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Outline
Why
I Went There
How
to Get There
About
the Tour
The
Welfare Plan
Conclusions
While in Salt Lake City for the Libertarian National Convention, one place I wanted to visit was the Bishop's Storehouse. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (commonly called Mormons, although they seem to prefer LDS as a short form) has established a welfare system that does not depend on the use of force. FNF member Craig Springer and I wanted to see if this was possible and how it worked.
Although the LDS is secretive about some parts of their religion (non-members of LDS may not go inside their Temple), they are eager to help outsiders learn more about most aspects of their religion. The Bishop's Storehouse in Salt Lake City is a little hard to find because an interstate highway was placed between Temple Square (where most outreach efforts are centered) and the Storehouse. So if you want to visit the Storehouse, merely ask at one of the service desks in Temple Square, and they will send a van over to pick you up and bring you back.
Usually the tour begins with a film that explains the Bishop's Storehouse, but we happened to arrive just as the leaders had preempted the theatre for a meeting. After our tour, the meeting was still going on, so we were given a copy of the manual the LDS uses to train its leaders in the Welfare Plan: Providing in the Lord's Way: A Leader's Guide to Welfare.
The tour emphasizes the physical aspects of the Bishop's Storehouse rather than the ideas behind the LDS Welfare plan. The "retail" aspect includes a grocery store, a recently added clothing store, a second-hand store, and an employment office. They attempt to provide to their clients whatever services or goods are needed. Until recently, they even had a barber shop. I believe the second-hand store merchandise is available to Welfare plan clients at no charge (with item by item approval by the Bishop) and to others for the marked price. The grocery store seemed rather small until I realized they carried only one brand and only one size of each item. Also there are no alcohol or tobacco products. There are no convenience foods (no TV dinners or microwave popcorn), just basic foods. Correcting for these factors would make it a sizable operation.
The "wholesale and manufacturing" aspect was quite extensive. A dairy processed milk into both liquid milk and cheese. A cannery processed vegetables. In a separate area, powdered products such as sugar, dried milk, and chocolate were broken down into "retail" size packages. At least 5000 square feet of what looked like manufacturing space, complete with conveyors and workbenches, was devoted to processing donated goods and preparing them for the second-hand store. Items needing repair were pulled aside to a repair workbench. A separate room was set aside for repairing TVs and VCRs.
Many of the people working in the Storehouse are clients of the Welfare Plan. They get the psychological boost of contributing to the help they are receiving and they learn skills that may be useful in getting a job. Some of the workers appeared to be handicapped. The tour guide we had was very friendly and tried to be helpful. Although he was not the ideal person to be answering the philosophical questions we wanted to ask, he did answer many of our other questions for us. The ward is the smallest unit of LDS organization (analogous to a Catholic parish) and the Bishop is the person (I believe always a man) appointed to administer the ward; he is more analogous to a parish priest than to a Catholic Bishop. The Welfare Plan is used to help not just LDS members, but anyone requesting aid. Some of the donations to the Storehouse are in the form of manufacturer's overruns or discontinued merchandise. Some of the milk is from LDS members who are dairy farmers making a contribution of a portion of their production. Milk also comes from farms that are established just to contribute to the Storehouse. While the Storehouse in Salt Lake City is one of the largest, they will exist wherever there are many LDS members. The Welfare Plan is successful in getting about 30 percent of its clients off the plan each year (our guide was apologetic that the number was so low; I assured him it was probably much better than government's results).
Part of the reason the Welfare Plan is able to work is that LDS almost requires contributions to the needy and self-reliance as conditions of membership in the Church. The New Testament is quoted in support of helping the needy. Prophet Joseph Smith in the Doctrine and Covenants said, "And remember in all things the poor and the needy, the sick and the afflicted, for he that doeth not these things, the same is not my disciple" (D & C 52:40). With doctrine that clear-cut, LDS members are expected to help the needy. The Welfare Plan then merely needs to be a conduit for the help. Similarly, self-reliance and shouldering of individual responsibilities is encouraged in many ways: by quotation from the Bible, by quotation from the Mormon additions to the Bible, and by making it a part of the work of most LDS institutions.
Many of the distinctive features of LDS contribute to this: the taboos against alcohol and tobacco, and the encouragement of home storage of basic foodstuffs.
LDS members are encouraged to fast for two meals, one day per month, and to donate to the Storehouse the equivalent to the cost of those two meals. I believe most adult LDS males are members of the Aaronic priesthood; they are given specific tasks in helping the Welfare Plan, such as collecting the fast offering, but also may be asked to help the needy in direct fashion such as home repairs. Likewise, I believe many women will be members of the Relief Society; they are charged with helping the needy become self-reliant.
The primary responsibility for administering the Welfare Plan falls on the Bishop. That may be why even though the Storehouse is formally called the Lord's Storehouse, most people refer to it as the Bishop's Storehouse. He is charged with: seeking out the poor and needy; studying their circumstances; making judgments on the assistance needed; assisting them only with necessities; giving the needy the opportunity to work; keeping needs and assistance confidential; administering the Storehouse; directing other ward welfare resources; using services of LDS welfare operations; helping needy members obtain health care; assisting transients; and coordinating the use of non-LDS services by LDS members. Most other institutions in the LDS Church have responsibilities in the areas of welfare and self-reliance.
If you visit Salt Lake City, try to see the Bishop's Storehouse. You'll find the tour interesting and they are not pushy about proselytizing for the LDS Church.
While, in a secular structure, we would not want to or be able to exert as much social control as the LDS is able to exert over its members and the needy it helps, the Bishop's Storehouse and the Welfare Plan do offer a useful model for a welfare institution that does not use force and yet is able to alleviate suffering and even get people off welfare. D
Annotated Bibliography
The following were used in the preparation of this article:
Providing in the Lord's Way: A Leader's Guide to Welfare. Published by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints; publication 32296; last revision 10/90.
Primary resource for this report; gives instructions in the Welfare Plan for all levels of the Church from individual members on up.
The following were referenced in Providing in the Lord's Way:
The Old Testament: Genesis, Isaiah.
The New Testament: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, 1 Corinthians, 1 Timothy.
The Book of Mormon (LDS additions to the Bible): Mosiah, Nephi.
Doctrine and Covenant (the "contract" between God and LDS members).
Bobby Yates Emory has worked a
career as a programmer and systems analyst at IBM. A longtime libertarian
activist, he has run for offices from County Commissioner to U.S. Senator,
and held political party offices from Precinct Chairman to Regional Representative
to the National Committee.
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