Many religions lose that emphasis which is a basic tenet of the book they claim to be the foundation of their faith(s)
By: Ray
With all the hoopla in the media regarding the reopening of the Ogden LDS temple, I find a story in today’s
Standard Examiner particularly incongruous. In the hard-copy edition article entitled,
“Ogden temple tour tent will break with tradition” a spokeswomen states,
“No cookies will be served in the hospitality tent, as they have been in past temple open houses,” and
“The money will be better spent for wells in Africa or wheelchairs for Russia.”
While I can’t argue with that statement, I can wonder if the same logic wouldn’t fit for the tens of millions of dollars spent on over the top remodeling of a house of worship vs. spending it on the poor, downtrodden, or sick. It seems as if many religions lose that emphasis which is a basic tenet of the book they claim to be the foundation of their faith(s).
28 comments:
Doh!
Bingo. BR! ☆☆☆☆☆!!!!!
Ray's comment is odd, given that the church itself, and members individually, are extremely charitable.
And Christ himself said "the poor are always with you." There will always be those that one can give to. To criticize charitable people for spending some of their own money on their temple and lecture them on how it could have been better spent seems really "holier than thou."
It is tiresome when people assume Christians should always provide them with a willing whipping post. Even more tiresome is how people presume to preach to someone else about how they should live their religion.
And I always wonder about people who suggest their position is supported by the Bible when they have nothing to do with that book. It seems hypocritical.
Bottom line, what somebody chooses to do with their money is none of your business, Ray. It used to be everyone understood the idea of NOYB.
On the other hand, get a ticket and see the temple. You'll be glad you did, and it's free. Unless you'd rather spend the time doing something better, like working the soup kitchen and giving all of your own time and money to the poor, that is.
Yeah, or it could be the city is trying to accommodate close to 1 million people who'll be coming to town and make the city look good - regardless of why they are coming, they are coming. It could be that. It could be it has nothing to do with religion at all.
Yeah, trying to make things look good when lots of visitors will be coming - nobody ever does that, do they?
Geez. Somebody spends millions in downtown Ogden. A million people want to come see it. Instead of being thankful and joining in, you people find something to piss and moan about it.
Unbelievable.
The LDS Church does a lot of humanitarian work at home and all over the world.
The LDS Church considers humanitarian work to be an essential part of its mission to bless all humanity in emulation of Jesus Christ “who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed” (Acts 10:38). Throughout its history, the LDS Church has always provided for those in need and is perhaps best known for its efforts to take care of its own. In 1842, Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, organized the Women’s Relief Society, with a primary focus to provide “relief” to suffering members and ultimately to all people. During the Great Depression the LDS Church organized a welfare program, now administered the church's Welfare Services department, to help provide for the needs of its members.
As the program has grown, the church's welfare efforts have expanded to help people around the world regardless of religion, race, or nationality. LDS Humanitarian Services was created to coordinate these efforts in partnership with government and other nonprofit agencies around the world. Key humanitarian initiatives include clean water, vision treatment, wheelchair provision, neonatal resuscitation, and disaster relief. Other initiatives include immunizations, family enrichment programs, and family food production.
In 2008, LDS Humanitarian Services provided aid to 3.3 million people in 122 countries, and since 1985 help has been given to 23 million people in 163 nations. All of these initiatives, as well as support and advice on personal and community preparation for disasters can be found on the LDS Church’s Provident Living website.
The funding for LDS Humanitarian Services comes from philanthropic support of the church’s members and other donors. Donations to the Humanitarian Fund are collected through local bishops and through LDS Philanthropies.
wikipedia
Well, Danny lots of assumptions by you on my understanding or relation to the book and or my working/supporting charitable causes. You're correct its their money. However as I stated, I found it a bit hypocritical with the cookie example after reading a plethora of articles discussing the grandeur and expense of the remodeled temple.
Many of the changes implemented were done without any consideration for the actual residents of Ogden. When the opening is over the changes done without any public imput will stay.There are many streets in Ogden due for a upgrade but only ones in a very specific area were targeted. The difficulty manuvering through the rebuilt and closed streets is frustating. Will the city taxpayers have to pay for the additional costs associated with the opening? With that many people arriving there will be a need for more police, fire and paramedic people to be on duty Who will pay those additional costs? Mice to highlight the city but only residents will have to pay the financial burden. Gasically lets throw a party but you will get to pay for it.
Just think how much more money people could contribute to hiumanitarian and relief efforts if the temple paid property tax.
BR. I'm confused. You saying you advocate assessing property taxes on the temples so the money the LDS church pays in taxes to the US government can be used to fund humanitarian aid vs. tax exemption and the Church assumes that cost directly? As they're doing now? You EVER know the Government to be able to do something more cost effective than the private sector?
Danny Boy! +1. You just saved me a lot of typing. This from a guy who was thrown out of a private, in residence Catholic School at the tender age of 9 and 1/2 because as the Mother Superior put it "We feel this is not the place for him. The Devil has too strong a hold on him".
