Resource: FHE Idea, Financial Stewardship

Jenny Whitcomb wrote a nice guest post at the Segullah Blog about a recent Family Home Evening wherein she taught her children about financial stewardship:

"So FHE became a Consumer Awareness 101 group therapy session centered on two visuals: a credit card, and a piggy bank. We shared thoughts, from youngest to oldest, starting with the credit card, and taught each other everything we knew about that little piece of plastic."

"It takes discipline to manage the card, more than it does to make purchases from a piggy bank. The key? Embrace the principle of work and save in order to consume. Not that owning a credit card or desire equals entitlement, but understand that the credit behind our credit cards is actually cash. To have the money in our pockets before we spend it is a worthy guideline."

SLC Temple Earth Hour and LEED Chapels

Hat tip to Green Mormon Architect.

The Salt Lake City Temple will go dark for Earth Hour.

The first LEED certified (environmentally considerate) LDS chapel will be built.

Conclusions?

Commentary: Upcoming Chances to Discuss Earth Stewardship in Sunday School

Important first thought: I don't want to promote any kind of "activism" at church...except of course Christian activism.

With that out of the way, I want to remind everyone of some great opportunities to discuss Earth Stewardship in upcoming Sunday School classes. Lesson 22 The Word of Wisdom "A Principle with a Promise", and lesson 38 "In Mine Own Way" both include some material regarding with Earth Stewardship.

Lesson 22 includes D&C 59:17-20 as source material. This lesson will probably be taught sometime in May.

Lesson 38 includes D&C 104:13-18 as source material. This lesson will probably be taught sometime in October. BTW, The late Elder Maxwell had some interesting words regarding these scriptures.

If you find it appropriate,
and if it fits into the content of your class discussions,
and if it adds to the spirit of your class,
and if it brings glory to God,
then please consider sharing your feelings about Earth Stewardship during one or both of these lessons.

Final thought: Please don't abuse this as a chance to prove a point or advance a political agenda. Nobody likes it when people abuse church meetings for their own purposes.

Resource List

Scriptures

Luke 12:15
Doctrine and Covenants 59: 18-20
Doctrine and Covenants 104:17
Helaman 3:5-11
1 Nephi 11:25

Talks/Lectures

Moffat Lecture
Kimzey Lecture

Quotes

Maxwell Quote
Beck Quote
Hinckley Quote
Hinckley Quote II
Maxwell Quote II
Monson Quote
Kimball Quote
ProvidentLiving.org Quotes on Materialsim
Perry Quote

Articles

Burton Article
White Article
Otterson Article

Other Media

Kawasaki Comic
ASU Sustainability Definitions Web page
Mormon Enviro-Bloggers
LDS Hymnbook

The Ground Hog and a BYU Prof Weigh-in on Climate Change

I have intentionally avoided all climate discussion on this blog. The Gospel has nothing to say about the climate explicitly, and I have chosen to focus on things the Gospel does say. There are so many other reasons to be kind to the Earth. Plus, I think that for many of us, talk of climate change is a real turn-off. Having said all that, I couldn't stay away from this topic forever.

Today is Ground Hog's Day. The Ground Hog saw his shadow, and thus we will have six more weeks of winter, and thus the globe is not warming. OK, I made that last part up. And for the record, I am against asking rodents for advice in scientific matters. I am also against asking politicians for scientific advice. (Politicians and rodents in the same category?) You know who is a good source for all things science? I'll tell you who: scientists. Like this guy who gave a lecture at BYU.

Survey Results! At least partially...

Thanks to everyone who participated in LDS Environmental Survey! The results are available here.

Only the results of the individual questions are currently available, correlated results are not yet available. So for instance, you will be able to see how many survey takers were from Australia, but you won't be able to see how they answered the other questions. In the upcoming weeks (months?) we hope to upload additional analysis, including possible correlations between demographic characteristics and environmental thought.

The data does not represent a random sample. So just because 30% or so of the survey takers are politically moderate, that percentage is meaningless for any other group of people.

There is a wide spectrum of views out there. Just look at the data.

My favorite responses came from the political identity question. One of the respondents claimed to be a "Jedi" politically. Another responder wrote that they do not belong to any political ideology, but rather they take good from wherever they find it. I couldn't agree more.

Enjoy!

Finally, thanks again to Bryce and Peter. Their help made the survey possible!

Please take a survey

As you can read in my previous post, I have been working on a survey that aims to learn about LDS attitudes towards the environment. As of 9 am (Eastern Time) the survey was not yet live. But I am told that it will go live today.

Please take a few minutes and participate in the survey.

Here is the link: http://tinyurl.com/environmentsurvey

If you click on the envelope icon at the bottom of this post you can also invite others to participate.

I'm not allowing comments until after the survey is finished. If you have questions about the survey, e-mail ldssurvey at gmail dot com.