The Mormon Index — an insider’s look at the welfare program of the Church
I enjoyed Tim Townsend’s article, The Mormon Index, that appeared on the front page of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on January 22. Tim discussed how some economists look at the numbers of people using the Mormon welfare program to gauge the economy.
It’s an obscure index, one that was lost on me though I am a Latter-day Saint (LDS or Mormon). My view of the welfare system of the Church is as an insider who has been benefited by it. I don’t think too many LDS, with the exception of a few LDS economists, were aware of “The Mormon Index” until reading Tim’s article.
The Church’s welfare program is supported by a facility that typically includes a food storehouse, a cannery, an employment resource center, and a family counseling center. The Bridgeton facility in St. Louis Missouri is a central focus in Tim’s article.
My family has been benefited by the facility. In the past, when we’ve needed to stretch our food budget, we’ve relied on the Bridgeton facility’s cannery to sustain our food storage.
Often, Latter-day Saint’s food storage practices are misunderstood. Having a food storage is not about preparing for an apocalypse. It’s not motivated by fear. Rather, having a food storage is about self-reliance and preparedness for life’s emergenices so that we will not fear. Other organizations see the value of food storage for these reasons and advocate food storage. FEMA and the American Red Cross give instructions – click here.
Our practice of food storage gets a lot of attendion, but the Church’s welfare program is much more than being about food storage. It is about the practice of ”pure religion”.
“Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world” (James 1:27).
As an example, my husband, Dan, lost his job four years ago. His prolonged unemployment was the hardest time our family has experience in the 22 years we have been married. Dan, assisted by our bishop at the time, found support and eventually a job through the services provided by the Employment Center housed at the Bridgeton facility. That support for Dan meant a great deal to the security, welfare and strength of our family.
Now as a lay bishop, my husband fills food orders through the Bridgeton facility for members of our ward (congregation) who are unemployed or otherwise needing assistance to feed their families. He directs those who have lost jobs or need to improve their job prospects to the Employment Center. For those persons who want to adopt children, or struggle with addictions or other matters requiring professional help, he directs them to the Family Counseling Center.
Bishops can acquire food through the facility’s storehouse to give to community food pantries and other non-profit organizations needing food contributions. In times of widespread disaster, these centers have opened to the larger community to provide supplies and serve as major distribution centers for relief organizations. Bishops direct people of any faith, or no faith, to the Employment Center, whose services they can use free of charge.
The Bridgeton facility, in short, enlarges my husband’s ability to serve his flock and the community.
Out of respect and to preserve confidentiality, my husband does not share how individuals have been blessed by our welfare program. However, you can read stories people have shared through the Pure Religion series — click here.
While the church’s welfare program may provide an instructive ecomonic index, it also serves as a strong indicator that God loves and cares for His children.
Learn more at providentliving.org.
Dana King, 45, volunteers in public affairs for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints -- St. Louis Missouri South Stake. She chairs the annual Discover Your Roots conference and serves on the Friends of Dred Scott committee. Dana is a contributor to outreach initiatives: knowyourneighbornet.org and BlackLDS.org. Dana is married, mother of two teens, and runs her interior design business. 
Great Article Dana.
There is a saying in the Qur’an ‘the Believers are like one body. When one part is hurting the whole body is in pain.’ No group exemplifies this better than the Mormons, in taking care of their own. But even beyond taking care of their own, Mormons spend a lot of time in community volunteering. There are so many encounter stories I can tell but one comes to mind. A couple of years ago Faith Beyond Walls organized a weekend for people of different faiths to join and cleanup a number of the the neglected city parks. Some of us went to a small park in East St Louis. While we were doing our cleanup a Mormon group arrived and started mowing the grass and also help clean up. They said they tried to clean that park every few weeks! For us it was a one time activity.
Sorry, but I have to go here: Catholic Charities has done all of these things that Dana has mentioned and more for people in America and many other countries, and I have yet to see a front page article about it in the Post-Dispatch.
This comment does not demean or lessen the work done by Mormons through their charity outreach programs. It only calls into light the continued disproportionate “journalism” of the P-D in this town.
