LDS Earth Stewardship - Displaying items by tag: sharon eubank

April 02, 2021

April’s Small and Simple Stewardship Step: Plant a Garden

“Behold, a sower went forth to sow; and when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side . . . but other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold.”

Matthew 13:3-8

Easter is upon us and new life is blooming outside—what a perfect time to learn to garden! Modern prophets have often taught that we should grow our own food, where possible. Our invitation for April is to experience creation by growing your own food. We provide some resources and ideas in hopes of sparking inspiration, but it’s up to you what small, simple stewardship step you take this month:

Read “Seeds of Self-Reliance” (Ensign March 2011) and listen to Sister Sharon Eubank’s experience of growing strawberries during the pandemic (4:26–6:41).
Learn some food gardening basics from this presentation by Merikay Smith; she is an LDSES board member, leader of the Earth Stewardship East, and a master gardener!
Sow some seeds! If you have a yard, prepare a garden plot and invite family/friends to join in. If you live in an apartment, start a simple herb garden in your kitchen or look for a community garden near you. Think of a meal you could make using ingredients grown in your garden, and set a goal to make it after your harvest.

We hope these invitations help you cultivate a more Creation-friendly lifestyle, line upon line and precept upon precept. As you find your own way to be a better steward, share your inspired actions on social media—don’t forget to tag us and use both #EverySaintASteward and #SmallAndSimpleStewardship!

Published in News & Events

March 08, 2021

March’s Small and Simple Stewardship Step: Reduce Food Waste

“When we waste what others desperately need, what are the ramifications to our physical hearts and our unity? . . . [W]hat does that do to the fabric that stretches between us as human beings?”

Sister Sharon Eubank

(That We May Be One, October 2019)

We share the Earth’s resources with our brothers and sisters, so minimizing how much we waste is an act of love. It’s also a way we can emulate the Lord. “Our Lord and God, as the Creator, wastes nothing; His system has no waste,” taught Sister Sharon Eubank.

We have a lot to learn from Him! In the United States, roughly 40 percent of food (an estimated 125 to 160 billion pounds) goes to waste—despite much of it being perfectly edible. This makes uneaten food the single largest component of municipal solid waste in the U.S. We can use our God-given resources more wisely, charitably, and gratefully.

Our invitation for March is to honor the Creator by reducing your food waste. We provide some resources, ideas, and questions in hopes of sparking inspiration, but it’s up to you what small, simple stewardship step you take this month:

Purchase only the food you need. Preparing a shopping list before buying your groceries can help you avoid food waste.
Use up the food you already have. Take the time to thoroughly peruse your fridge and pantry, and see what you can make with the surprises you find! Maybe you can share what you make with someone in need.
Start composting your organic scraps. Does your city or neighborhood have community composting? Is there a spot in your yard you can begin a composting pile of your own? Is there space in your apartment for a vermicomposting bin? (For a laugh, scroll down on this page to read Josh Doying’s detailed guide on vermicomposting.)
If you’re ready for a real challenge, try going a full week without creating food waste. Start practicing now and you’ll reduce food waste for years to come!

Published in News & Events

February 12, 2021

February’s Small and Simple Stewardship Step: Sustainable Eating

“Every herb in the season thereof, and every fruit in the season thereof; all these to be used with prudence and thanksgiving.”

D&C 89:11

The principles of the Word of Wisdom are great for the health of our hearts—physically and spiritually! By eating meat sparingly and gratefully, our reverence towards the Lord’s animals increases. As we reduce our food waste, we are more mindful of our brothers and sisters in need.

Our invitation for February is to help your physical and spiritual heart by considering your eating habits. We provide some resources, ideas, and questions in hopes of sparking inspiration, but it’s up to you what small, simple stewardship step you take this month:

Read the Word of Wisdom, especially D&C 89:10–15, 18-20 (see also D&C 49:19–21 and 59:18–19). Consider how the principles taught in these verses can guide your choices and attitudes towards food.
Listen to Sister Sharon Eubank talk for 3 minutes about reducing food waste at the 2020 Fall Forum (1:48–4:09). Can you think of a creative solution to your food waste?
Watch this video on sustainable eating, where Ellen White teaches how to make your food choices healthier for you and for Creation; connect with her directly by attending her In the Company of Stewards presentation on Tuesday, February 16th. Check out the recipes, books, and other online resources she shared for more ideas!

Published in News & Events

December 07, 2020

Fall Forum 2020: Discussing Sister Eubank's Three Questions

In November we held our annual Fall Forum virtually. We were thrilled to welcome back Sister Sharon Eubank, and fulfill her request for further conversation by hosting a panel to discuss her three questions from last year. Below, we include the video recording (also available on YouTube) and the transcript:

Natalie:

Good evening. My name is Natalie Gochnour. I’m delighted to welcome you here, virtually tonight, to the Thomas S. Monson Center on South Temple in Salt Lake City, Utah. We are here tonight for the LDS Earth Stewardship Fall Forum. It’s a time when we can take a break from the workaday world and really stop and reflect about the beauty and majesty of Mother Earth, and honor our Creator by examining the principles of earth stewardship. I’m really excited about tonight’s discussion.

We will hear first from Sister Sharon Eubank. Sharon is the first counselor in the general presidency of the Relief Society of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. After Sister Eubank, we will hear from Sister Kira Smiley. Kira works professionally in ocean health and sustainability.

Sister Eubank, thanks for joining us tonight. I’m going to turn the time over to you.

Sharon:

I’m so glad to be with you tonight. When we met a year ago, we talked about what Zion has to do with stewardship of the Earth and you took the responsibility to think about some questions that were related to that, which I’m very grateful about. I asked three questions that all had to do with the building up of Zion and the vision of the last part of the Earth, as we believe as Latter-day Saints, and I know you’ve been thinking about that. I thought I would just frame those questions for you again and then I’ll talk a little bit about some of my own experiences this year that have got me thinking a little more deeply. I’m really looking forward to the panel as we discuss some of the things that you’ve thought about and some of the things that the panel will bring.

