The Welfare System of the Church

This weekend commemorates the 75th anniversary of the welfare program of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. 

At least one rationale for the welfare program was to provide a way for those who were in need of assistance to make some form of compensation.

"In 1933 the First Presidency announced, "Our able-bodied members must not, except as a last resort, be put under the embarrassment of accepting something for nothing. . . . Church officials administering relief must devise ways and means by which all able-bodied Church members who are in need, may make compensation for aid given them by rendering some sort of service" (in James R. Clark, comp., Messages of the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 6 vols., 5:332–34, cited from http://lds.org/church/news/welfare-services-celebrates-75-years?lang=eng; note that the link provides a general history of the welfare program)

One really amazing part of the program is how the resources that are provided to those in need are collected. The money is donated by members of The Church who join in fasting (going without food and water) for two meals one day per month. In principle the donated money need only come from the cost of the meals that were skipped, but in practice many donate more than that amount. 

This practice is rooted in Biblical direction. The entire 58th chapter of Isaiah speaks to this idea:

6Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?  7Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring thepoor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thineown flesh?

The rewards of the practice include: 

 8¶Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thinehealth shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the Lord shall be thy rereward. 9Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity; 10And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday: 11And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not. 12And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.

The chapter continues to this effect, but this has always impressed me as a simple and elegant model for increasing reverential worship of God while providing for the temporal needs of those in need. Ideally it also helps us to remember that there are people in need so that we can assist when we aren't in need, and receive when we are. If we're in the mode of thinking about these things it can help us extend that beyond temporal necessities also.