Today’s guest post comes to us from Karin Olson of Huntsville, Texas.
Yesterday I cast my vote for Barack Obama for president on the first day of early voting in Huntsville, Texas, wishing I lived in a swing state. I see him as the candidate who is most in touch with real people, their needs, and who shares my sense of accountability toward one another and collective well-being. I value these traits largely because of my family upbringing, devout Mormon faith, and my training and life experience as a physician.
As members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:
1) We read in the Book of Mormon (Mosiah 4:16-21):
“. . .ye yourselves will succor those that stand in need of your succor; ye will administer of your substance unto him that standeth in need; and ye will not suffer that the beggar putteth up his petition to you in vain, and turn him out to perish.
Perhaps thou shalt say: The man has brought upon himself his misery; therefore I will stay my hand, and will not give unto him of my food, nor impart unto him of my substance that he may not suffer, for his punishments are just-
But I say unto you, O man, whosoever doeth this the same hath great cause to repent; and except he repenteth of that which he hath done he perisheth forever, and hath no interest in the kingdom of God.
For behold, are we not all beggars? Do we not all depend upon the same Being, even God, for all the substance we have, for both food and raiment, and for gold, and for silver, and for all the riches which we have of every kind?
And behold, even at this time, ye have been calling on his name, and begging for a remission of your sins. And has he suffered that ye have begged in vain? Nay; he has poured out his Spirit upon you, and has caused that your hearts should be filled with joy, and has caused that your mouths should be stopped that ye could not find utterance, so exceedingly great was your joy.
And now, if God, who has created you, on whom you are dependent for your lives and for all that ye have and are, doth grant unto you whatsoever ye ask that is right, in faith, believing that ye shall receive, O then, how ye ought to impart of the substance that ye have one to another.”
2) We read in the Bible (Matthew 25:40):
“. . .Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, my brethren [/sisters/fellow humanity], ye have done it unto me.”
3) We revere Joseph Smith as the prophet of the restoration of Christ’s church, who said that we are “to 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. . .”
4) We follow a living prophet today, Thomas Monson, who said: “My brothers and sisters, we are surrounded by those in need of our attention, our encouragement, our support, our comfort, our kindness-be they family members, friends, acquaintances, or strangers. We are the Lord’s hands here upon the earth, with the mandate to serve and to lift His children. He is dependent upon each of us.”
While I recognize the value of individual service to those in need, I am painfully aware of the gross inadequacy of these gestures of kindness and generosity toward our brothers and sisters in distress. I believe for the collective good, our world will be a better place when our government and other governments the world over support the vulnerable with access to education, opportunity, health care, and basic needs.
I have seen too much heartache to think any other way. My faith and profession have opened my eyes to this reality. I have found opportunities to serve when our service at least partly solved a problem-preparing meals to families coping with serious illness, cleaning up the disaster of a burned mobile home, inviting a family displaced by a hurricane’s power outage to live with our family for 2 weeks. While we did not cure the illness or replace the home, we assisted with feeding a hungry, busy family, helped another at least clean up a huge mess, and provided temporary lodging with air-conditioning and safe water.
I have discovered other situations when our generous service would never be enough–visiting a young single mother who was out of money and baby formula, knowing an illegal immigrant family seeking a better future for their children, and treating a 65year old woman who had been recently diagnosed with and was now dying of metastatic colon cancer after she waited until turning 65 and Medicare-eligible to seek medical attention for rectal bleeding that started 18 months earlier because she had no health insurance. For these problems, all of our efforts to serve others as our Savior Jesus Christ has admonished us to do, would never be enough. We need a government that values the lives of the vulnerable, “the least of these” Christ spoke of, enough to create a safety net for them to survive the challenges of life.
We sing: “I would be my brother’s keeper, I would learn the healer’s art.
To the wounded and the weary, I would show a gentle heart.
I would be my brother’s keeper. Lord, I would follow thee.”
I really appreciate what you say here, Karin. Our Ann Arbor ward recognizes that not all people have access to a loving family, a supportive church community, food and shelter, adequate health care. Our Relief Society president, bishop, and compassionate service director got together to donate paper products (tampons, paper towels, and diapers are not covered by food stamps) and food from the cannery to our local women’s resource center.
