It’s Time for the LDS Church to Use Its Rainy Day Fund

Members were shocked several years ago to learn the LDS church had investments valued at over $32 billion dollars, a number that has since grown to over $56 billion. Were they a church or a corporation? An organization with a mission to alleviate suffering or one to build wealth? LDS leaders insisted they were responsible stewards saving up for a rainy day.

Is it raining yet?

Religion and politics have become ever more conflated in recent years, and a great many LDS voters feel that the righteous only vote Republican. Rather than cooperate with Democrats or, God forbid, socialists, they’d rather debate the use of the name “Mormon.”

Do we need to change the name of the Mormon cricket?  

Many LDS voters last year chose President Trump. Many LDS members this year and for at least the next four are going to need financial assistance.

A week after the new president was sworn in, Medicaid funding across the nation stopped. Temporarily restarting funding won’t prevent the next impact. We’ll see them one after another from now on.

Whatever the personal politics of members, LDS bishops have been stingy with financial assistance for decades. We all know folks who have faced unexpected bills, the death of a breadwinner, an unexpected layoff, a broken water pipe, or some other individual disaster.

We increasingly know LDS folks who’ve had their entire communities destroyed by hurricanes or wildfires.

And yet LDS bishops are consistently loathe to offer assistance. Perhaps they’ll offer a few dollars for a month or two. And they almost always insist the member do extra volunteer work at church to “earn” that assistance, while the member is already struggling with enormous pressures. It’s difficult for anyone receiving this assistance not to feel stressed and humiliated.

I grew up volunteering once a month at the local Bishop’s Storehouse, where members who stopped by to pick up food would often slink in, trying not to be spotted by the volunteers who knew them.

An LDS friend of forty years is schizophrenic. It took decades for her to be diagnosed, and during those years, most of her LDS friends abandoned her because of increasingly problematic behavior. She lost job after job, was eventually forced to live in her car. She had no family to turn to.

When she was finally diagnosed and put on medication, her life became possible once more.

But what happens if spending cuts under the new administration mean she can no longer receive her medication without paying the full price? She makes minimum wage. Even now, when there’s a delay in getting her prescription refilled, I can hear the difference in her voice.

“When did you stop taking your meds?” I’ll ask.

“Oh, two weeks ago, but they’re supposed to arrive any day.”

If she misses her medication for much longer than that, her disease makes it difficult for her to believe she even needs medication again. Her life could spiral out of control quickly.

Her bishop is the only person she can turn to in these difficult times. Will he be there for her?

There are thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of other LDS members in similar financial situations. Are we going to stand with them when they need us?

Or will we hear crickets?

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints cricket.

The LDS church has an enormous rainy day fund. It’s raining. We need to start using that fund immediately and help those who need us.

Or, if church leaders don’t want to give up any of their money, perhaps they could give up those teachings that keep their followers voting for candidates who inflict so much pain and suffering on their fellow man in the first place.