Comments about ‘Utahns head to Gulf; LDS ship tons of aid’

Why do Latter-day Saints always find it so important to make sure and get in the headlines that they are helping with relief to victims of every catastrophe? Would it not be more Christian to make the story about the victims instead of how wonderful the LDS people are in helping out? I know this is an LDS paper and some self praise is to be expected but you always make such a huge issue of doing what every Christian and non-Christian does. Look, you are a very wealthy Church. You claim the name of Christian. It would be a story if you refused to help. Please stop breaking your arms patting yourselves on the back.

LDS to the rescue. Good job folks.

The LDS Church helps others? I thought they isolated themselves from the world and practiced cult like rituals taking advantage of young girls and doing nothing a disciple of Christ would do. Hmmm, Big Love isn't reality? It is amazing how national media and those that love to twist Mormon doctrine fail to recognize the good the LDS church does world-wide, not only for the individual members that live good lives and contribute to society as law abiding citizens, but for those that are not of the LDS faith, especially in times of need such as these. I guess it is not too surprising. As a member of the LDS faith and understanding the fundamental principle of the existence of good and evil, the adversary will always lie and distort the truth when it comes to someone or group of people who advances the cause of the Savior through service and love. "Opposition in all things" reveals the true puppet master (Satan) behind these distortions. And its those individuals who are bitter or, for what ever reason, despise the church that the adversarys designs are in place. Unfortunately, its those individuals who fail to realize true goodness.

I'm not saying the LDS Church never gets good publicity, however, nationally the ratio between good and bad or accurate and inaccurate reporting about the LDS faith is definitely lacking. And not that the Church ever assists those in need for publicity as a true disciple will help others out of love, not for PR. However, it would only be fair for the national media to present the whole story for accuracy instead of picking and choosing. Remember the whole FLDS situation in Texas and how the media made enormous efforts to compare, twist, and warp how the LDS Church might be involved. Again, where is that kind of national attention now, when the LDS Church is actually involved in a story? Of course there are others, besides the LDS, who are assisting and providing aid where necessary. All I am saying is be accurate and give credit where credit is due. And above all, keep up the good work and God bless Texas.

It is nice to see aid from the US staying in the US. People here love to send aid overseas to all the exotic charity cases in the world. We in the United States need to start taking care of our own before we go saving the world!

If there was not a story about the aid given you would complain about the Church NOT helping in emergencies. Much aid is quietly given around the world and the LDS Church is among the first to be there to help.

It is comforting to know the LDS people, as well as other relief organizations are so well prepared. It would be worriesome if we didn't know relief was on its way.

This isn't so much self praise as assuring us that victims are being cared for.
Thank you LDS Humanitarian Services.

To EasternM

Do you hear in the general news of the LDS church's contributions? No! We in the church like to hear what we in the church are doing. We're not patting ourselves on the back we're just keeping up with what we should know about what we should be doing.

re:EasternM "The Church" does not decide what the Deseret News prints. I know that it is owned by the church but the first Presidency does not tell them what to print. I for one have seen first hand the good the humanitarian aid does. Part of the reason it is published is because if we don't say anything than people like you get upset because you think we aren't doing anything. Then if we do then you still get upeset. I just know that the humanitarian efforts are needed and I wish every church out there could do the same!!!!!!!!

easternm;- what have you done lately to cheer someone let alone help someone that is in need?



if you did then I applaude you!

I am sure the church did not ask for any of that, and it would not matter at all.

have some good judgements of what is happenning go do a good turn instead of critizing.

a good day to you

Actually, it is motivating for me to hear about how others are helping someone in need. It is refreshing to hear something else on the news other than only about all of the bad news we are saturated with everyday. Maybe some prefer to hear about all the negative LDS publicity the Church gets, much of which misrepresents what the Latter-day Saints are really about and is completely false. For me, hearing about others helping someone in need never gets old because it makes me want to participate in anyway that I can and gives me hope for the future that as a people it is possible to work together and serve one another despite any differences. Of course, for some, any good news pertaining to the LDS Church is bad news to them because it proves their theories wrong about how the LDS Church is soo bad! Interesting how it is implied that someone is non-Christian because there is an article in the paper that recognizes them for assisting those in need. A true Christian would spend more time helping others in need than they would criticizing those that make an effort to assist those who need help.