What Bob said...only not as eloquently and with more typos
700,000 people will pay a lot of sales tax. The city has recommended restaurants prepare special menus that can be turned quickly. In Brigham City they ran out of food in a few days. There will be a lot of money turning over in this city with those 700,000 visitors.
If they were coming for a summer solstice, I wonder if you would be carping about road improvements and the lack of property tax on the beer carts. Somehow, I think you'd be praising the pagans for doing all of it.
For somebody to complain about that much money coming to town because of the Mormons makes me think this is about religious bigotry.
But as I said, go and visit the new temple. They are inviting all of us for free. And from the pictures I've seen they went to a lot of trouble to make is special for Ogden. The fixtures in one of the rooms remind me of the Ogden High auditorium. The people who did the work deserve our thanks.
If bling, marble, and glitz are important for spiritual comfort, why isn't Jesus depicted as wearing something fancier than simple cloth robes and sandals?
I am wholly incomoetent to discuss that question, being a non-believer and absolutely uninformed about the subjects it would be necessary to know a lot about to discus it seriously, begining with Christology just for openers. I merely noted that many many people of a variety of Christian denominations have thought it important and spiritually satisfying to build such churches, cathedrals and temples. And since the LDS do so with their own money and effort, doesn't seem appropriate for me to criticize them for that. Matters not at all whether it's what I woud do or not.
Because the LDS temple is ot assessed property tax oyher taxpayers pay more to make up the shortfall. it seems that by accepting the governments subsidizing the money they do not pay they aree going against one of their tenents. pay your own way, avoid taking assistance,become self sufficient.. if they paid property taxes citizens would have more money of their own to contribute to the charities of their choosing not the charities that the church picks.
My questions have nothing to do with Mormons. My questions was, and still is, why were so muany changes implemented without ionvolving Ogden citizens? you know, the residents of ogden whose taxes are paying for the work.
Thanks for the clarification but I'll go out on a limb here and state that if every single church in the US started to pay property tax on Monday AM not a single citizens property tax (or any other tax burden we carry for that matter) would drop a penny. The government would reap the windfall and the charities would be left holding the even shorter end of the stick and we'd be right back at the point of this discussion... the perception that somehow the LDS church got over on local citizens (even though now they would be paying taxes) for having traffic management implement during a time that Ogden is going to have an estimated 700K+ visitors to their newly renovated temple.
'[I]f every single church in the US started to pay property tax on Monday AM not a single citizens property tax (or any other tax burden we carry for that matter) would drop a penny.
Are you serious, AWM? Your above statement defies rational logic, methinks
Rudi... We're running a 17 TRILLION Dollar deficit. Anything else I need to clarify? Now back to our regularly scheduled WCF programming....
BTW Rudi, and this is totally off- topic but goes back to a discussion you and I had a while back about Porches. Just today I saw a 914 with "handicapped plates". I don't think it's unreasonable to take the stance that if you can get in and out of a 914 unassisted all day that you're not handicapped. DMV needs to tighten up those requirements....
Every drop in the bucket helps, dontcha THINK?
Very funny AWM. Try to stay on topic. LOL. I CAN understand however why you'd like to shift the discssion from the one at hand. ;-)P
"Every drop in the Tax bucket helps, dontcha THINK?" I might have agreed years ago Rudi but no more. We're $17 Trillion in debt, much of it to countries who despise our very existence. If I understand your stance correctly it's if we give them MORE money they will get us out of this mess. Our Government can't balance a budget...let alone pass one. It can't stay in the Fiscal Black or control our borders. I'm loathe to give this government anything except my distain (for both sides parties). On your second point I don't know enough about the inner workings of the LDS church to comment.
The ability to get into and exit a vehicle easily is not the only reason someone might be given a handicapped license plate. There are many medical conditions, some of which are not apparent to the eye, to be given the plate.
No, we're not. Fed deficit for first nine months of this fiscal year is $366 billion... and that's down 28% from the previous year. We are NOT " running a 17 Trillion Dollar deficit."
http://online.wsj.com/articles/u-s-budget-deficit-narrows-in-first-nine-months-of-fiscal-year-1405102678
U.S. NATIONAL DEBT CLOCK
Q: What is the difference between the Debt and the Deficit?
A: The National Debt is the total amount of money owed by the government; the federal budget deficit is the yearly amount by which spending exceeds revenue. Add up all the deficits (and subtract those few budget surpluses we've had) for the past 200+ years and you'll get the current National Debt.
U.S. National Debt Clock FAQ
Yup. And AWM claimed above we are running a $17 trillion deficit. He meant I think debt, but it's important to note such inadvertant misstatements because they tend to get picked up and rattle around tge Interwrb as fact.
Dang! You are of course correct Rudi. The correct word is "debt" and my point is still as long as this country is $17Trillion in debt you won't see a penny returned by our government to the citizens even if the churches property was taxed.
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