Good morning all y'all.  How are things?  I see fall is well under way.  Fall is my second favorite season of the year, tracking behind spring.  How were your general conference weekend experiences?

Hey Tom, pretty good, huh?  A drive up the canyon, a picnic, and a campfire?  That sounds pretty good.

How about you Tammy?  You caught the first 15 minutes of the first session?  That's pretty good.

Yes, Fred.  Yes, I actually did catch President Hinckley thanking the writers for writing the talks over and over.  At least he was honest about it when he spoke.  It was the cover up when they published the written talks that was disconcerting.  You have to admit, at least they are consistent in their efforts to cover up anything that doesn't look perfect.

Tom, would you say the opening prayer for us?  Thanks.

Okay, today's lesson is pretty interesting.  It is probably not as controversial as some of our other lessons, but it has some interesting points nonetheless.  The topics are spiritual and temporal welfare, self-reliance, and service to the needy.  Let's just jump into some of the topics from the lesson manual.

What does it mean to be spiritually self-reliant?

Sally.  That seems reasonable.  Being spiritually self-reliant means that you rely upon yourself for decisions related to your spiritual life and you don't rely on specific direction of other people.  

Do you think the men in the Church Office Building would agree with that?  

No?  Why not?  

You are right, the two great commandments given by Christ have largely been displaced with the first law of heaven, obedience.

Interestingly, Russell Nelson gave a talk in Ukraine, which relates to the choice of religion, which can potentially play a large role in being spiritually self-reliant.  He said, "How can we have freedom of religion if we are not free to compare honestly, to choose wisely, and to worship according to the dictates of our own conscience? While searching for the truth, we must be free to change our mind, even to change our religion in response to new information and inspiration. One's religion is not imposed by others. It is not predetermined. It is a very personal and sacred choice, nestled at the very core of human dignity." (Freedom to Do and to Be, Russell M. Nelson, International Scientific and Practical Conference "Religious Freedom: Transition and Globalization", Kiev, Ukraine, 27 May 2004).  Nelson seems to indicate we should be spiritually self-reliant, but I don't recall any talks at general conference encouraging us to search for the truth, change our minds, or even change our religion in response to new information and inspiration.  I wonder why...

Elder Packer, with whom I frequently disagree, said something that I thought was uncharacteristically mature of him.  Oh, yeah, by the way, sorry about that evil-speaking of the Lord's Anointed thingy there, I was just trying to be spiritually self-reliant.  Well anyway, Packer said, "If we lose our emotional and spiritual independence, our self-reliance, we can be weakened quite as much, perhaps even more, than when we become dependent materially" (in Conference Report, Apr. 1978, 136-37; or Ensign, May 1978, 91-92).  Well golly gee whiz..., Packer is telling us we should maintain our spiritual independence.  I think we better act fast before he changes his mind.

Here is probably one of the most important questions, if not the most important question in the lesson....  How can parents help their children learn spiritual self-reliance?

Yes, Sally.  I like that.  We can teach them to never accept at face value what spiritual leaders of any stripe say.  Our children should decide for themselves what is correct or not.  By that do you mean spiritual leaders like David Koresh?

Oh, you mean from all spiritual leaders including the Pope, David Koresh, Gordon Hinckley, Billy Graham.  Very good.  In other words, we should think and decide spiritual matters for ourselves and not follow the direction given by any spiritual leader without specifically deciding to do so after thinking for ourselves.

Yes, Brent.  I do know that we teach our kids to sing "Follow the Prophet" in primary.  I've asked the Primary President to please pick something more appropriate, but she told me that she was following the first law of heaven and obeying the correlated curriculum and singing committee commands.  Hmmm... her excuse sounds a little corny to me.

In practice, how can we teach our kids to be spiritually self-reliant, as they are taught in many classes to pray, pay, and obey, or should I say, OBEY?

Yes, Dave.  I like your thinking.  We can show an example of good moral living, while specifically choosing not to obey certain commands which we personally deem to be inappropriate or irrelevant.  I especially like Dave's comment on not only choosing for ourselves, but letting our kids know why we did so.

What about just not going to church are all?

Yes, Sally, you are right.  That is why we are here in this Sunday School class.  We are all working through the various reasons for continued participation.

Okay, let's move on.  The next section is on developing temporal self-reliance.

Question Penny?  No, I don't mean temporary self-reliance, I mean temporal, the word that is often used to describe things related to just physically living.  Things like having enough food to eat, clothing to wear, etc.

Yes, Phyllis.  Well, perhaps it would be more Garden of Eden like if we were nudists, but, it's getting cold, and I don't think most of us... well, shrinkage comes to mind.  We can talk about it after class if you want.  Anyway, what is temporal self-reliance?

Yes, Edith.  Pretty much taking care of our own needs and saving for times when we may not be able to take care of our own needs.  I think your answer covers the topic pretty well.  

Let me list the key items noted in the lesson manual.  We should have a storage of food and other necessities and plan, act, and strive for financial security.  What do you guys thing of food storage?

Yes, Dave.  You think it is a hoarding crock?  Well that's pretty blunt.  Why do you say that?  You are correct, that societal structure and recent history indicates that the probability of being without food in our country for an extended length of time is low.  Okay.

