Our local paper had a news article today reporting that local Mormon congregations were planning a "day of service" on July 24 - an important day for Mormons.

They are going to clean up cemeteries, paint playground equipment and pick up garbage in parks.

A church spokesman said, according to the article:

“It’s important to serve because that’s what Jesus Christ would have done.”

I didn't know that Christ was in favor of painting play equipment and cleaning up cemeteries. I always thought he wanted his followers to feed the poor and minister to the sick. No local Mormons are manning food kitchens or providing housing for the homeless. They let the Salvation Army or the Methodists do that.

The projects listed are pretty self serving. Their children wore the paint off the play equipment and ran through the cemetery like hoodlums and if they picked up after themselves at the park, there wouldn't be any litter.

Interesting that LDS congregations are doing those service projects with media coverage while LDS ward sponsored Eagle Scout projects have quietly downgraded to cleaning out someone's garage.

Sadly, this is all part of the "We're just plain better than you are" campaign.

Every hour spent during a service day
Every hour of Sunday School teaching
Every hour of home teaching
Every hour spent cleaning the church
Every dollar extracted through tithing, etc.
Etc. Etc. Etc.

It all gets tallied so they can make their annual press release that Mormons are flowing over with volunteerism and are the most charitable, giving folks in the land. Never mind that virtually all of these tasks are assigned, and it's understood there will be both temporal and eternal consequences for shirking.

http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/mormon-volunteerism-report
http://americamagazine.org/issue/5136/columns/mormons-and-charity

Ironically, their continually boasting of their good works (through press releases, no less!) is more evidence that they have no actual connection to real Christian faith at all.

“Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven. So when you give to the poor, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be honored by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.” Matthew 6:1-2

Think this may cover press releases?

Former Mormons have a role in setting the record straight. Perhaps we can be more bold, better prepared, and better informed, but we see Mormons and Mormonism for what they are. We know them best!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/24/2014 03:30AM by gentlestrength.

Bet they'll all be wearing bright yellow 'Helping Hands' shirts too. Got to be seen doing good.

I'm sure they will have tee shirts and camera crews. They own the media in Utah.

Mormons don't get a break. Here's a nice day off for the whole family in the middle of the week, in the middle of the summer, and the Mormons don't want their sheep to relax. IMO, I think the Mormons are tightening their strangle hold on the members, under the assumption that fear and intimidation keeps a group more cohesive than fun and games.

What do parks, playgrounds, and cemeteries have in common? They are all outdoors and visible, and there will be a lot of people there during the holiday. No one sees the scouts cleaning the garage, no one (no one who counts) sees the servers inside the soup kitchen, or the people cooking dinners for the elderly, and little things like that.

Most real charity work is face-to-face, and hands on, and usually not carried out by a big, loud group of show-offs. I pick up litter where I hike all the time, but I'm just one person. Next time, I'll bring a group and a camera, and alert the media.

We risk being too cynical and thus ignored as never happy moaners. For most this work is well intentioned, for the leaders it is a PR exercise.

From a PR response point if view we need to acknowledge the good that this work does but then place it in context of what more could the church really could do if it wanted to...It's a great step in the right direction, the church has access to billions some of which could improve xyz if it chose to direct that funding away from financial investments in coca cola or malls and into social welfare programmes. This then reframes the effort in the context of an inverse widows mite, you gave peanuts but had billions?

It's one day out of the year, and let's not forget, mormon meeting houses and temples are not available for use by the public. While they are cleaning the cemeteries, will they be taking names for their house of handshakes?

What gets me about Pioneer Day is that it is a holiday for MORMONS...not EVERYONE in Utah. AND...if Pioneer Day falls on a Sun...you can forget all the "fun" Pioneer Day Activities...it's just another church day...as is Easter..

I think it's funny how Mormons think that the hungry are only hungry when the cameras are on them. Listen up Mormons people are hungry every day. People in need are in need 365 days a year not just when the cameras are on.