The first question was “When we waste what others desperately need, what are the ramifications to our physical hearts and our unity?” I had no idea when I asked that question that we would have a pandemic in 2020, and as a humanitarian I’ve been raised on those stories from the Great Depression in the 1930s when farmers could not afford to harvest their crops and so they let them just rot in the field. It’s the beginning of the Latter-day Saint welfare program because the stakes in Salt Lake City organized people to go down to Utah County and harvest the apples and the onions so that they could then keep them and they started a cannery and different things from that. I never expected in the year 2020 that I would see that same kind of situation, but the pandemic forced a lot of things on us that we had not seen in a very long time. I was as shocked as many other people to see pictures from around the country in the New York Times of dairy farmers who supplied milk to schools but nobody was meeting in schools and there was nowhere to sell it, there was nowhere to put it, so they were dumping it in fields for fertilizer. There were potato farmers and onion farmers who could not afford to harvest those because fast food restaurants weren’t serving potatoes and there was no place for the market to absorb them, and they were just rotting. There were really creative people—university students, communities, Latter-day Saint Charities was one of them—that thought, ‘This can’t be,’ and so they came up with creative solutions on things to do with that food so that it wouldn’t have to be wasted. You can see in this photo that one of the things Latter-day Saint Charities did was to go down to the dairy farmer exchange and buy the excess milk and then turn it into cheese. We used a producer up in Logan, Gossner Cheese, and they turned that excess milk into Swiss cheese, and then we turned around and put that into the trucks that went out to supply the food banks. Because at the same time that this food was being wasted, hunger was exploding in the United States and in many other places. We also dried that milk, we dried those potatoes, so that we could ship them to other places around the world. I’m really proud of the people who came up with creative solutions to that shocking waste, and I know that there are other wastes that we can think about with creative solutions that we can go forward [with] when we try. So that was something from my own experience for that first question.

The second question: “When we look at our own creations, or the creations that we’re a part of, how do we feel? How do we feel being in God’s and what is that experience like for us?” Probably like a lot of people in the middle of the pandemic, I was working from home and I felt a lot of anxiety. You’re reading scary news, there’s a lot of reports coming in from different places around the world. One of the things I started to do in April when it was one of the most anxious times was I went to a garden center along with my neighbor and we built garden boxes which we had never done before. I’ve lived in that house for thirteen years and never had any kind of a garden but this was the year. I have a black thumb; I have killed multiple plants and I’m very sorry about it. But I thought, ‘I’m going to try this year.’ So she and I hefted up these big 50-pound bags of dirt and I thought, ‘Well I’m going to plant strawberries.’ So I went to the local nursery, I got those strawberries, and you can see in these photos that I put them in. You have never seen a prouder mother than when that first strawberry blossom came! I was out staring at it in the middle of the night, looking at it during the day, and when the strawberries started to come I felt as if I had created the Earth in seven days. It was just so amazing. I mean you can tell because I’ve taken these photographs to show you. To see them start to get ripe and then to ripen. I have to tell you that I calculated the perfect moment to pick them so they would be at their ultimate ripeness and when I went out for my first five strawberries, the birds had gotten them that morning. I had missed them! So then I had to go get some kind of netting to put over them so that the birds and I could share. At the very end of this year, it became a sanctuary for me where that garden was. I actually wrote my conference talk that I gave in October out there in the middle of that. It became a place for me to feel how I relate to Creation, and also to feel the Creator in the smallest miracle of a ripening strawberry. When I think about how it felt for me to grow my own strawberries, and then to see the work and the effort that goes into just a basket of strawberries that are at the store, I would never ever be able to waste one of those again because of my experience this summer. So I feel the Creator in His creations in a very visceral way because of my own experience, and I hope you've had some experience this year as well.

The third question is a very relevant question to the 21st century where we live. I wanted to ask, “How can we frame the discussion so that we stop having the same unsuccessful conversation between people who believe in protecting the earth and people who believe in protecting business?” and that false narrative that goes back and forth. That's so unproductive and it's also false, and I am really looking forward to some of the comments that the panel will make about this. The question I asked was, “How can our hearts swell wide as eternity so that we stop having that unproductive conversation?” One of the things that I hope, and it's a challenge I'm throwing out to you, is we need to laugh more about earth stewardship. It is a serious subject, but we have sometimes approached it in such a way that it becomes so self-serious and I think there's real benefit—if we could get a stand up comedian to talk about earth stewardship I would love that because people need to respond in a different way. We cannot continue to approach it in the same way that we have. . . We want to appeal to new audiences. One of the things that happened to me this year was meeting Kira Smiley, who you're going to hear from later on in the program. She came to visit me in my office and when I heard about her, her studies, and the work that she's doing with ocean conservation, I recognized this is the future of this discussion. Kira is two generations away from me and she's a young person who has her credentials, who has her work experience, and is practically looking at real solutions. I'm very invested in what will happen for people who are in their teens or their 20s because this is really their conversation and we need to engage with them, but we can approach things in a different way and I think Kira will talk some about that.

I thought I would just close tonight with an encouragement. I had such a great experience with the scriptures and the hymns and the discussion that we had last year that I wanted to quote from Doctrine and Covenants 104. This is the doctrinal foundation that LDS Earth Stewardship is based on, and maybe it's something that I can leave all of us with before the panel begins. It says, in verses 13 through 18:

For it is expedient that I, the Lord, should make every man accountable, as a steward over earthly blessings, which I have made and prepared for my creatures. I, the Lord, stretched out the heavens, and built the earth, my very handiwork; and all things therein are mine. And it is my purpose to provide for my saints, for all things are mine. But it must needs be done in mine own away; and behold this is the way that I, the Lord, have decreed to provide for my saints, that the poor shall be exalted, in that the rich are made low. For the earth is full, and there is enough and to spare; yea, I prepared all things, and have given unto the children of men to be agents unto themselves. Therefore, if any [person] shall take of the abundance which I have made, and impart not his portion, according to the law of my gospel, unto the poor and the needy, he shall, with the wicked, lift up his eyes in hell, being in torment.

I don't always exactly know what to do, but I'm committed to change my actions to be more in line with this doctrine that I believe with all my heart, and I'm excited to be here with you today and for this great discussion. Thank you very much.

Natalie:

Thank you, Sister Eubank. I'd now like to introduce Kira Smiley. She joins us remotely from Europe. Kira is a program manager with a company that's called Tidal at Company X. Their mission is to improve ocean health and to feed humanity sustainably. Kira serves as her ward's environmental stewardship specialist and she has a BS and Master's degree from Stanford University. Kira, thank you for joining us tonight.

Kira:

Thank you so much for that introduction. I feel really privileged to have the opportunity to join Sister Eubank and all of you here today to share some remarks. Throughout my schooling and career thus far, I've had the opportunity to work on food systems and environmental challenges across the world. In my ward, as you mentioned, I’ve served as the ward environmental stewardship specialist for the past two years. Since my first Young Women's project, establishing a recycling program at our stake center, I've spent over a decade learning what it means to be a Latter-day Saint and an environmental steward. It wasn't until very recently that I actually learned about this organization but I'm thrilled to have discovered it.

