nope..I heard one too many stories of TBM tithe payers being left to rot. The opposite of Christlike..