I think we Mormons have a tendency to think that people should (and can) take care of “their own.” It’s hard for us to imagine folks to don’t have anyone to “share one another’s burdens.” Many of the women who’ve been helped by this donation are middle-class, college-educated with children. They are normal people who thought that divorce, domestic violence, unemployment, homelessness would never happen to them.
Obama recognizes our interdependency. Few of us are as self-sufficient as we imagine.
Great post! You will soon be a swing state so be patient and keep voting.
Thanks for your healer insights. As a nurse I see what you see and agree that we need a safety net that can best be provided to all through the government. After all our Constitution mandates the government to provide for the General Welfare of the People.
I am also a firm believer of doing everything we can to help our fellow man. I don’t believe there is anything noble about coercing individuals to give to charities. I’m not voting for Pres. Obama again. Not because I take issue with government offering welfare services to those truly in need, but because I believe that we have given and wasted too much as a country, to the point that we cannot afford to continue on the same course. I believe the same principles govern macro and micro economics. For instance, if I have been wasteful with my money to the point of putting most expenses on a credit card and just barely scraping by, it would be irresponsible of me to take on NEW expenses. The responsible thing would be to get my finances in order so that I can meet my own basic needs and then help others. I don’t doubt that Pres. Obama’s heart is in the right place. I don’t doubt that Mitt Romney’s heart is in the right place. I do have doubts, given the 4 years of budgeting shortfalls, that Pres. Obama is capable of getting our finances in order as a country.
Thank you, Karin. My daughter is determined to be a surgeon and has taken the healthcare issue to heart, both as a spiritual commitment and as a logical investment in our workforce. Our family cast our first democrat votes ever for Obama this in 2008, and we will repeat that this year. Obama has kept his promise to address our healthcare-for-profit scheme and even though it is not ideal (we have not yet achieved the much higher health-results found in nations that have single payer or national health) we are making progress that 2 generations of presidents only wished for but could not deliver. I am tired of any excuses to exploit people at their most vulnerable. We should never have allowed insurance companies to profit at the expense of the sick.
As I am in finance and energy, my vote was also a vote (then and now) for more equitable tax policies on energy: the day we have BTU translation of all the energy legislation is the day that renewable energy projects will finally be able to access oil and gas’s favorable tax treatment embedded permanently in the tax code. I’m tired of competing with fossil projects that can offer their investors permanent tax shelter of revenues.
I am for this president because he is for the middleclass, sane energy tax policy, and non-predatorial healthcare policy. It is very simple for me.
Thank you for articulating your position so well. It will help me explain to my Mormon friends why I’m not voting for a former stake president, a concept they have difficulty grasping.
Dear Karin, As a psychologist who has worked in healthcare for most of my life, I’ve seen many people who will never be able to care entirely for themselves. In fact, who among us, can even come close to doing so? We all need the services that a beneficent government can provide and dammit, we have the resources as a country to offer more than we do. This is all by way of saying “thank you,” Karin, for your courage and clarity in calling us all to be more compassionate and, yes, to vote for Mr. Obama with the hope that he’ll have the courage to fight for a just and compassionate government as well. Your Aunt Marilyn is proud of you!
Amen toMayaLynn: “Few of us are as self-sufficient as we imagine.” And if we think we are, we have probably received a few breaks along the way…and not just by our own smarts and /or diligence. And can I have another amen (I’m from Texas) from Marilyn: “and dammit, we have the resources as a country to offer more than we do.” It is really hard to look in the face of a person who shouldn’t be dying, and think this is the land of opportunity it should be. I know we do not have limitless resources, but I have seen too much heartache to accept what we have now. Maybe I’m a radical because even Obamacare is just a start. I could go on about an uninsured mother of 4 dying of heart failure at 38 years old and ineligible for a transplant. Or the 14-year old teenager without adequate resources who died of thyrotoxicosis. We are better than this, my friends.
Thank you for this thoughtful post.
