anon,

why so paranoid? If you Mormons would shut up about your religion, we wouldn't care about it either. But you keep shoving it into our faces at every turn, so we tell you what we think. If your church wants to help people, then do it and keep quiet about it. That is the way Jesus said you should do it anyway. But no, you have to publicize it all over the place. Just shut up and we "the Mormon bashers" will shut up, too!

Deal?

You will never be quiet. If you don't like all the mormon stuff going on, then why don't you stop reading a mormon newspaper?

That is what boggles my mind. Why don't you stop reading mormon literature if it offends you?

It's like complaining about being an alcoholic and how evil the beer companies are while being in a bar! If you don't like beer, leave the bar!

Anon,

Don't we have a chip on our shoulders. I think it is sad that you think we Mormons are being paranoid, when we are trying to help people. The people down the gulf region are still reeling from the effects of Katrina. Gustauv could be another major hit to that region. The Mormons are just trying to help our neighbors. What have you done? Don't read the article if you don't want to hear about it.

I read the local paper because I live here. The Deseret News is a PUBLIC paper. I don't think Mormons are being paranoid, I KNOW IT!

I never said it was bad to try to help people. Learn to read. Learn to think. I said is was bad and annoying to PUBLICIZE it and shove your religon in everybody's face!

I have done plenty to help victims of natural disasters, crime, and bigotry. A lot more than you, I would bet any amount of money on that.

But I don't go shoving it in everybody's face. This is "my" paper, too. I will continue to read it if I want. If you don't like my comments YOU are welcome to stop reading it! Just stop shoving your stupid religion in our face! It is a fair deal. You shut up about your religion, and we will, too!

The apostle Paul said it best: "So then faith cometh by hearing".

It brings me great confert to know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints is sending relief supplies to areas that are going to need help in the next coming days. Try living in the areas that have been hit by hurricanes in the past years and you might understand why it is important to hear that help is on the way.

The "yellow tee shirt wearing" Mormons are just trying to help as they did some 3 years ago from the effects of Katrina back than hey?. They were the first to respond to. Now let me ask you this, how would you like to walk some 160 miles to get what they brought, than walk back again to your home to use it?, than swim through 20' high surge waters for some 100 + miles as well to get back, well let me tell you this, not any got the help, the food rotted for over a year than went to a landfill. The same with bottled water etc. BECAUSE TRUCKS could NOT drive through high standing waters from the surge that covered the houses to their roof. The same thing happened with The American Red Crodd and their stuff to, as well as with FEMA's stuff.

Who are the Democrap's and Bushie basher's gonna blame this one on, when they sat on their butts in their do nothing Congress and laughed. But the victims did not see it funny one bit.

Think about that next time you shoot off your mouth when you anti-God punks say stop it.

Dear Anonymous @ 11:27 AM. I'm a Mormon and I'm not paranoid. So much for your knowing. Have a nice day.

Oh, and out of curiosity, by my mentioning that I'm a Mormon, does that count as "shoving" my religion in your face?

Anonymous, try the Salt Lake Tribune where it's an art form to think of new ways to blame the Mormons for everything bad in their lives.

Anonymous-
Would you tell Jesus to "shut up" and not go public with His religion? Where would we be then.
If you dislike the Mormons & our religion so badly why do you waste your time reading about us and being so hateful. As a member not in Utah, I enjoy news about the church & members accomplishments. You rarely hear about it out of the state of Utah. You have a bad case of Mormon Phobia, but try and have a great weekend anyway.

You are entitled to your opinion of course. If you live in the area and want to read the local paper, that is also your choice. There is another choice, of course, the Salt Lake Tribune, which is not owned/controlled by the LDS church, which may not offend you quite so much, but probably would report this kind of effort.

Seven truckloads of supplies, with more to follow, to an area threatened by another weather disaster, is news, and publicizing all of these acts by the LDS church, and other organizations, sometimes spurs readers to think what they can do, and who they may contact to offer help or monetary donations.

If the Red Cross or other organizations list what they are doing, what they need, etc., then ordinary people sitting home reading the news, or online reading it, can make decisions and choose to help (or not).

Did you find some organization to help the people being threatened in this case, or in future disasters? If not money, perhaps you could donate supplies for cleaning kits, school kits, humanitarian kits, or find out when they are being assembled and help do that?

The same thing keeps happening again and again. People find any excuse at all to bash the LDS church.

If the church does some good things that are mentioned in the newspaper, it is bashed because it is in the news. If the church does good that is not mentioned in the news, it is bashed for not doing something good. People will never be satisfied. Well, I guess they are actually satisfied in either case because each gives them an excuse to do more bashing.

I do not live in the State of Utah, and receive my local area newspaper which I read. I peruse the headlines and read the articles which I wish to for whatever reason.

