A Brigham Young University Student Journal
Parents across the country watch their child scream and cry as a nurse tries to insert a needle into the muscle on the child’s arm. The dramatic response of children to as simple of an injection as a flu shot causes parents to dread the …
Consistent Parenting There’s an old saying: A jug fills drop by drop (Buddha). In light of the saying: What do these stories have in common? My daughter was home schooled for two years of middle school. Each morning we had school: math, history, reading, science, …
A recent study quantified the economic impact of religious institutions and religion-related businesses throughout the U.S.
The study, entitled “The Socio-economic Contribution of Religion to American Society: An Empirical Analysis,” is the first of its kind and was conducted by Brian Grim of Georgetown University and Melissa Grim of the Newseum Institute. They held a panel event at the National Press Club on Sept. 14, 2016 to reveal their groundbreaking study.
“For the first time, we have been able to quantify what religious institutions, faith-based charities and even businesses inspired by faith contribute to our country,” Grim said at a Sept. 14 panel. “In an age where there’s a growing belief that religion is not a positive for American society, adding up the numbers is a tangible reminder of the impact of religion.”
According to the study, religion contributes nearly $1.2 trillion to the US economy. Congregations and religiously-oriented charity groups contributed 130,000 programs for alcohol and drug abuse recovery, 121,000 programs for support or skills training for unemployed adults and 94,000 programs to support veterans and their families.
“People at various times have various needs,” said church history professor Richard Holzapfel. “You have church that is relieving the pressure on state institutions.”
Holzapfel said religion offers a substantial amount of support for character development, which cannot always be calculated. However, he said this development can be seen in the LDS Church through missions, the counseling offered to individuals through bishops and church programs addressing various struggles.
“What would that cost the state if the church didn’t provide those services?” Holzapfel said. “It would be massive. We would overwhelm the welfare department, the juvenile court systems; the impact must be tremendous.”
Faith Counts, a multi-faith non-profit organization promoting the value of faith, sponsored the study. According to the “Faith by the Numbers” video on their website, religion institutions are not just houses of workshop, but the “nucleus of many communities, centers for education, job training, charity, childcare and social events.”
The video also states that religious institutions fund over 1.5 million social programs. Hunter Buxton, an economics major, was surprised by the findings.
“I had no idea,” Buxton said. “That’s not something you hear about a lot in economic circles of news.”
Buxton said this study and influence on religion should be talked about more because it could “definitely benefit the way America sees religions in general.”
More information about this study can be found on the Faith Counts website.
Thanksgiving is coming up and FOOD is the word. When thinking about Thanksgiving, many of us number turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and pie among the many things that we are grateful for. Many of the memories that I personally have surrounding this time of year …
After coming from a city where righteous, kind, ambitious, loving young men were few and far between, I can understand the appeal of dating in Provo, where that is not the case. There are so many practically perfect men that cross your path every day, …
Near our house is a fairly steep hill. There are lots of big trees beside the hill, but no houses, so no one is in charge of the sidewalk. During the year leaves, dirt, and junk collect in the gutter. It never really washes away because of the cement barriers that are next to the curb. When our kids were young we started an annual tradition to clean “the hill”. With donned gloves, gathered shovels and brooms, and wheelbarrows we made it our job to clean out the gutter and haul away all the junk. We tried to do this before school started in the fall so the neighborhood children could have a clean sidewalk on which to trek up to the elementary school.
Needless to say, not all our children thought this was a great idea. Some of them wondered why someone else didn’t take a turn. (To make it more fun—and less work—we did invite other families to participate in this project.) But we just reminded them that we were strong and capable and since no one else was doing it, we would.
There were other projects our kids weren’t too keen on. After large snowstorms my husband took our boys over to a neighbor’s house to shovel her walk and driveway. Since she lived on a corner, this was a rather large task. But she was single and older, and my husband (and one or other of the boys) was her home teacher, so it wasn’t up for discussion. Often our other neighbors would be gone for the Christmas holiday so we would shovel their driveway as well.
Not all of our service projects involved so much hard work. I was talking to one of my neighbors recently, and she reminded me that our family had washed their cars the night before their daughter’s wedding. Occasionally we babysat someone’s kids while they went out. We also served food for the homeless on Christmas eve, and took pipe chimes to the memory care unit to sing Christmas carols with them.
What did we accomplish with all these random acts of service? They say the proof is in the pudding, and about three years ago I had a wonderful validation of the value of teaching our kids to serve through example. I got a call from a neighbor who needed someone to be with her as she cleaned out her horse’s stall. She was in the middle of a divorce and couldn’t be at the barn alone, due to hostilities with her spouse. So she called me to see if I’d come talk to her while she mucked out the stall. Unfortunately, I was out of the state. “Not to worry,” I said. “My twenty-five-year-old son is home and I’ll call him to run over.” (Luckily he had worked at a horse barn when he was younger so it wasn’t totally out of his comfort zone.) And he did it!! He walked over and helped her out!!!