Being in tornado alley, you'd be very surprised how much the church actually does and how few people ever hear about it. If you think the leadership of the church is self-promoting, you need to take off the filters and look for the truth. On second thought, my guess is that you're going to believe whatever it is that you want to believe no matter what the facts are.

to:vasse & re:@ 11:29
This week?...
M W F volunteer ( 2 yrs. in...) Hospice Center
Tues...NIL ( National Institue for Literacy) helping adults learn to read and write.
On Board of local Homeless Task Force.
I choose to be anonymous as my Faith requires that whatever work we do for others should be an act of worship, not self glorification. My response to the article was hastily written because I do not like it when Catholics, Baptists or any other organization publicizes what good things they do. I just happened to google "Hurricane Aid" and the DN article came up. I made my point badly. I mean no offense and make no assumption to what the hearts of the givers intentions are. That said, Eternal Father watch over the Hurricane victims. +

To Eastern M,
If you do not want to be offensive than do not accuse others of patting themselves on the back when they are just annoucing what people are doing to help.
If there had ever been an article about people doing something good that had not gotten a sour degrading attacker like you to come out and accuse people of doing things for the wrong reason, than I might believe you.
However anytime there is an article about the church helping and assisting people someone comes on here and makes a comment like yours.
What you fail to realize is the church does hundreds of things that you never hear about. I would rather read an occasional article about aid being sent than have to spend my whole time listening to NPR and their interviews with people who go on and on and on about how there is not enough aid and so on and so forth.

I was offended by your comments and was about to post a heated reply (like the others who fought back) ...... I am glad I read to the end of the comments to get your follow up reply. Thank you for the clarification.

I have a very good Christian friend who is not LDS (I am). He had asked me some months back why he never hears about the aid that the LDS church provides throughout the world. Today, when I read this article I was about to send him a copy of the link so that he could see just one way that the church has provided assistance. I glanced over the comments and read your response. Anyway, the LDS church can't win for losing when it comes to providing assistance. Truth is, they are always there, quick to respond, and not for the glory of it. It's true Christianity in action!

I've been a part of three hurricanes and have personally helped in various relief efforts as part of the "Mormon Helping Hands". I am now a victim of the hurricane and my life and my community have been completely changed by the previous 48-hours' events (I was forced to evacuate). The yellow shirts worn by the Helping Hands are a sign of aid for other people regardless of their religion and beliefs. From my experience, the relief effort given by the members of the LDS church is typically more organized and more effective than many (not all) of the military's relief efforts. The coastal governments utilize these hard-working and friendly volunteers and depend on their assistance. Many vacation days, weekend days, and off-days will be spent by many people (regardless of faith) helping others right their lives. The fact that the Deseret News writes about this is because it directly affects their readership. Don't be so blind, EasternM. Put on your gloves and get to work because I will until all my neigbors' lives are put back together.

EasternM have you done something good for someone? When is the last time you helped someone in need? If you can't remember it has been to long.

Wow teh rabid mormons are certainly out on this one. I thing EasternM had a valid point and he knows way more about you then you of him. You mos that have commetned have made fools of yourselves on this one.
Good luck and make sure yall get some photo ops and send them back to the denews to prove the greatness of the LDS church.

Jedd, I don't see anyone "rabid" on this thread except for you. Even though EasternM started the whole thing with the usual gripe-and-moan about media coverage of Church disaster relief, you're the only one who used any kind of slur or derogatory name. If you abbreviated "Japanese" or "Hebrew" in the same way, you'd see all kinds of public and media outrage.

As for anyone making fools of themselves in the forums, these posts speak for themselves. Especially those that don't have one single constructive thing to say.

If I went to Rome, I would expect to see news stories about the good works done by the Catholic Church. And I would not expect to see the fine people of Italy complaining and making ridiculous anti-Catholic remarks about this media coverage.

I know many people that give money to the church to help during disasters such as this. I'm very glad to hear that that is making a difference to the people who were hit. I am humbled by EasterM's comment, and hope that in the future I in my own life will be more willing to quietly serve those around me in the name of my Savior. Thank you EasterM for your comment.