Peggy's report from her various friends and contacts around the church:
Tears and fears: LDS letter on same-sex marriage has Mormons talking and listening
Peggy's report from her various friends and contacts around the church:
Tears and fears: LDS letter on same-sex marriage has Mormons talking and listening
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
--Antoine de Saint-Exupery
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."
--Yeats
“True, we [lawyers] build no bridges. We raise no towers. We construct no engines. We paint no pictures - unless as amateurs for our own principal amusement. There is little of all that we do which the eye of man can see. But we smooth out difficulties; we relieve stress; we correct mistakes; we take up other men's burdens and by our efforts we make possible the peaceful life of men in a peaceful state.”
--John W. Davis, founder of Davis Polk & Wardwell
Discussing the Church’s letter on same-sex marriage in a conservative ward
http://www.millennialstar.org/discus...ervative-ward/
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
--Antoine de Saint-Exupery
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."
--Yeats
“True, we [lawyers] build no bridges. We raise no towers. We construct no engines. We paint no pictures - unless as amateurs for our own principal amusement. There is little of all that we do which the eye of man can see. But we smooth out difficulties; we relieve stress; we correct mistakes; we take up other men's burdens and by our efforts we make possible the peaceful life of men in a peaceful state.”
--John W. Davis, founder of Davis Polk & Wardwell
This is how i imagine it went in most wards, at least I hope so. We had our meeting yesterday. The bishop just got up, read the letter, and then invited anyone with concerns or questions to schedule an appointment and hed be happy to talk about it. He then dismissed the meeting. I was kind of bummed, as I had the lesson in teacher's quorum, I wasn't prepared as well as I could have been (the lesson actually turned out great, but not due to me.) and a discussion would have killed some time. Plus, I was going to put some money on who in the ward might be the first to offer an inflammatory opinion both ways (my wife just rolled her eyes at me).Originally Posted by LA Ute
In all seriousness, I hope that a lot of good experiences were had through this.
saw the posts about the size of the homeless population a few pages back, and thought I would chime in because my wife is working on the homeless issue now: SLC has a chronic homeless population of 1800, which is very large. Seattle's is 400. Unclear why it is so large.
Btw, I suspect that the Church's donation to homeless gay youth charity is due to Bill Evans, who recently has retired as the Church's PR spokesman. He has been passionate on this issue, and had been working to establish a shelter for homeless gay youth. He has made it a personal cause since his retirement.
I know one of the people quoted in this story. I was surprised to see that he came out, although I have not spoken with him in over 20 years. It would be interesting to understand his perspective over the years on how all of this has come about.
Interesting. Is the Salt Lake County number so low because it refers only to the unincorporated County? The ABC story says, "In 2005, Utah was home to 1,932 chronically homeless. By April 2015, there were only 178 — a 91 percent drop statewide." Something's off here.
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
--Antoine de Saint-Exupery
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."
--Yeats
“True, we [lawyers] build no bridges. We raise no towers. We construct no engines. We paint no pictures - unless as amateurs for our own principal amusement. There is little of all that we do which the eye of man can see. But we smooth out difficulties; we relieve stress; we correct mistakes; we take up other men's burdens and by our efforts we make possible the peaceful life of men in a peaceful state.”
--John W. Davis, founder of Davis Polk & Wardwell
The number of people who are chronically homeless has got to be an extremely difficult stat to track accurately. Id be curious to know how its done..........people seeking assistance? pan handlers?
Not sure where you get a number of 400 chronic homeless for Seattle. Plenty of shelters each serve more than that many people every day.
The Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness (along with United Way, Downtown Emergency Services Center, and others)
sends out volunteers to count the number of people on the streets without shelter for the annual One Night Count. The count for 2015 was 10,300 people, with 3772 out in the open, the remainder sleeping in shelters, cars, or tent cities for that night. That is not a comprehensive number, and it only counts those people in the more accessible areas of King County. The surrounding areas have even more.
According to the HUD, Washington has 17k+ homeless. Utah has ~3500. We are all pikers compared to California, who boasts 136k+.
Come on up! We have plenty of room left on our sidewalks and under overpasses and in front of our small businesses. But don't dawdle. It's a land rush and it's getting crowded outside.
One thing I have learned in a long life: that all our science, measured against reality, is primitive and childlike -- and yet it is the most precious thing we have.
--Albert Einstein
The fact that life evolved out of nearly nothing, some 10 billion years after the universe evolved out of literally nothing, is a fact so staggering that I would be mad to attempt words to do it justice.
--Richard Dawkins
Be kind to all, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle.
--Philo
Ok. I misunderstood what my wife told me. Salt Lake provides emergency shelter for 1800 homeless through the Road Home etc. Seattle 400, Chicago 150. SLC tries to get them off the streets, other cities have concluded that they cant do that effectively, so they limit the number o persons in a shelter and basically let them fend for themselves in a park, under a bridge, etc. Dont attempt to provide the services that SLC attempts.
One other article about the Housing First program:
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/...elessness-utah
"We got together and decided we needed Lloyd Pendleton," Minkevitch said.
Pendleton was then an executive manager for the LDS Church Welfare Department, and he had a reputation for solving difficult managerial problems both in the United States and overseas. He'd also been involved in helping out with homeless projects in Salt Lake City, organizing volunteers, and donating food from the Bishop's Storehouse. Dedicated to providing emergency and disaster assistance around the world as well as supplying basic material necessities to church members in need of assistance, the Church Welfare Department is like a large corporation in itself. It has 52 farms, 13 food-processing plants, and 135 storehouses. It also makes furniture like mattresses, tables, and dressers. If you're a member of the church and you lose your job, your house, and all your money, you can go to your bishop and he'll give you a place to live, some food, some money, and set you up with a job…no questions asked. All you have to do in return is some community service and try to follow the teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith. A system very much like Housing First—give them what they need, then work on their problems.
First traditional marriage. Now traditional scout mastering.
One might argue this is returning to traditional scout mastering - but it isn't like I've read BP's biography or anything. (And for the record I am kidding - although he would leave his wife for long periods of time to spend in the woods with his assistant scout master...)
One interesting note about the discussion in my ward. One lady who moved here from Mexico shared a story from her past, as well as a warning about the use of the word 'tolerance'.
When she first moved to the US with her family, many/most people smiled and were very kind to her face. But many of the rental properties said 'No Mexicans'.
The people seemed to treat her with respect and pretended to be nice. But the truth is, they merely 'tolerated' her.
She warned that we shouldn't merely 'tolerate' the lgbt people in our community, but must instead show a Christ-like love for them and avoid judging them based on something that can't be changed or 'cured'. Her point was the idea of 'tolerance' can still be a smiling form of bigotry.
(Hopefully the belief that people can 'catch the gay' or 'be cured from the gay' was buried last week with BKP. The already removed his talk and pamphlet, "To The One", from the LDS.org archives)
Last edited by NorthwestUteFan; 07-13-2015 at 11:20 PM.
Kind of reminds me of the way we tolerate you here. I'll try to be better.
(I kid, of course.)
Last edited by LA Ute; 07-14-2015 at 11:13 AM.
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
--Antoine de Saint-Exupery
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."
--Yeats
“True, we [lawyers] build no bridges. We raise no towers. We construct no engines. We paint no pictures - unless as amateurs for our own principal amusement. There is little of all that we do which the eye of man can see. But we smooth out difficulties; we relieve stress; we correct mistakes; we take up other men's burdens and by our efforts we make possible the peaceful life of men in a peaceful state.”
--John W. Davis, founder of Davis Polk & Wardwell
This is an old report, but worth revisiting in light of recent conversations in this thread:
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