How about you Samantha?  You think it is a good idea as part of an overall savings and preparedness plan.  You also think that it pushes you to eat in a fashion that is more healthy due to the nature of many of the storage items you choose.

Well there are pros and cons.  I think we should make our decisions based upon our own analysis and what we think.

(Part 2)

Financial security can mean a lot of things.  The church gives us a lot of the same financial advice that I get from msn.com, so I don't think they have anything particularly inspiring to say, but let's list a few things we should be doing.

Dave.  We should spend below our means, meaning we should save.  We should avoid credit card debt if possible.  We should make well reasoned purchase decisions of quality items and not buy things just to "keep up with the Joneses," like so many folks do.

These are good thoughts?  What about getting out of debt if we do?

Yes, Sally.  Yes, using tithing money to pay down debts can help to accelerate recovery.  In fact if you go back to some of the more original intents of tithing, the definition of tithing more focused on increase, meaning increase in our net worth, or increase after our expenses were paid, so using tithing money to pay down debt incurred from surprise expenses would be reasonable.  We could spend a few lessons on tithing, but let's not...

Okay, moving on.  Next topic is caring for the needy.  How is it that we should care for the needy?

Tom.  I agree, I do think that generally the women reach out better than the men in terms of caring for the needy.  My experience is that their service is often more genuine and heart-felt that the men.  Those are just my personal observations though.

Yes, Sally.  You do bring up a good point that probably has validity to all of us.  We do seem to be focused on serving others in our specific institutional church community.  What about our neighbors?  Christ taught that all were our neighbors, not just those who shared membership in a particular organized religion.  Why don't we reach out to others more often?

Yes, Brent.  That's pretty bold of you to say that, but yes, I think as a whole we are afraid of becoming influenced by non-LDS folks.  I know as a kid growing up on the Wasatch Front, I did not want to have any close non-LDS friends because I was certain that they would influence me negatively.  How pathetic is that?

Yes, Sally.  I know it is pathetic and I know that I am now ashamed, blah, blah, blah....  Okay?

What about humanitarian efforts?  How can we participate in those?  The church seems to make a very big deal about how much it is doing from a humanitarian effort perspective.  It's kind of like doing service privately, huh?

Yes, Rick, thanks for chiming in.  Yes, many employers will match a humanitarian contribution given by an employee.  In this case, it doesn't make a lot of sense to give through the church, as long as you are giving to a reputable charity or relief organization.

Yes, Sally.  You had to bring that up, didn't you...  Well, why is the church spending $1.3B on a mall by the temple when there is so much disaster in the South of our country and the world at large?  Why are we not more like the Menonites who keep very little infrastructure investment at the top of their church and distribute to the poor freely?

What do you think Dave?  I guess I'd have to agree that appearances trump charity in the case of the institutional church.  That doesn't necessarily apply to individuals within the church, but it seems to reasonably apply to the institution.

The last topic we will cover is education and it's importance for self-reliance.  Why is education important?

Yes, Tom.  Very good points.  It is important to both our spiritual and temporal self-reliance.  If our source of spiritual education is limited to what we hear at church, conference, and the scriptures, we would be terribly lacking, wouldn't we?  We wouldn't have access to foundational truths.  As it relates to temporal needs, an education provides us with means to make a living as well as potentially making our lives more full.

Yes, Sally.  Thanks for bringing this article in.  Since it is short, let's read it.  This is related to bankruptcy in Utah.  It is the leading state in the nation for rates of personal bankruptcy.  The article focuses on students.  The article BYU NewsNet says:

"Utah, with the highest level of personal bankruptcies across the nation, will be faced with more challenges as Chapter 7 filing laws become stricter in mid-October. 

"Already experiencing an increase in filings throughout the country, Utah is also seeing a surge of Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing requests in an attempt to beat the beginning of more stringent requirements. 

"There are several contributing factors to Utah's already high bankruptcy figures. William Stillgebauer, the clerk of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of Utah, said some of the main problems are both economic and social. 

"'There are so many factors that we see on a daily basis that it is difficult to pinpoint bankruptcy causes to just a handful of reasons,' Stillgebauer said. ?The more people, especially students, financially prepare and plan, the more improvements we will see as a state.' 

"Robert Bennet, Utah joint economic committee chairman, said the problem stems from a number of things anywhere from the fact that Utah has the largest gender wage gaps in the nation to other social factors such as high marriage rates compounded with a tendency to marry at a younger age and start families sooner. 

"Another factor contributing to Utah's bankruptcy problem is the high student population. 

"Students are relying on credit cards more and more to pay off school, car, clothes, food and other expenses but they don't have the funds to cover them,' said Veronica Aralova, a BYU freshman from Moscow, Russia. 'They don't take money seriously and think everything will be fine.' 

"While many students are still struggling with finances for school and life, they get married without a secure financial plan and are in no position to support themselves or a family and as a result end up filing for bankruptcy, Stillgebauer said." (http://newsnet.byu.edu/story.cfm/56846)

The stated factors here are pretty interesting, students getting married young and having babies young with no financial plan.  Should we encourage our kids to get through college before getting married and having kids?  What about establishing a vocation or career?  What about saving a little money or getting a house, if desired, before having kids?  The unstated factor of paying tithing instead of bills is the elephant in the living room.

Okay, well it looks like we are over time.  See you next week.