What Our Churches are saying about refugees

[Calm]

Since the other thread that was asking about why refugees were being discussed so much in church context (after the Women's Session of Conference) has been completely hijacked, I thought I would start a new one solely delegated to what is being taught across the pulpit, especially about what we can do and how we should behave.  Feel free to add your experiences if you are not LDS, even for not religious sources if it is about interacting with and responding to the needs of others in positive ways.  

I will start by sharing a recent posting on from the Mormon Newsroom from a leader who I have the highest respect for:

https://www.lds.org/church/news/40-ways-to-help-refugees?lang=eng

[Jeanne]

Good points there for all genders and people of all faiths.

[Calm]

https://www.lds.org/church/news/viewpoint-help-the-refugees-among-us?lang=eng

From Conference:

https://www.lds.org/church/news/sister-burton-i-was-a-stranger?lang=eng

Will contribute conversation after errands.  

Will be forceful in asking mods to ban those who go off topic, you who want to already have a thread for that.

[carbon dioxide]

I would like to help out more but in least in terms of money, I am tapped out.  I am struggling with the tithing part.

[Calm]

Very few of the first link's suggestions require money.

[Calm]

Thought some might be interested:

http://www.neylanmcbaine.com/2016/03/response-to-womens-session-relief-society-as-relief-organization.html

Response To Women's Session: Relief Society As Relief Organization

"On November 12, 2015, I spoke at a symposium at Utah State University entitled, "Mormon Women, Authority and Leadership," sponsored by the school's Department of Religious Studies and the Center for Women and Gender Studies. In my remarks, printed below, I reexamined the Relief Society's two founding mandates - to "relieve the poor" and "save souls" - and I attempted to evaluate how our women's organization of today fares in meeting those mandates. I engaged in a thought exercise in which I imagined the Relief Society of today (re)gaining ecclesiastical authority over the Church's welfare efforts, the effects of which I dream as being widespread as it would give the women's organization institutional authority in an area that is already built into its namesake mandate.

At the time of my presentation, it seemed like a far fetched exercised with far fetched, imagined results. But on Saturday night, at the general Women's Session of conference, that far fetched vision seemed to take a giant leap toward reality. While it might be some time before the Relief Society takes over the ecclesiastical and managerial administration of the Church's Welfare Department, the spirit of our namesake mandate was stronger than I've ever experienced it in my life. The creation of a new section on LDS.org, I Was A Stranger, although not sponsored outright by the Relief Society, clearly speaks to women from our sister leaders. My heart was so full on Saturday as I participated in the meeting with my mother, mother-in-law and daughters, and a a hushed reverence uncommon in the huge Conference Center fell over all as the remarkable multinational choir sang its opening song. I pray it is the beginning of the unfolding of a remarkable vision of what Relief Society and women's authority can truly be."

[deli_llama]

I can't add any links or quotes, but I sure appreciate you sharing them. I am making my way slowly through them. 

I can add what Jacob and Hugh had to say. In a weird twist of fate, I had prepared some thoughts concerning Passover for some friends, and I tucked away to share as part of it. 

I find hope in calls serve like this.  Maybe we will gain a true thirst for Zion.  What we should do, how we should behave.

"And it came to pass that I, Jacob, began to be old; and the record of this people being kept on the other plates of Nephi, wherefore, I conclude this record, declaring that I have written according to the best of my knowledge, by saying that the time passed away with us, and also our lives passed away like as it were unto us a dream, we being a lonesome and a solemn people, wanderers, cast out from Jerusalem, born in tribulation, in a wilderness, and hated of our brethren, which caused wars and contentions; wherefore, we did mourn out our days." Jacob 11:26. 

“The first thing the Israelites are to do when they have settled in their new land is to fill a basket with firstfruits, the first gifts of the land, and bring it to the priest, who sets it before the altar; then they are to recite these verses: "A Syrian ready to perish was my father, and he went down into Egypt, and sojourned there with a few, and became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous: and the Egyptians evil entreated us, and afflicted us, and laid upon us hard bondage. We called upon the Lord . . . and he heard us. . . . He brought us forth out of the land of Egypt . . . with signs and wonders, and he brought us to this place and gave us the land, a land flowing with milk and honey" (Deuteronomy 26:5-9).  Why a Syrian or Aramaean? Why was he also called "Abraham the Hebrew"? All of those words denote a displaced person, a vagabond, a starving wanderer, a homeless outcast moving among wicked and haughty people. It was from such a condition, "ready to perish," that God raised them up. The great gathering and feasts, whose strict observance makes up such an important part of the old law, all have the same purpose, to remind the Israelites that everything they had was a free gift from God. In holding these solemn conferences, "you and yours—sons, daughters, servants, . . . strangers, orphans, widows must all come together and rejoice and be happy," as one big happy family. That is the spirit in which this must be done, and that is the spirit of the law of consecration and the United Order. "Remember that thou wast a bondman in Egypt"—if some are slaves, all are slaves. This is to show where we stand with each other and the Lord. Thus in the Feast of the Tabernacles at the harvest, all must share, all rejoice together as one family, "thou and thy son and thy daughter, and thy manservant and thy maidservant, and the Levite, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow that are within thy gates," for seven days in the appointed place. Three times a year, all males come together before Jehovah at an appointed place for the feasts of (1) unleavened bread, (2) weeks, and (3) tabernacles. And they must never come empty-handed: "Every man shall give as he is able, [that is,] according to the blessing of the Lord thy God, which he hath given thee" (Deuteronomy 16:11-17)." Hugh Nibley, from Approaching Zion. 

Edited April 5, 2016 by deli_llama

[canard78]

It seems I got booted out of the other thread for being a bit too energetic in my defence of refugees. 

I was delighted to hear that this had been this topic was addressed directly in conference. 

It's a shame that there are some people on the Mormon spectrum who are responding cynically to this. 

On the one hand I've read xenophobic but active Mormons qualifying (or even disqualifying) what has been said in the talk and have also read exmormons calling this a cynical bandwagon project to gain attention and membership. I reject both extremes and instead celebrate the church's involvement at all.