Tim,
I think it does a disservice to pit one charity against another. I see plenty of media coverage on Cath Char. I also see other stories about overwhelmed food pantries at other denomination’s organizations.
We should be doing good works because that is what the Lord prescribes of us, not to get front page stories in the Post.
And the Mormon agency and Catholic Charities and all the other ones do just that, helping others because we should. None of them do it for publicity, and I make no such claim to that effect believe me. That doesn’t change the fact that the reporting bias of the P-D continues to be exposed in new and glaring ways every week. My comment was on journalism and agenda in media. Maybe next time your comments will reflect the topic of my post and not some tangent.
Who’s on a tangent? Me?! You ought to look in a mirror.
It seems to me you are crying cuz your church didn’t get as much press as you think they should. Wah, wah, wah!
Do you hate to read about good things happening to other people? Do you jealously wonder why their story is highlighted and not yours, your neighbors, your 8-year-old niece?
Is this really about your concern of fair and balanced reporting? I am sure you could go through the archives of St Louis media and see that catholics have gotten 100 times more positive press than the LDS or any other church.
YOU knew you were wrong from the get-go when you started your original post with “Sorry, but I have to go here”.
Yes, those charities don’t do what they do for the publicity. If they don’t care about the it, why do you? By making an issue of it, YOU make them look bad. YOU smear their name by crying about this nonsense. YOU make it appear as if Cath Charities wants some equal time provision. YOU do a disservice to these charities. Shame on YOU.
Tim, I think you totally missed the point of Townsend’s original article. Yes it is an in-depth look at the Bishop’s Storehouse. But it’s tying that into the economic situation going on in America. Economists monitor the activity of programs like the Mormons’ as a way to gauge the health of our economy.
hey. thought we were trying to keep it civil here?
Yes they do Kirkman, you are correct. Just because I didn’t comment on it doesn’t mean I missed the point however. What I noticed and you apparently missed is that once again the P-D can ignore one of the largest and most far reaching charity groups to focus on a sliver of St Louis Society. Wouldn’t a large and far reaching charity be a better statistical example of economic situations in our area than a smaller one? Of course it would, but the P-D is not about getting it right.
Suzy, it is utter nonsense to correlate my thoughts with how these charities will be viewed by everyone else after I make them. You are nuts if you think a comment in this blog carries so much weight.
And yes, believe it or not, my comment was EXACTLY about the reporting standards of the Post. I said sorry for going here because my comment was not going to be about the work of the charity, and AS I MENTIONED IN MY ORIGINAL POST it was in no way demeaning to the work of the Mormon charity.
I could go through the archives, but AS I MENTIONED IN MY ORIGINAL POST I have yet to see a front page article like this about Catholic Charities.
So yes, suzy, you did go off on an incredible tangent. I never claimed that any charity has its feelings hurt and I never implied that I hate such stories. Where you dreamed up such preposterous notions is beyond my deduction skills.
The P-D is constantly criticized and questioned throughout this website for the attention and importance they give to certain groups and topics while completely ignoring others. And they should be given their biased reporting history…
People can argue about theology until the end of time (or perhaps after, depending on your view); what I think is important and admirable, is that people of faith– people who claim their faith to be normative for everyone– take a observable steps to live out that faith in a way that benefits the needy– and particularly people who they have no relationship with.
This is the essence of charity, in every major religion: to house the homeless, to clothe the naked, to feed the hungry. It isn’t rocket science, but it is just as hard work.
I do not agree with some of the Mormon or Catholic (or other denominations) theological tenets, but so what. It does not mean I discount them. I admire people of faith who work to provide for their own (and others!) when in need.
To me, this is the bottom line of why congregations exist: to deepen members faith; to nurture spiritual growth; and to act for social justice.
People who have that objective are admirable, even if I may disagree with them as to how–exactly– to achieve those objectives.
My wish for you– whoever is reading this– is to say a little prayer/ meditation for the things you are grateful for. And if you are so inspired, join your faith group, start a new one, hang out with people whose religious views scare you– and do something good and important for the community you find yourself in.
May you feel peace. And:
Amen!