Throughout my experiences working on environment and food systems [and] related challenges, two experiences have really stuck out to me in particular. Diving in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean during the 2019 Ocean Plastics Leadership Conference, everything was beautiful and blue around me until I started finding tiny bits of micro plastics: plastic jugs and plastic with marine animal bite marks and even a toilet seat. On a Romanian beach, we discovered a year's worth of plastic washed up on shore from across the globe, which solidified for me that the earth is part of an intricate and connected system, and everything we do has an impact. In southern Patagonia, I spoke with several fishermen who recounted how their fishing spots had dried up from overfishing and that they were running out of places to go next. This conversation reminded me of the Lord's teachings in Doctrine and Covenants 59. In order to have a continuous food source, natural resources must “be used with judgment, not to excess, neither by extortion.” I really believe that the Earth needs our wise stewardship today more than ever before. As members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we learn through our doctrine that the Lord has commanded us to do so. Doctrine and Covenants 136 reads, “Thou shalt be diligent in preserving what thou hast, that thou mayest be a wise steward.” President Russell M. Nelson has taught (which Sister Eubank quoted last year) that, “As beneficiaries of the divine Creation, what shall we do? We should care for the earth, be wise stewards over it, and preserve it for future generations. And we are to love and care for one another.”

So what can we do to show gratitude and charity for the Earth and for each other? Personal conviction is the first step. Within the family unit, establishing love for the Earth and all of its creations early will help deepen that innate desire we have to care for the environment. Just as the sons of Helaman were taught on their mother's knees as children, so too was I taught at an early age about nature and the environment from my mother and grandmother, learning to love and respect the environment while growing up near the forests of Oregon and Finland. The LDSES website has an extensive list of actions for individuals and families to undertake, ranging from investing in more energy-efficient appliances, reducing water use and single-use plastics, using public transportation (when safe, now, and available), reducing paper use at church, and doing community environmental service projects, among many others. If you haven't yet, I highly encourage you to visit the webpage for more ideas.

However, I suspect that many of you are doing many of these things, and wonder what you can do to take your action to the next level and cause even broader change. One day-to-day choice that has a significant impact on our Earth is food. What and how you eat matters. In the U.S. alone, 40% of food produced goes to waste, which both causes greenhouse gas emissions [that are] 25 times stronger than carbon dioxide and contradicts what the Lord taught of using His resources.¹ Most of the food you buy often comes with plenty of plastic packaging, but taking steps to avoid this—whenever and however possible—and preventing food waste has enormous impact. This could include sharing extra food with neighbors in need or food banks, home composting food scraps, prepping your meals each week to avoid last-minute purchases that often have more plastic, choosing to not overbuy, taking a picture of your pantry and fridge before going shopping to recall what you already have, choosing to buy ugly or misshapen vegetables (which are often thrown out but taste just the same), and cooking in batches and freezing leftovers (which you have to remember to actually eat). There are so many different options, and you can get creative with it as well. In addition, we've all been in Sunday School lessons where this section has been glossed over, but the Word of Wisdom does teach us to eat meat sparingly. Designing your meals to be more plant-focused by eliminating or reducing meat from most meals, and moving it from a main course to an accent or garnish in several or all meals, has enormous implications across several different areas. The meat industry is, unfortunately, responsible for about 15% of global human-driven greenhouse gas emissions.² Mostly driven by beef, this uses significant land, water, and energy, and causes runoff into rivers that cause harm to aquatic life downstream. But even more so, to satisfy this growing global demand for meat in excess, cattle ranching has become the largest driver of deforestation in every Amazon country, which has major implications on the biodiversity there and can even impact weather patterns.³

I know that changing your lifestyle to adopt new food, energy, and transportation habits may seem really challenging, but just as when we choose to follow certain standards of dress and language, committing once to follow these principles will make it so much easier than having to make that same choice day after day. I led a class at a local college where we help students to redesign their lifestyles to be more sustainable. One activity that I taught was to storyboard out your day with all of your new choices, while still meeting key needs such as health, warmth, and safety—and then to test it out. If you slip up, it's important not to give up! Changing your lifestyle is all about iteration and designing ways to make it easier to make the choices you want to make. If something doesn't work, try something else. Similar to exercise, you need to find ways to integrate new habits in a way that works for you, or you won't do it. Our actions over time will have a major impact, but you can exponentially increase the ripple effect of your actions by setting an example and encouraging your friends and your neighbors, with love, to do the same. While many of the actions associated with environmental stewardship and sustainability have been incorrectly and tragically politicized, if each of us can successfully share the connection between environmental stewardship action and their root gospel principles, we will have so much more success in helping to transform our communities and our world. The Prophet Joseph Smith stated that he taught correct principles and the saints govern themselves accordingly. Please note that in addition to having the knowledge of these principles, the saints also had the motivation and the desire to keep them, because they recognized their source as being the Lord and trusted that acting on these principles would ultimately be for their own benefit and that of Zion.

I mentioned my Young Woman medallion project at the beginning of my remarks. Ultimately, this effort unfortunately failed. While I and another young woman set up the bins, posted signs and instructions, and spent many weekends emptying the recycling, we did not sufficiently teach our ward and stake of the gospel principles connected with this new system. In doing so, we lost an opportunity to help instill that internal motivation to act. To encourage future generations to protect our planet, we can also choose to actively involve children and youth in environmental stewardship activities. As the ward environmental stewardship specialist in my ward, I've organized a native shrubbery activity, planting these with a local environmental nonprofit. I've worked with the activities committee to set up and design zero-waste potluck events, worked with members to establish recycling and composting within the ward, and led firesides teaching how environmental stewardship is related to gospel principles. These are just a few ideas of what you can do to help engage your ward community as well as your neighborhood. Remember that teaching the why behind the gospel principles of earth stewardship is equally if not more important than teaching the what, in order to promote longevity and action and prevent positive changes from disappearing as soon as we stop actively managing them. As Elder Boyd K. Packer taught, “True doctrine, understood, changes attitudes and behavior.”

