{"id":66150,"date":"2018-10-09T18:26:48","date_gmt":"2018-10-10T00:26:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=66150"},"modified":"2018-10-09T18:26:48","modified_gmt":"2018-10-10T00:26:48","slug":"a-very-nice-afternoon-in-salt-lake-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2018\/10\/a-very-nice-afternoon-in-salt-lake-city.html","title":{"rendered":"A very nice afternoon in Salt Lake City"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"LDS<\/a>
According to certain critics, we\u2019re not doing enough, and we\u2019re doing it for the wrong reasons, and we\u2019re not doing it well. Okay. Whatever. But we\u2019re DOING something. \u00a0\u00a0(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I had the pleasure and the privilege of speaking to a conference of Latter-day Saint chaplains this afternoon, up in Salt Lake City. \u00a0I\u2019ve done this two or three times before, but not for several years. \u00a0This time, it wasn\u2019t just military chaplains, but also hospice chaplains, police chaplains, chaplains associated with the United States Border Patrol, and so forth.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

My remarks, which addressed the theme \u201cBy Study and Also by Faith,\u201d were of negligible importance.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The next two speakers were Professor Brent Top<\/a>, who recently stepped down as dean of Religious Education at BYU, and Elder Randy Funk<\/a> of the Seventy. \u00a0Professor Top discussed near-death experiences \u2014 a topic to which he has devoted considerable attention and more than one book over the years \u2014 and Elder Funk\u2019s address concentrated on the importance,\u00a0in the scriptures, of pondering. \u00a0They were very enjoyable talks.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I was struck by the fact that, quite independently, all three of us made important use of President Joseph F. Smith\u2019s magnificent \u201cVision of the Redemption of the Dead\u201d (aka Doctrine and Covenants 138)<\/a>, which was received a century ago, on 3 October 1918, and which received such moving attention during the recently concluded October general conference of the Church from President M. Russell Ballard.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The fourth and concluding speaker of this afternoon\u2019s session of the chaplains\u2019 conference was Elder Gary E. Stevenson<\/a>, of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I wish that every member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<\/a> could have heard his remarks.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Referring to the principles that are expressly laid out in the handbook for Latter-day Saint chaplains calling them to minister to those of other faiths with as much energy as they minister to their own, he compared their work to that of LDS Charities<\/a>. \u00a0He cited the Prophet Joseph Smith\u2019s declaration that it is the duty of every member of the Church \u201cto feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to provide for the widow, to dry up the tear of the orphan, to comfort the afflicted, whether in this church, or in any other, or in no church at all, wherever he finds them,\u201d and proceeded to set forth some of what the Church has been doing in terms of humanitarian aid and service for everybody<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I wasn\u2019t able to take notes fast enough.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

He spoke of four basic areas of official Latter-day Saint charitable effort. \u00a0I don\u2019t have the formal titles for them, and don\u2019t have the subheadings that he used, but here they are in approximate form:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \u00a0Dealing with emergencies<\/li>\n
  2. \u201cThe First 1000 Days\u201d (concentrating on infants and their mothers)<\/li>\n
  3. Children in primary school (focusing on school gardens to provide good nutrition for young and crucially developing brains, healthy lunch programs, providing clean water sources [including pure water to be taken home], handwashing stations, etc.)<\/li>\n
  4. Individuals with disabilities (including, notably, mobility [roughly 55,000 wheelchairs distributed annually], vision care, and diabetes prevention)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \u00a0<\/p>\n

    Elder Stevenson has spent a substantial portion of his life in Japan, and he observed that Japanese leaders feel very differently about the Church after seeing its reaction to the 11 March 2011\u00a0T\u014dhoku earthquake (and to the devastating tsunami that resulted from it). \u00a0The Church provided far more volunteers (\u201cby multiples\u201d) in the wake of that disaster than any other organization, including the Red Cross. \u00a0And, while other organizations wrapped up their work fairly quickly and headed home, the Church was still actively helping two years afterwards.<\/p>\n

    \u00a0<\/p>\n

    He spoke about situations in many countries \u2014 including efforts of which I had not heard to help the Rohingya Muslim refugees who are being driven from Myanmar (the former Burma) \u2014 and I wish that I could accurately note all of what he said. \u00a0But I\u2019ll content myself with a final note about vaccinations in Africa and elsewhere.<\/p>\n

    \u00a0<\/p>\n

    Elder Stevenson noted that the Church is partnered with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and UNICEF to vaccinate children. \u00a0(This is part of its \u201cFirst 1000 Days\u201d focus.) \u00a0Those organizations can provide medicines and money, but the Church can provide large amounts of labor that they would find impossible to generate. \u00a0In fact, he said that they\u2019re stunned by the Church\u2019s capacity to mobilize volunteers. \u00a0I wish that I had caught the number of people who have been vaccinated against tetanus alone. \u00a0It was in the many millions. \u00a0Since 1999, tetanus deaths have, if I heard correctly, been reduced from 200,000 per year to 39,000 annually. \u00a0Elder Stevenson remarked that, obviously, 39,000 deaths remains far too high. \u00a0But the number is nearly 85% lower than it was less than two decades ago.)<\/p>\n

    \u00a0<\/p>\n

    There\u2019s still much to do. \u00a0But I loved Elder Stevenson\u2019s remarks, and I love to hear what the Church is doing. \u00a0Members of the Church should be very proud. \u00a0And they shouldn\u2019t hesitate to pitch in<\/a>, whether via additional donations or by volunteering for service missions or in some other way.<\/p>\n

    \u00a0<\/p>\n

    \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    \u00a0 \u00a0 I had the pleasure and the privilege of speaking to a conference of Latter-day Saint chaplains this afternoon, up in Salt Lake City. \u00a0I\u2019ve done this two or three times before, but not for several years. \u00a0This time, it wasn\u2019t just military chaplains, but also hospice chaplains, police chaplains, chaplains associated with the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nA very nice afternoon in Salt Lake City<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    I had the pleasure and the privilege of speaking to a conference of Latter-day Saint chaplains this afternoon, up in Salt Lake City. \u00a0I've\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, 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