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…

Choose compassion over consumption.

That’s the message of the “Give it 4 Good” campaign. Episcopalians for Global Reconciliation, an organization devoted to supporting the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals, has begun a push to get people to think about the money they’ll be receiving from the government this spring.

“We have an economy that is based on overconsumption, one that puts our consumer desires above all other values,” says the Rev. Mike Kinman, EGR executive director. “It has caused us to cripple the creation with which God has entrusted us. It has led us into war. It has led us to look at our sisters and brothers around the world not as children of God but as objects in supply chains.”

“EGR has always been about spiritual transformation, and that’s what this campaign is about,” says Kinman. “The money given will transform and save lives, but even more than that the decision to…