Finally, remember that your environmental stewardship and daily choices have ripple effects across the planet so you must think holistically with what is referred to as a systems mindset. The majority of those who suffer from the impacts of intensifying and destructive weather phenomena, occurring more and more frequently, are often composed of the very families who live in regions of the world lacking the resources and physical and economic buffers to cope with many of these impacts the same way you or I might. Many of our brothers and sisters in the gospel live in many of these areas. Without feeling the effects so strongly, it's easy to avoid feeling a strong connection to these impacts or to fail to take action to mitigate them. But we can choose to donate to established, trustworthy organizations working on the issues, and when we think at a systems level and exercise charity, we're more likely to choose to be wise stewards of our environment, our energy use, our waste practices, our transportation and eating habits—because we understand that they have worldwide implications.

I am deeply moved, whenever I reflect on the deep trust our Heavenly Father has bestowed upon us as stewards of His magnificent creations. Being a good steward shows gratitude for everything we have and will unlock blessings for you, your community, and the people worldwide for generations to come. Each of us is a lever for change, and I believe strongly that we have the power to set a good example and to guide others to gain that same desire to take steps to be effective stewards of our planet.

Thank you again so much for the invitation to join you today and for the opportunity to share some thoughts. I encourage you to reach out if you have any questions or thoughts. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Natalie:

Thank you, Kira. It's now time for what I'm going to call a fireside chat. In addition to Sister Eubank and Kira, I'm going to bring two others into the conversation. Happy to welcome Shannon Ellsworth. Shannon is a member of the Provo City Council and she's Vice Chair of the board with LDS Earth Stewardship. Welcome Shannon. I’d also like to welcome Chip Oscarson. Chip teaches literature and film at Brigham Young University, and directs BYU’s Scandinavian program. Welcome Chip.

We are here tonight at the Thomas S. Monson Center in Salt Lake City on South Temple Street, but in 2019 LDS Earth Stewardship was at the White Chapel on Utah's Capitol Hill. Sister Eubank addressed us there and left us with three questions and invited us to engage with her. So tonight, during this fireside chat, we're going to unpack these questions and talk about what we learn as fellow panelists but also some of the comments that came in from other people who listened to the speech, who had comments about it, and have engaged with us. So I'm going to just read these questions out loud and then I'm going to turn to some of the panelists and reflect upon what was submitted to LDS Earth Stewardship and see what we learn from that. So here's the questions:

When we waste what others desperately need, what physically happens to unity and our hearts?
Why do we feel God in His creations? And what do others feel in our creations?
What would move our hearts to swell as wide as eternity?

Some pretty profound questions. On question number one—when we waste what others desperately need, what physically happens to unity and our hearts—a gentleman named Ralf has submitted this comment: he said, “When we waste resources others need, we hurt the overall community and diminish our own spirituality.” Chip I'm going to turn to you first. Do you feel like we diminish our own spirituality when we waste what others need?

Chip:

I think so. I think that it's a really important point, what's motivating this question, this idea: that we're connected. Our spirituality is connected to other people around us, and we can't expect that we can act in a way that doesn't have repercussions for people around us. I think that when we understand the way that we're connected, when we understand the way that our actions can positively or negatively impact others that we don't know or that we don't see, that aren't in our immediate vicinity, that that leads us to act in a different kind of way. If the two great commandments are love of God and love of our neighbor, these really come together in terms of how we use the physical creation that God has given us. It's a manifestation of His love and how we use it, the way that we use it, has implications for our attitudes towards other people.

Natalie:

Kira, as I listened to your remarks I felt like there was a lot of spirituality implicit in what you were sharing. Would you like to comment on what Ralf said: basically that when we waste resources others need, we not only hurt the community but we hurt our own spirituality?

Kira:

Absolutely. That hits me deeply; I think it was really profound. I think it goes back to what I mentioned from Doctrine and Covenants 59, which does teach that we need to not use things in excess or by extortion and in doing so, we're not just doing something that is sustainable (although it is), we're really hailing back to the core principles of charity, because we're thinking of our fellow humans, we're thinking of our brothers and sisters, and we're considering them and their needs so as to not take more than is needed to ensure that we can all participate and all benefit as much as we can equally from the resources that we have available on our planet.

Natalie:

Sister Eubank, you started all this so I'm going to come to you, but first Shannon—do you want to add? This is an opening question about how when we waste resources it impairs our spirituality.

Shannon:

Yeah, I appreciate that sentiment. I think it's very true. In 2020 we can see now better than ever how something in our community, in our country, or in our world can affect people on the other side of the world. Certainly our health is connected to people around us and our social and environmental health affects people around us, as does our spirituality, as does the way that we use and conserve or utilize resources.

Natalie:

Sister Eubank, do you want to comment on this?

Sister Eubank:

Yes, since it's my question I would love to! I really appreciate what Ralf said and then the comments that have been made.

The Lord gave us two gifts. The first one was agency, which Chip referred to, and then the second thing is we are all connected to each other; we cannot survive spiritually or physically if we aren't. It's part of the same system, and we have to learn to use our agency to choose to say to other people, “Your success is as important as my own success.” When we waste something that somebody else desperately needs, it's as if we are saying to them, “I care nothing about you. I don't care at all about you because the system that combines us, I'm breaking it. I’m cutting that string that connects you and me.” So in order for us to keep those two great commandments that Chip talked about—to love God and to love each other—we cannot waste what other people need. Now in a modern life it's really hard not to waste things. We are set up for this disposable society, and Kira talked a lot about that, but the ways that we can minimize waste so that other people might thrive, I think, is the measure of our humanity.

Natalie:

Thank you. I love that Sister Eubank asked us to engage and to be a part of this conversation.

Becky wrote in, “Disparity makes the experiences of God's children poignantly different from each other. At the same time that that's our reality, we also know we're commanded to be as one. If our use of resources is impeding our ability to see others as brothers and sisters, as equal heirs to the kingdom of God, then I think we're using them wrong.” And then she writes, “We can move towards greater unity by thinking outside ourselves, letting our heart lead us to be careful consumers.” So Shannon, careful consuming will help us be more unified; do you buy that?

Shannon:

Yeah. This makes me think of this concept of everything that our Heavenly Parents gave us, they gave us so much and all they really ask in return is a little bit. And our parents here on Earth have given us so much, and all they really ask for in return is a little bit. And this maternal planet that we live on gives us so much, and in return we just need to give a little bit. So I think that ties into this idea of being a careful consumer or, as Elder Maxwell used to say, a “consistent environmentalist” in returning a little bit or being conscientious in how we use these resources.

Natalie:

Shannon, did I hear you right? You said maternal planet?

Shannon:

Yes.

