Mormon Welfare Model Not A Cure-All

Suppose the United States junked its welfare culture, the breeding ground for human dependency and social decay. No more disincentives to work. No more cash incentives to have babies. No more manipulation of the courts and Congress to enforce the pathetic “right” to a handout. No more cold, secular bureaucracies that distribute cash in lieu of kindness, paperwork in lieu of guidance toward a behavior change.

To build a better system, Americans need a successful model. Few are more intriguing than the system operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

As explained in a report by The Spokesman-Review’s Kelly McBride on Sunday, Mormons care for their own with a systematic program that some politicians hold out as a model for the nation’s future. Mormon aid addresses every aspect of a needy person’s predicament. In a confidential manner that preserves dignity, Mormon bishops interview members in need of aid, provide financial advice, call on relatives for help, offer basic foods and supplies produced at low cost by Mormon farms and factories, organize child care and require recipients to work for the church in exchange for the aid while getting back on their feet. At the same time, the church’s religious programs press for behavioral changes that may be a part of a complete solution.

If other religious groups cared similarly for their own, demands on government welfare would be reduced. But the Mormon program is unique and is funded by an unusually firm demand for support. Church members are expected to pay a 10 percent tithe plus an additional sum for the welfare program.

According to a current study of religious giving, members of other U.S. denominations give only 2.6 percent of income to their church, a figure that has declined for years. Most churches have chosen not to operate an elaborate social-aid program or to apply the pressure needed to fund it.

Instead, most Americans look to the government - and resent its welfare program as well as the taxes that fund it.

The Mormon approach is constructive. By insisting recipients work, by giving the needed goods instead of cash and by applying guidance and pressure for personal change, the program does offer ideas for reforming welfare, government-style.

But the Mormon approach also has a luxury government programs don’t have: As is their right, of course, Mormon officials decline to aid members who aren’t in good standing with the church.

Somebody - government - has to take the more difficult cases. And our nation’s values step onto a slippery slope when secular political demagogues try to dictate who is and isn’t worthy of humanitarian aid.

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = John Webster/For the editorial board