President Monson has spent a lifetime reaching out to “the one” and he is always encouraging us to do the same. He counsels us:
“To find real happiness, we must seek for it in a focus outside ourselves. No one has learned the meaning of living until he has surrendered his ego to the service of his fellow man. Service to others is akin to duty, the fulfillment of which brings true joy.” –President Monson
When the kids were little, I taught them this poem:
“I have wept in the night
For the shortness of sight
That to somebody’s need made me blind;
But I never have yet
Felt a tinge of regret
For being a little too kind.” (anonymous)
I hope that we taught our children that life doesn’t just revolve around themselves, but that others have needs that are just as important. I hope we taught them compassion, helping them to see that others might be suffering, or be lonely, or just need a little boost here or there. I hope we taught them that it doesn’t hurt to give of your time and talents. Last of all, I hope they learned that they are always better off for having served.
Written by Phyllis Rosen
Every year we arrive at Thanksgiving amid a hustle and bustle of cooking and preparing. More often than not we sit down for dinner and pause a moment or two to go around the table, allowing each person to name something they are thankful for. …
“Oh, here we go again, a reminder of how imperfect I am.” Usually when we think of self-improvement, we tend to start underestimating ourselves, our potential, and our purpose. We focus on our weaknesses and our mistakes, making it difficult to remember our strengths and successes. …
My husband and I have six children. Six!!! Who can believe it? This fact puts Dave (my husband) and I into the “experienced parents” category–especially since the youngest is now 23 years old. Parenting is not easy. Should I say that again?? Parenting is not easy. It’s not for wimps or the faint of heart. It takes commitment and effort and patience and effort and humor and effort and…….you get the idea.
The other night, Dave and I decided to each compile a list of Ten Best Parenting Tips and then compare them. Turns out we had very similar lists, so we combined them and narrowed them down to our favorite ten. As some of you other parents might be looking for advice, we decided to share our list. Each week on Stance we will discuss one of the ten tips. So sit back, relax, and try to remember how excited you were to be a parent in the first place.
Read aloud to your children: From the time our children were born, we read aloud to them. When they were babies they just enjoyed being cuddled and hearing the rhythm of our voices. As they got older, they loved the sounds of words, especially rhyming and alliteration. To this day I can pretty much quote the entire story of The Cat in the Hat (Dr. Seuss). These rhyming books were not only fun, they were vital in helping our children learn how sounds go together, which in turn helped them learn to read. Beyond that, we found that simple books teach great principles. We have a son named Sam, so of course we read him Green Eggs and Ham (Dr. Seuss). Because of that book, we were able to encourage him to try new things. It’s fun to quote to our kids “You do not like it, so you say. Try it! Try it! And you may!” This phrase helped our kids with trying new foods, new clothes, and even making new friends. When we read Horton Hatches the Egg (Dr. Seuss) we were able to mosey into principles of responsibility and promise keeping.
When the kids reached elementary school age, they still loved being cuddled, 
held, and sitting close, plus now they really enjoyed and understood the story line. Some of the first books we chose were Thornton Burgess’s books about the creatures of the forests and the meadows. In this series of books, the characters; Danny Meadow Mouse, Lightfoot the Deer, etc. are intertwined, with each book focusing on a different animal. (My oldest son, Kevin, loved them so much that for one of his birthdays, in his 20s, he asked for the complete set!) These books also taught important life lessons, like what it means to be a friend, the importance of preparation, and the wonderfulness of diversity. Charlotte’s Web (White) helped our kids learn to not judge others by their looks. Where the Red Fern Grows (Rawls) allowed us to talk about sorrow and death. Sometimes a book was so sad I had to hand it to my child to read because I couldn’t stop crying. We continued to read aloud even as the kids got older. Books that were exciting pulled them in. Hatchet (Paulsen), The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle (Avi), and of course Harry Potter (Rowling) let us explore new geography, pirates, and wizardry as though we were having the experiences ourselves.
You might think that the only time to read is at bedtime. While we did read at bedtime almost daily, we found many other times to read. Taking a break from playing—or working—to relax and read was something I cherished as a young mother. Everyone needs a change of pace and I loved taking 15-20 minutes out of the day to read. Whenever we went on vacation we packed some books along. The kids liked to read their own book, but we also would choose two or three books to read aloud together.
During the summer we joined the public library reading programs. Having prizes to earn motivated the kids to try new genres and broadened their world. We liked checking out books so much that I finally had to make a rule that each child could only check out as many books as they could physically carry. (Our record for checked out in one week was 54 books!!!) We sometimes read outdoors, sitting under a tree or on the patio. We would also read by the light of the Christmas tree, choosing one Christmas story each night before bed.
So why is reading to your children so important? Why did it make the parenting list for both my husband and me? There are three main reasons:
Now that our kids are grown, do they still read? Yes, they do! I laughed when I found out that my son Stan has a public library card from every city he’s ever lived in. My kids like to recommend books to me and we enjoy discussing what we’ve read. So don’t hesitate—sit down and start reading. You don’t like it, so you say…try it, try it, and you may!
Written by Phyllis Rosen
According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, 26.6% of children and adolescents were diagnosed with a chronic condition in the United States. This means that one in five children today have a chronic illness, with chronic conditions s spreading, it’s more important than ever …