Maybe some people read every single word cover to cover, but I do not. May I suggest that you do the same, and perhaps if you see the words "LDS" or "Mormon" you could skip them, and avoid the aggravation and anger which you seem to feel? That way you can still keep up with the local, national and world news which interests you, but not waste time on the articles which do not, or which cause you undue stress?

As a non-Utah member of the Church which seems to bother you, I go online and read the Deseret News precisely for the reason of reading and keeping up with news of doings of my Church. Today there were good articles, and a couple of bad ones concerning the Church and/or its member(s), and the one about aid going to the hurricane areas was a good one. Perhaps some of the kits I helped fund and put together are going to that area!

I am going to ignore Anonymous! I was glad to hear that the supplies are coming. My daughter has a child in her class that came here from New Orleans. We have heard of many more. I know there were many that were grateful for ANY help or assistance they got. I hope all fare well through this storm.

From one paranoid "Mormon" to all the others out there, may I point out the following. We do not have the privilege of expressing our feelings in a newspaper that we own. We do not have the right to publish our beliefs in public. We do not have the right to share our thoughts with one another or to keep one another informed of the goings on in the Church or in our extended community. If we set out to give public service, we are pushing our religion on other people. If we express our religious beliefs we are interfering with the rights of the masses.
Might I publicly agree with "georgiaonmymind" and encourage all to ignore "anonymous" and all those others who criticize us but are too afraid to publish their names and hide behind their sign on while boasting of their own virtues and charity and denying us the reight to a simple news report. I hope that he, she, or it, whatever anonymous might be, is only picking on us and does not extend these same prejudices to the Jehovah's Witnesses and our other good brothers and sisters who report their good works in their publications.

Tony

Breaking news: FEMA and Pres. Bush are mobilizing help for the Gulf Coast. Guess what, they even made a big announcement about it.

More breaking news: the state of Louisiana has buses assembling to remove evacuees who have no other way to leave. It's been all over the news.

The Deseret News reported these. Is this a bad thing? News is news, and LDS Church activities are news in Utah. And there's nothing wrong with notifying Gulf Coast authorities that help is on the way, so they can take an inventory of available resources.

I feel sorry for some of the posters on these blogs. It is pitiful to see such bitter, hostile reaction to good deeds, even if the good deeds come from a church you detest, despise, and loathe. Even our Savior saw the good hiding deep inside the thief hanging next to Him. How miserable some of you must be, to be unable to see the good in what someone else does.

By the way, as the father of an LDS missionary serving in the Florida panhandle, I am grateful for any news I get from any source about what is going on in that region. I wouldn't even object if "anonymous" sent some of his/her vaunted charity my way if s/he had any news that could give my wife comfort in this time of stress.

I think it's wonderful how organized the LDS church runs their humanitarian organization. They work with with other religious groups as well as local, state and private organizations throughout the world. Having watched the yellow shirts help out in Colorado this year I must say it was nice to see.

The LDS church rarely comments on how much they do assist. The person in Utah complaining obviously has a chip on their shoulder. I've lived in Boston and never once thought to complain about all the Catholic church did locally. Can't imagine living in Salt Lake when you have so much animosity towards a dominate religion.

I hear New Orleans is looking for people to move there. Perhaps you won't read about the LDS church as much by moving there. They are never in the newspapers here. Those of us who live out of State love hearing news worthy articles about the LDS church. You are really lucky to live in SLC. Maybe if you get enough religion preached to you it will help you be more tolerant of others and their belief system.

Being a non-Mormon from England, I remember several years back when a hurricane hit (I think it was) Honduras and over 10,000 people died. I remember reading a speach made by the local authority there, where he wanted to thank two groups who have offered so much help... The Church of Jusus Christ of Latter Day Saints and the Mormons. He didn't realize they were the same people but being the two largest groups of people assisting I say thank you Mormons for all you do to help out in the World and don't let those antagonists get you down, most people who see what you do appreciate you. Thank God for Mormons!

While not an official, or even unofficial, spokesman for the Church, I would like to voice my gratitude which I think extends to other LDS to the open-minded such as "Anonymous in CO" and Scott. You are a breath of fresh air from outside the LDS community and it is good of you to let us know that our efforts to be good Christians and good citizens of the world are seen and appreciated. "Thank God for Mormons?" I say, Thank God for you.

Iam not a member of the church. I have known mormons for years they are great people. If I join a another church it would be mormons. I have a daughter with autism. They treat her special where other churches ignore her,

I am the wife of a baptist preacher in Louisiana. I was shocked and very impressed by the mormons who came here and did everything in their power to restore our area. They did it with smiles on their faces and never asked for anything in return. Our church was destroyed and they rebuilt it from the ground up. Those of you that bash, I'm astonished at. Not one person tried to preach to our congregation about their mormon book. They were wonderful people. I will never understand how so many of you have so much hatred towards mormons. I wonder if you would still talk the way you do if your home and everything you knew and loved was destroyed like it happened to us. Would you then care about trivial matters such as this? I doubt it.