Spotted this on TBM husbands desk. New outreach to feed hungry people in this area with clearly stated goals to improve their Morman image, join with other churches, etc. is this a national thing? actually seems like a good idea to help non LDS as long as it doesn't turn into recruitment campaign. They already have a lot of poor investigators who are needy, need transportation to church, etc. they are hurting for middle class income families from what I can see.

There is a post on Steve Bloor's blog about the yellow helping hands program that covers this. It is church PR.

After 30+ years of the church's three fold mission, with no mention of doing any good in the world, they then add that as an afterthought. The ONLY reason the church does anything is to be seen. Hence the shirts, etc. Why can't they just do something good to be doing something good?

Obviously it is for recruitment. Recruitment of new members, and "recruitment" of existing members to try to convince them their church does good in the world. Yes, only a tiny bit, but they can blow that up in to something much larger.

They don't help their own members, many of whom have paid tithes for decades.

Feeding the hungry is just another one of their bait-and-switch recruitment ploys.

Mormons come across as so very caring when they target people for conversion.
But after baptism the cultish demands for free work and money start.

Wellllll... Who exactly said that they "fed the hungry?" They, themselves, said that? Or others? Or newspapers being fed information from the church PR dept? It all matters. If, say, the hungry were to come out and say, "You know, them Mormons are always feeding us!," I'd feel better about the statement. But so far I have yet to see that. I've known a few LDS individuals to help feed the homeless. But I've also known a few LDS individuals to be "corrected" by their priesthood leaders for feeding the homeless. The Mormon church is not one to feed the homeless. In the eyes of the Mormon church and, indeed, many individual Mormons, the homeless are icky losers who are in their situation only because they want to be.

Anon just in case Wrote:
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... as long as it doesn't turn into recruitment
> campaign...!!!
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Is there any program of the mormon church that doesn't eventually smack of recruitment?

Actually, They "fed me" alot during my teens, and beyond. For years, I was fed dogma(BS)

Many years ago here in the UK I attended a wedding at a stake house. When we all exited for the photos, before the couple headed off to the temple for the mumbo jumbo, we encountered a homeless man and all he owned by the steps where the photo session was planned. The man was cold and obviously hungry. Being aware that there was a pile of food left over inside I remonstrated with the goons that were trying to evict this man, telling them that it would be charitable to feed him, clean him up and warm him inside in a private area where he would be both out of the way and cared for.

I cannot express my disgust at the goons' response. The poor man was chased away without a crumb and I'm afraid I lost my temper somewhat, which earned me a severe reprimand and 'corrective' talk back in my own ward.

That was my first realisation of the mormon view on charity.

Briggy