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Quotes
Brigham Young:
"Prayer is good, but when baked potatoes and milk are needed, prayer will not
supply their place."
Deseret News, 10 Dec. 1856, cited in Eugene England,
Brother Brigham (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1980), 175.
Spencer W. Kimball: "The measure of our love for our fellowman and, in a large
sense, the measure of our love for the Lord, is what we do for one another and
for the poor and distressed."
"And the Lord Called His People
Zion," Ensign (Aug. 1984): 2.
Marion G. Romney: "A Latter-day Saint should abhor poverty and do all in his
power to alleviate it. He should remember the Lord's statement, 'it is not given
that one man should possess that which is above another' (D&C 49:20), and that
in the Lord's plan 'every man' is to be 'equal according to his family,
according to his circumstances and his wants and needs' (D&C 51:3)."
"Gospel Forum,"
Ensign (Jan. 1971): 16.
Thomas S. Monson: "Today, in lands far away and right here in Salt Lake City,
there are those who suffer hunger, who know want and are acquainted with
poverty. Ours is the opportunity and the sacred privilege to relieve this
hunger, to meet this want, to eliminate this poverty."
"Goal beyond Victory," Ensign
(Nov. 1988): 44.
Joseph Smith:
"It is better to feed ten impostors than to run the risk of turning away
one honest petition."
Hugh Nibley, Approaching Zion,
p 227
Howard W. Hunter:
"The touchstone of compassion is a measure of our discipleship; it is a measure
of our love for God and for one another."
"The Lord's Touchstone," Ensign, November 1986, 35.
Brigham Young:
"Suppose that in this community
there are ten beggars who beg from door to door for something to eat, and that
nine of them are impostors who beg to escape work, and with an evil heart
practise imposition upon the generous and sympathetic, and that only one of the
ten who visit your doors is worthy of your bounty; which is best, to give food
to the ten, to make sure of helping the truly needy one, or to repulse the ten
because you do not know which is the worthy one? You will all say, Administer
charitable gifts to the ten, rather than turn away the only truly worthy and
truly needy person among them. If you do this, it will make no difference in
your blessings, whether you administer to worthy or unworthy persons, inasmuch
as you give alms with a single eye to assist the truly needy."
Journal of Discourses 8:12,
5 Mar 1860.
Glenn L. Pace: "We must reach out beyond the walls of our own church. In
humanitarian work, as in other areas of the gospel,...[w]e need not wait for a
call or an assignment from a Church leader before we become involved in
activities that are best carried out on a community or individual basis."
"A Thousand Times,"
Ensign (Nov. 1990): 10
Hugh Nibley: "The conditions of sharing demanded by the Lord can only be
satisfied by complete equality, a point that is ceaselessly repeated.... We
cannot be equal, as the Lord commands, and live on different levels of
affluence."
Approaching Zion, ed.
Don E. Norton (Salt Lake City & Provo: Deseret Book, FARMS, 1989), 397-398
Eugene England: "[O]ur government recently approved spending another $130
million to make our embassies in Asia more 'secure' after all the terrorist
bombings. But we have great trouble allocating that kind of money to solve the
problems of poverty and homelessness that produce the terrorism. We strike at
the branches of evil but never at the roots."
"Fasting and Food,
Not Weapons: A Mormon Response To Conflict," BYU Studies, 25 (Winter 1985): 151.
Richard E. Johnson: "[W]e might gain valuable insight by broadening the measure
of morality beyond the traditional sins to include such variables as poverty,
homelessness, and socioeconomic inequality. Perhaps the central moral problem of
our time is primarily economic or materialistic, involving behavior that is more
often than not perfectly legal and socially acceptable."
"No Poor among Us?" Women
Steadfast in Christ, ed. Dawn Hall Anderson & Marie Cornwall, (Salt Lake
City: Deseret Book,
1992), 166.
Andrew Carnegie:
“This, then, is held to be the duty
of the man of wealth: First, to set an example of modesty, unostentatious
living, shunning display or extravagance; to provide moderately for the
legitimate wants of those dependent upon him; and after doing so to consider all
surplus revenues which come to him simply as trust funds, which he is called
upon to administer, and strictly bound as a matter of duty to administer in the
manner which, in his judgment, is best calculated to produce the most beneficial
results for the community—the man of wealth thus becoming the mere trustee and
agent for his poorer brethren, bringing to their service his superior wisdom,
experience, and ability to administer, doing for them better than they would or
could do for themselves.”
"Wealth," North American Review,
Vol.148, Issue 391 p661, June 1889
Marion G. Romney:
"There is an interdependence between those who have and those who have not. The
process of giving exalts the poor and humbles the rich. In the process, both are
sanctified."
"The Celestial Nature of
Self-Reliance," Ensign, November 1982, 93. |
Hugh Nibley,
Approaching Zion, ed. Don E. Norton, Salt Lake City & Provo: Deseret
Book, FARMS, 1989.
One night a couple of years
later, my mother came in and woke me up to tell me that I had won an essay writing contest
sponsored by my Released-Time Christian Education class. I recall that I was rather
distraught, because (although I didn't know the term in those days) I knew I had BS'd my
way through the writing exercise, and now my reward/punishment was to read the essay in public. Unfortunately,
I did not keep a copy of the essay. But I do have proof that I attended the awards dinner and ceremony--a picture that appeared in the local newspaper
(The Santa Ana / Orange County Register). That's me on the bottom right with the
cool glasses.