Natalie:

I like that and I noticed Sister Eubank smiled as you said it. Sister Eubank, what does that mean to you when you hear “maternal planet”?

Sister Eubank:

Well, you know, I automatically think about Moses 7 where Enoch sees the Earth and that she cries and groans because of the pollutions that are upon her. I think that’s specifically for our day; it's more true in our day than any other day.

In my earlier remarks I referred to the food waste that's happening in the pandemic and how shocking it was to see milk that was being dumped in fields—that we haven't seen since the Great Depression—because we didn't have use for that milk because schools were closed and there was nothing else people thought to do except to just dump it into fields as fertilizer. But what I love are the people who said—they didn't say, “There's nothing I could do about that.” There were creative university students, there were people who worked at Latter-day Saint Charities and other places, who said, “We have to do something about that. We can't stand by and watch that kind of large-scale waste.” And then they found something to do about it and so I was really happy to report about that. I love that spirit of not standing back and saying, “There's nothing I can do about that,” but recognizing, “I can find something to do about that.”

Natalie:

Chip you have four women talking about being careful consumers and how it unifies us. We're talking about maternal planet Earth. We need your perspective here.

Chip:

Well I agree with what's been articulated. I think that one thing that maybe folds into this a little bit is that we get, sometimes, too caught up in our idea of ownership, and this is what I think several people are getting at. If we remember that everything we have is a gift to us, that we think about it in terms of gift, that invites a different kind of gratitude and a different kind of understanding of our responsibility of what to do with the things that we've been given. If they don't belong to me, in the way that sometimes we talk about belonging, that they're gifts to be returned. I'm more careful with a gift: when I think of something as a gift. I’m more likely to value it, to cherish it, to take care of it, not to use it to excess. I think that part of the problem is that there's a lot in our modern society that invites us to think that we deserve it, that we own it, and those kinds of attitudes I think can be really damaging, both in terms of how we treat what we have been given but also how we make these gifts available to others. This is the idea of stewardship: I don't own it, I'm taking care of it; it's on loan, in a way, or it's a gift. I like the idea of a gift.

Natalie:

Chip, let's stay with you for a minute. I've got another comment that came in to LDS Earth Stewardship. This is from Tēvita. Tēvita writes, “The second great commandment, after loving God, is to love your neighbor. I see two important interpretations of who our neighbor is. I've come to see ‘neighbor’ . . . as also including animals and plants. They're also your neighbor, and you should take care of them and love them.” So Chip, I'd love to hear you expound upon that as someone who's an expert on these types of topics.

Chip:

Natalie:

I invite the others to comment on this spiritual signature that's in everything that we experience in Mother Nature. Chip, let's go to you first.

Chip:

Sister Eubank:

Well when I came to LDS Earth Stewardship a year ago in October, we had such a fascinating discussion. It isn't very often in my career that I'll offer to come back a second time to the same group. We were in the White Chapel and at the very end, I asked people, I said, “Let's just sing the song Guide Us, O Thou Great Jehovah,” and the people there (the balcony was full), they just raised the roof, just spontaneously singing, “Open, Jesus, Zion’s fountains; Let her [richest blessings] come,” and it really moved me—and so I offered to come back if they would consider these three questions, that I would come back in a year. I didn't know if anybody would take that up but you did. There were so many thoughtful submissions, of the people that Natalie used and others too, and to share the time with this panel to be able to discuss something like this is really, really energizing to me—that you took it so seriously and moved forward with it to something greater. If I had any encouragement, it's what I've learned from you today and it would be: help us understand our doctrine, the great love for the Earth is in our Latter-day Saint doctrine, and then make our actions match that beautiful doctrine. And encourage others, not in a scolding way or an impassioned way or an obsessive way, but, as has been said here tonight, in a loving, kind, humorous way (whatever works for you), but help each other and help us all be better connected. I'm grateful that you took it so seriously and that you invited me back. I've enjoyed my time here today; thank you.

Natalie:

Thank you, Sister Eubank. Thank you panelists. I want to thank LDS Earth Stewardship for hosting this 2020 Fall Forum, and may God bless us all.

Further references:

USDA Food Waste FAQs | NRDC Report: Wasted: How America is losing up to 40% of its food from farm to fork to landfill.
FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) Report: Tackling Climate Change Through Livestock | World Resources Institute Report: 6 Pressing Questions Answered About Beef and Climate Change, Answered.
Cattle Ranching in the Amazon Region from the Yale School of the Environment | Boucher, D., Elias, P., Lininger, K., May-Tobin, C., Roquemore, S., & Saxon, E. (2011). "The root of the problem: what’s driving tropical deforestation today?" | Butler, Rhett. “62% of deforested Amazon land ends up as cattle pasture” | How Amazon forest loss may affect water - and climate - far away, National Geographic.

Published in News & Events

November 20, 2019

That We May Be One

This address was given by Sister Sharon Eubank, First Counselor in the Relief Society General Presidency during the annual Fall Forum for LDS Earth Stewardship on October 10, 2019. Read about the event here.

Sister Sharon Eubank It’s a pleasure to be in this White Chapel in Salt Lake City. I was sitting in the front row on this beautiful hand-carved bench and feeling what it’s like when we’re not removed from the process of how a thing gets made. Wood was cut and split and carved to make this chapel, and you can feel it when you’re here. I feel that way about every piece of creation, whether it is a tree growing out of a patch of soil or whether it is fulfilling the measure of its creation as a pew. I feel that today, and I want to feel it more than I do.

This evening, I thought I would share what I consider to be the intersection between humanitarian work—the subject I live and breathe every single day—and earth stewardship, which all of us here tonight care so much about. The conversations on this topic have become polarized, easily devolving into politics represented by two cable channels. That is a shame. What is useful to me would be to find new ways of discussing the subjects of how to protect and care for the planet where we live in ways many more people can engage with. For example, Dr. Paul Cox at Brigham Young University has created a biographical documentary which provides a new framework to talk about environmental issues in terms of someone’s life story. I think we need different frameworks because the old frameworks don’t work; they just polarize the room and we no longer have the ability to speak about things that we want to, things that are moderate, and that utilize the foundations we have in common. I hope to do some of that tonight.