The Lord’s plan and the gospel of Jesus Christ is all about giving us the freedom to choose and how we will act with that freedom. The problem with government mandating and controlling is that is takes away our ability to be stewards over our own resources and decisions. With Obama’s plan and government mandates, I have less freedom and less resources to be able to CHOOSE good. The war in heaven was a war between freedom to choose good or just be forced to do so under Satan’s plan. Under the current administration I am being forced to do good according to the governments interpretation of good and not my own. The Lord wants us to be agents for good and not compelled to do so by law. Charity by choice is the Lord’s plan and charity by force is Satan’s plan. Which candidate do you believe will give you MORE FREEDOMS to choose to do good according to your own agency? Will you be more blessed by paying higher taxes and calling it charity, or by paying less in taxes and using your agency to give more to others in need?
well stated,suzy.
America is a democracy. Charitable acts carried out based upon our own desire to serve will always be needed. Electing government officials who support providing services which are beyond charity’s providing capacity is still a democracy. We are not FORCED by this type of government, we are protected, and we have the right to vote. I want more freedom for more people to experience “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” and real opportunity. As long as we CHOOSE to live here and CHOOSE who to vote for, we are free.
Karin, I am from Huntsville too.. I canceled your vote out this morning. How anyone could vote for Obama is beyond me. A president that increased the national debt by 5 TRILLION dollars! More than any president in history! Wow you voted for that!
John; please look at President Bush’s record. He started two wars with no way to pay for them, and reduced revenues by cutting taxes for the wealthiest Americans. President Obama inherited a mess; it’s unrealistic to expect President Obama to clean it all up in four years. It always takes longer to clean up a mess than it does to make it. If Mitt Romney is elected, the president after him is going to have one h—- of a mess to clean up!
Suzy, perhaps you could look at it a different way. Much of the first world considers it a government resposibility to provide healthcare and a social safety net, for its citizens, just like roads, education, water, defence etc. Is a road more important than a social safety net, or universal health care? The political devide often comes down to whether it is better to take care of individuals, who can then spend and be customers for business, or whether government should help business who will then employ or invest. Should you provide universal health care, or subsidize business?
I live in Australia, where we have these things, and in fact, it costs less for example, to have universal health care here than your system costs. There is debate here because the government is making cuts to ensure they achieve a ballanced budget. We have whats called a baby bonus. When a child is born the mother gets a payment from the government of $5000 to help with the expenses. The cuts are to reduce it to $3000 for suceeding children after the $5000 for the first. Each year before the school year starts there is a payment of $500 for primary school and $800 for high school kids to help with expenses. These were started to boost the economy when the GFC struck (rather than giving to business, banks etc) and have continued.
Why would you feel less free if you do not have to worry about medical expenses, or have a social safety net in case of divorce, unemployment, single parenthood etc? This idea that you are loosing your agency when the government provides a service is percularly conservative USA, we do not hear it here. Do you feel your agency threatened by the government providing a road system, or any other service?
The Gospel works just as well here. We do wonder about conferenc/ensign stories of mothers having to work because their husband dies or leaves, and how the welfare of the child is different than with a stay at home mum. As the original blog says, creating a caring society is the gospel message.
Countries where the difference between the rich and the poor is least are the better places to live, because the less divided you are the more cohesive you feel (like a zion society). America has moved further away from best practice since the 1960s. I believe Romneys vision is to widen the divide.
We still have charities and opportunities to help those less fortunate.
@John, you mean you voted for the guy with many of the same advisors and many of the same policies as Bush, the guy that took a budget surplus and in eight years created the biggest deficit hole in our country’s history? The guy that started a war based on mistaken assumptions (5k dead soldiers, 2 TRILLION dollars and counting)? You voted for the guy with the same advisors and policies as Bush, the guy who cut taxes for the rich (without offsetting them), passed an unfunded drug program (that is costing taxpayers billions as a giveaway to drug companies), passed TARP (to bail out Wall Street)? You voted for the guy that parks his money offshore to avoid taxes? That guy? I can see that your voting is clearly diven by an unwavering committment to fiscal conservatism (laughing).
Seriously though, I’ll stick with the guy that’s doing a pretty good job of digging us out of the hole that the last Republican created.
Thank you for a great article. You might want to read mine: ‘Why This Mormon is Voting for Obama,’ at http://www.speakwithoutinterruption.com/site/2012/10/why-this-mormon-is-voting-for-president-obama-2//
“A government big enough to give you everything you want is strong enough to take every thing you have.” For those who are LDS you need to read Ezra Taft Benson’s talk in October 1961 pp. 69 – 75 on the importance of freedom in this country.