Question
Gramps,
Does the LDS church help people with money situations if the person is not LDS?
Sara
Answer
Sara,
The LDS Church has many methods to help people who are struggling. When there is a natural disaster the church does send out much in humanitarian aid and volunteers to the affected area. In those cases all you need to be is a victim of such a disaster to receive assistance. It does not matter if those people are a member of the LDS Church or not.
That is the large scale. For the individual and individual families, the Church teaches people to be self reliant. For each individual to hold the responsibility to take care of themselves and their dependents. The church will do nothing to remove that responsibility or allow a person to shift it off themselves and on to the Church. But the Church also recognizes that people do occasionally run into problems that overwhelm them. In those cases the Church also has a program. This program is where the members fast for one day a month and then donate the money that would have been spent on food to the Church to help others. These funds can be used to help anyone at the local Bishop’s discretion.
The Bishop holds the responsibility for the wise use of fast offering funds. Any individual who wishes church assistance will need to talk to the Bishop of their local area. The bishop will ask questions and try to understand the needs of anyone that comes to talk to him. The bishop will then try to figure out the best way to return that person to self-reliance. Some times the answer is cash, other times it could be with food, still other times it could be a referral to someone else. Sometimes it can be all three. There will be some times that no help is given (as harsh as that sounds). One of the things a Bishop will also have to consider is the amount of fast offering funds he has available to work with. If his funds are already used to help others, then his ability to help with funds can be strictly limited.
So Sara to answer your question, yes there is a program that the LDS church has in place that can help both its members and non-members financially. However it is limited and controlled by the Bishop who has the burden of deciding if and how to help for both members and non-members alike.
Gramps