Imagine you are Joseph Smith in 1830. You have just gone to all the effort to publish the Book of Mormon and officially incorporate the Church. You have a steady stream of people coming to your farm, wanting to see the gold plates or to meet a prophet of God or to ask questions about the Church. You’ve sent out missionaries, including your brothers, and people are starting to respond, get baptized, and join the Church. You know from prophetic vision that the gospel has to fill the whole earth because it is preparatory for the second coming of Jesus Christ. So, once you have established the Church in 1830, what would you do next? Joseph decides to translate the Old Testament—and I ask myself, “Wow! That’s the first thing you decide to do?” He starts with Genesis, and we get the Book of Moses in the Pearl of Great Price from this retranslation or visionary rewrite of the beginning chapters of the Old Testament.

Why was that the first thing Joseph did? Why was that the first thing the Lord inspired him to do in the restoration process after the Church was organized? I believe that the experiences of Moses and of Enoch were of such value to the latter-day mission of this Church that it was critical for us to have the 8 chapters of Moses in the Pearl of Great Price. Later this evening I will read from Moses 7, because I think it has so much to do with where we are today.

I recently prepared a short presentation for the Quorum of the Twelve and the First Presidency about global migration and displacement, and I want to share a few slides with you because there are some statistics here that help us envision the scope of what is currently happening. There are 244 million¹ migrants who have left their home country and gone to live someplace else. 70.8 million² people (inside their own countries or outside) are forcibly displaced: they didn’t want to leave, but war, violence, environmental pressures, or persecution forced their departure. 13.6 million³ of those forcible displacements were new in 2018. The scope of what we are seeing with displacement has not been seen since World War II.⁴ We get used to hearing these statistics because news and political opinion makers keep talking about them, but the scope of what is happening—the disruption to human behavior, human economies, and human families—is unprecedented. This is why you will hear United Nations officials groping for words to express the unusualness of what is going on. The world is trying to respond to five or six refugee crises at the same time, which has never happened before. ⁵

People are leaving their homes because their survival as a family is threatened. These threats center on economic pressures, socio-political burdens, and environmental factors. Economic and employment opportunities determine your ability to provide for yourself or your family. Socio-political factors that pressure people to relocate can include warfare or the threat of conflict, slavery or human trafficking, and ethnic, religious, racial, or cultural persecution. The threats of corruption and exploitation are compounded along the dangerous journey of relocation. Simply wanting economic opportunity in the United States isn’t enough of a draw to drive most families to take on such risk. Many of them are fleeing violence and crime, often perpetrated by powerful gangs. Families are facing terrible choices. A gang member will say to a little 10 year old girl, “I want you to be my girlfriend.” Or they'll say to a 9 year old boy, “Come and work for me.” If they don't comply, then the family is burned out of their house or people disappear. “You don’t migrate now in search of the American dream,” these families say, “You go for your life.”⁶ Sadly, we're seeing a great deal more of this than we have in the past.

In addition to the pressures I’m describing, there are the environmental factors. There are longer-term environmental changes happening that increase displacement. For me, whether we agree on the causes of the environmental changes, is almost beside the point. The loss or decreased productivity of farmland is driving five- and six-generation families off of their lands. Rising seas mean water scarcity from saltwater intrusion is a problem along many coastal regions. This is affecting places like New Jersey, New York, and Amsterdam, but it is most troublesome in the Pacific, where saltwater intrusion is affecting agriculture in a major way. The populations at risk from rising sea levels are high density populations. For example, the Mekong Delta is one of the most populated places in the world and is at risk for major sea intrusion over the next 15 to 20 years.⁷ People all along the coast of India and across the South Pacific are already being affected by rising seas. In addition to saltwater intrusion and loss of farmland, droughts are getting more severe. Now, I come from a weather family and they can get jiggy about weather extremes, but we really are seeing stronger hurricanes, more intense flooding, and rain that doesn't come for a long time and when it does come, there’s a damaging downpour.⁸ For example, there have always been cyclical droughts in sub-Saharan Africa, but they are lasting longer and are more intense. These extreme weather patterns are driving a large segment of the migration we are seeing. A New York Times article entitled “Heat, Hunger, and War Force Africans Onto a ‘Road on Fire’” explains how African migrants cross the dangerous Sahara Desert to get up to Libya or Tunisia for a chance at taking a leaky boat across the water to land on the shores of Europe for the chance of being admitted somewhere for asylum.⁹ No one makes that perilous journey lightly.

There are severe humanitarian implications in these journeys. As people move from one place to another, unlimited need bumps up against finite resources. This is what the United Nations is grappling with: they don't have the resources to deal with the pressures the way they had in the past. They are looking for new sources of funding and new people who will, in a grassroots kind of way, get involved in ways that are new. People are forced to move, and in transit they are suffering violence and death in ways make it hard for me to sleep at night. These situations aren't resolved in one or two years. The Syrian conflict, for example, is going into its eighth year, with increasing conflict outside its borders. 6.8 million Syrians have been displaced outside Syria’s borders. Many more are displaced within Syria. Millions have relocated—enough that a quarter of the population in Jordan and third of the population in Lebanon are now refugees from neighboring conflicts. Think of the pressures this migration exerts on the host countries’ water supplies, infrastructure, sanitation, education system and in many other ways. Their infrastructure was not built to anticipate that the national population would jump by 25% in just a year or two.

Protracted situations mean long-term needs must be considered. While sometimes there are opportunities for people to return home and rebuild their communities, there are devastating cases that don’t end with that option. Some of the areas recently liberated from Islamic State terrorists, such as Mosul, are a good example. What used to be the second largest city in Iraq was made largely uninhabitable by the Islamic State. Facing an advancing army, its soldiers poisoned every water source, booby-trapped every hospital, cut every copper wire, smashed everything that was technical, and generally ensured that Mosul’s infrastructure could not be used again in any way. To those returning to rebuild, they will have to start from the Stone Age to build up an ancient city again. Many will never be able to return in their lifetime. Their situations highlight the necessity of integrating many displaced people into their host communities for long periods of time. I think I read statistics yesterday that said only 97,000 of the 70 million people have been resettled into permanent situations in the West, specifically within the United States or Europe. Most of them are still living in temporary communities, trying to figure out, “How do I get into school? How do I get along in social settings where I speak a different language? I'm from a different place and belong to a different religion, will I be accepted?” This is vividly seen in a Southeast Asia situation where a Muslim minority was expelled largely because of their faith. They are not wanted over the border where they are temporarily staying, and are not welcome to return to their home communities where they have lived for generations. Long term solutions must be found before a generation is lost to scarcity and poverty.

