Caring for Church Property

Having had the opportunity to clean the church recently I thought of this article by Orson Scott Card in the Mormon Times, Caring for Church Property.

My wife and I were both raised in families where the ethos was that when we used property that didn't belong to us, we returned it in better condition than we received it. Before making permanent alterations, we got permission. This seemed to us to be the minimum condition for civilized sharing of property.

The idea of property is a social convention. Every human society that advanced and thrived had the social contract that a person's property remained his even when he wasn't actually using it. Part of civilizing our children is teaching them to respect the property of others.

It's easy to think that what belongs to the ward belongs to nobody. He scolds us a bit and asks us to remember to respect the property of others and of the church.

I think we do this well in our ward.

Thank you to all who take such good care of our church building every week, who go the extra mile to clean the kitchen, who mop floors which have become sticky from meals and basketball, who care for tablecloths and always return them ready to go for the next event, who donate to the kitchen supplies and who clean the church every week.

Keep up the good work and keep teaching your children too.

I am pleased to add my small efforts to yours in the cleaning and care for the Lord's house in Valley Forge.

(And big thanks to Kellen Wentzel for keeping us all organized.)

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