Utah’s safety net for the poor is so intertwined with the LDS Church that individual bishops often decide who receives assistance. Some deny help unless a person goes to services or gets baptized.
Utah doesn’t do more for those in need in part because a contingent of its lawmakers, the overwhelming majority of whom are Latter-day Saints themselves, assume the church is handling the poverty issue; they also are loath to raise taxes to do the state’s share, a review of Utah’s legislative history demonstrates.
“I made it so you can’t get help from them, only from me, and now I’m helping you, contingent on you doing what I tell you to. Aren’t I so nice and kind?”
This was not religious people trying to do good, this was religious people abusing legislative power to force people into their sphere of influence.
So she tried a different avenue that was not the state.
That different avenue might be coercive and have strict demands on who can receive money and for what, but it’s not tax payer money.
“I made it so you can’t get help from them, only from me, and now I’m helping you, contingent on you doing what I tell you to. Aren’t I so nice and kind?”
This was not religious people trying to do good, this was religious people abusing legislative power to force people into their sphere of influence.