However difficult and intractable these situations can be, opportunities are tremendous for personal service by individuals. President Nelson in this recent General Conference encouraged us to find ways to live our personal religion, to show that we believe in God the Eternal Father and in the brotherhood of man by trying to keep the two great commandments—to love God and to love our neighbor.¹⁰ The opportunity is ripe for each one of us to take a cause that we care about and do something helpful that we have not been doing. I believe it will be individuals and families trying to keep the two great commandments that will move this world forward toward the second coming.

I am always thinking about addressing the root causes of displacement, and one of those root causes is environmental degradation. The poor feel the effects first and perhaps most keenly, but these are pressures that affect us all. So, when I got this invitation from Rebecca, I said, “Yes! I want to come talk about that, and I want to come talk about it with people who feel passionately about action.” So, I appreciate the opportunity to be here with you.

Let me now read a few verses out of Moses 7, and I want you to think about what this vision would mean if it were happening to you:

And it came to pass that Enoch looked upon the earth; and he heard a voice from the bowels thereof, saying: Wo, wo is me, the mother of men; I am pained, I am weary, because of the wickedness of my children. When shall I rest, and be cleansed from the filthiness which is gone forth out of me? When will my Creator sanctify me, that I may rest, and righteousness for a season abide upon my face?

And when Enoch heard the earth mourn, he wept, and cried unto the Lord, saying: O Lord, wilt thou not have compassion upon the earth?

And the Lord said: . . . I am Messiah, the King of Zion, the Rock of Heaven, which is broad as eternity; whoso cometh in at the gate and climbeth up by me shall never fall; wherefore, blessed are they of whom I have spoken, for they shall come forth with songs of everlasting joy.

And it came to pass that Enoch cried unto the Lord, saying: When the Son of Man cometh in the flesh, shall the earth rest? I pray thee, show me these things.

And the Lord said unto Enoch: As I live, even so will I come in the last days, in the days of wickedness and vengeance, to fulfil the oath which I have made unto you concerning the children of Noah;

And the day shall come that the earth shall rest, but before that day the heavens shall be darkened, and a veil of darkness shall cover the earth; and the heavens shall shake, and also the earth; and great tribulations shall be among the children of men, but my people will I preserve;

And righteousness will I send down out of heaven; and truth will I send forth out of the earth, to bear testimony of mine Only Begotten; . . . that my people may gird up their loins, and be looking forth for the time of my coming; for there shall be my tabernacle, and it shall be called Zion, a New Jerusalem.

And the Lord said unto Enoch: Then shalt thou and all thy city meet them there, and we will receive them into our bosom, and they shall see us; and we will fall upon their necks, and they shall fall upon our necks, and we will kiss each other;

And there shall be mine abode, and it shall be Zion, which shall come forth out of all the creations which I have made; and for the space of a thousand years the earth shall rest.

. . . And the Lord blessed the land, and they were blessed upon the mountains, and upon the high places, and did flourish.

And the Lord called his people Zion, because they were of one heart and one mind, and dwelt in righteousness; and there was no poor among them.¹¹

As a Relief Society leader, I think how we--Relief Societies and Elders Quorums--are charged with the work of salvation; we share the stewardship of preparing the earth and its people to create this state of Zion, defined as: one heart, one mind, dwelling in righteousness, and no poor among us. Now what does creating Zion and being of one heart and one mind have to do with caring for the earth? I don't have the answer to this, I'm sincerely asking you. I want to think about this question. What is the linkage? Rebecca [director of LDS Earth Stewardship] mentioned earlier that some people will say, “Isn't there something more important to do? Shouldn't we be caring for the poor versus caring for the Earth?” And my question is, are they not linked so inextricably that we can't do one without caring for the other?

While you're thinking about that, I want to show some photos and quotes—and I think these will be meaningful because I just saw that a group from LDS Earth Stewardship was down in Zion National Park for a service project. Casey Jones, the assistant director of Outreach and Development at Zion National Park, sent me some stories I thought I would share with you. As I read them, think about these quotes not as if they're about Zion National Park but as if they're about the actual Zion.

First is a photo I took of the Great Salt Lake from the western side of Antelope Island. I can see this island from my house and when the sun is setting behind it that’s pretty much Zion to me.

Isaac Behunin was a pioneer. He built a log cabin and started a farm exactly where Zion's Lodge sits today. At some point, he was reading the Bible and came across Isaiah 2:2, which reads, “And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.” Behunin had lived through the persecutions of Nauvoo of being driven from place to place, and this home, this canyon, this last haven, felt like his Zion. Among God's towering temples, he found refuge and called it Zion—so that's where the park got its name. (Brigham Young didn't like the name because he wanted something else, but when he finally went down there and saw it, he agreed to call it Zion.) Behunin’s quote reads, “A man can worship God among these great cathedrals as well as he can in any man-made church; this is Zion.”¹²

We have a physical reaction when we are in nature. Sometimes it's overwhelmingly strong when we are in a place like Zion National Park, or putting our hands in the soil, or even riding a bike out on a bike path (thanks to our friend Sarah Bateman in Utah County). When we are out in nature, we feel the spirit of it. I believe the spirit comes from the obedience of Creation. All of nature—the rocks, the mountains, the ocean—will line up at the command of God, and will rearrange itself in whatever way He directs. We are the only beings to whom He has given full agency to choose what we do. So, when we are in nature, we feel the obedience of it to its Creator, and it touches us; we feel it in our hearts.

The second person I want to tell you about is Frederick Dellenbaugh. He was with Major John Wesley Powell and Jacob Hamblin on the second expedition to explore the Colorado River, traveling in canoes. As they went through Zion, Dellenbaugh was blown away by what he was seeing. He vowed to return, and he followed through 27 years after the expedition. In 1903, he gathered up his paints, got a horse, and spent the entire spring, summer, and fall going through what is now Zion National Park and painting. In 1904, at the World's Fair in St Louis, he exhibited some of these paintings. People didn't think the scenery was real. They thought it was fake! Nonetheless, Dellenbaugh’s paintings and an article he authored in Scribner’s Magazine, were a significant influence on President Taft’s decision to declare Mukuntuweap National Monument, which was later renamed Zion. This quote is from that Scribner Magazine article:

“Away below, sage-covered slopes extend to the distant green of Virgin City, overshadowed by the towering magnificence of the Great Temple, standing unique, sublime, adamantine. One hardly knows just what to think of it. Never before has such a naked mountain of rock entered into our minds! Without a shred of disguise its transcendent form rises preeminent. There is almost nothing to compare to it—Niagara has the beauty of energy; the Grand Canyon, of immensity; the Yellowstone, of singularity ; the Yosemite, of altitude; the ocean, of power; this Great Temple, of eternity— . . . Storm, night, the stars, the sun and moon, the elements, alone hold communion with that pristine crest. . . . in all that wondrous expanse of magnificent precipices we hear no sound save our own voices and the whisper of the wind that comes and goes, breathing with the round of centuries. . . . The whole marvellous landscape circled around us now in one immense sweep, weird and wild to the last degree, with apparently no human life but ours within the vast radius of our vision. Mountain, canyon, cliff, pinnacle, valley, and temple stood forth, naked as in those first hours when lifted out of the enveloping seas; a wonderful, an appalling wilderness, of which Little Zion, the Opalescent Valley, is the heart and culmination.” ¹³

He was moved; those are beautiful words.

Two final quotes. One is from Elder Stephen Richards. This comes from a general conference report in 1940, published in the Improvement Era. He is speaking of Zion National Park but think about it as if it is the real Zion: “[I]t is a sermon—inspiring, exalting, lifting man from the baser things in life to the nobler. . . . His vision is enlarged, his sympathies are broadened, his love of his fellow-men is deepened and his trust in God and the universe is supreme. He is made a better man.”¹⁴

The last is from President Russell M. Nelson. “As beneficiaries of the divine Creation, what shall we do? We should care for the earth, be wise stewards over it, and preserve it for future generations. And we are to love and care for one another.”¹⁵

I’ve probably read too much, but expressed in these literary and prophetic words is the spirit we feel when we are in nature. It makes us better people; it raises and lifts our spirits so that we treat ourselves and our fellow beings differently. Going back to Moses, recall how Jesus said, “I am Messiah, the King of Zion, the Rock of Heaven, which is broad as eternity”.¹⁶ In the same chapter, I find it very interesting that it says about Enoch:

“And it came to pass that the Lord spake unto Enoch, and told Enoch all the doings of the children of men; wherefore Enoch knew, and looked upon their wickedness, and their misery, and wept and stretched forth his arms, and his heart swelled wide as eternity.” ¹⁷

His heart swelled wide as eternity. My question is: if Jesus Christ is the King of Zion and as broad as eternity, and Enoch—when he was in the presence of Jesus—felt so much compassion for the earth and its inhabitants that his own heart swelled as wide as eternity, then what would it take for each of us to have our hearts swell as wide as eternity? What vision would encompass us enough so that we could truly have one heart and one mind and dwell in righteousness and have no poor among us?

I ask you seriously and thoughtfully to consider the question: what does Zion have to do with stewardship of the Earth? I will volunteer to come back and listen to a discussion or a panel or anything you want to organize at some future time if you will think about the questions I am asking. I want to hear from you, not as an assignment but because I care so deeply about the potential answers.

First question: When we waste what others desperately need, what are the ramifications to our physical hearts and our unity? This is a difficult question for people who live in what we call First World countries because it's almost impossible not to waste things. Yet our Lord and God, as the Creator, wastes nothing; His system has no waste. When we waste what others desperately need, what does that do to the fabric that stretches between us as human beings?

Second question: I told you earlier a bit about why I think we feel the spirit of God in His creations. In our own creations, what do other people feel? We honored Sarah Bateman with an award this evening because of some of her unique creations and how they make us feel. When we look at our own creations or the creations we are a part of, how do we feel? What feelings flow from what we are creating?

And the third question: What would move our hearts? How could we frame the discussion so that we would stop having the same unsuccessful conversation over and over again? What would move our hearts to swell as wide as eternity so that we would act, we would use our will, we would do something new for the benefit of humankind?

If you will indulge me—you are all as good as a choir in this building. There is no piano and I don't play the organ but, as my closing testimony, would you sing a capella with me these three great verses of “Guide Us, O Thou Great Jehovah”? Pour your heart into it, and we can lift the roof off of this chapel.

1. Guide us, O thou great Jehovah,

Guide us to the promised land.

We are weak, but thou art able;

Hold us with thy pow'rful hand.

Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit,

Feed us till the Savior comes,

Feed us till the Savior comes.

2. Open, Jesus, Zion's fountains;

Let her richest blessings come.

Let the fiery, cloudy pillar

Guard us to this holy home.

Great Redeemer, Great Redeemer,

Bring, oh, bring the welcome day,

Bring, oh, bring the welcome day!

3. When the earth begins to tremble,

Bid our fearful thoughts be still;

When thy judgments spread destruction,

Keep us safe on Zion's hill,

Singing praises, Singing praises,

Songs of glory unto thee,

Songs of glory unto thee.¹⁸

These words are my testimony. I don't know exactly what to do but I'm committed to waking up every day and trying to put some action into my beliefs. I pray that Jehovah, the God of the Old Testament, who is also Jesus Christ, the Messiah of the New Testament, will guide me so that little tiny drops of action can somehow flow together into a small stream that joins a bigger river that flows into the ocean and finally create Zion. All of us can be part of that.

May God bless your work. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

——————————————————————————————————————————

¹ https://www.who.int/migrants/en/
² https://www.unhcr.org/en-us/news/press/2019/6/5d03b22b4/worldwide-displacement-tops-70-million-un-refugee-chief-urges-greater-solidarity.html
³ https://www.unhcr.org/ph/figures-at-a-glance
⁴ https://www.cnn.com/2016/06/20/world/unhcr-displaced-peoples-report/index.html
⁵ https://www.unhcr.org/en-us/figures-at-a-glance.html
⁶ https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/13/world/americas/fleeing-gangs-central-american-families-surge-toward-us.html
⁷ https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-11602-1
⁸ https://www.dw.com/en/climate-change-and-extreme-weather-science-is-proving-the-link/a-43323706
⁹ https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/12/15/world/africa/agadez-climate-change.html
¹⁰ President Russell M. Nelson “Love Thy Neighbor” General Conference report, Ensign, November 2019
¹¹ Moses 7:48-49, 53-54, 60-64, and 17-18
¹² Isaac Behunin, quoted in “Zion National Park, Utah,” Steve Chapman, Chicago Tribune, Aug 14, 2014
¹³ https://archive.org/stream/scribnersmagazin35newy/scribnersmagazin35newy_djvu.txt
¹⁴ Stephen L. Richards Conference Report, Apr. 1940; “Avocation,” Improvement Era, June 1927
¹⁵ Russell M. Nelson “The Creation,” Ensign, May 2000, 84.
¹⁶ Moses 7:53
¹⁷ Moses 7:41
¹⁸ LDS Hymns, 83

Published in General

November 20, 2019

Fall Forum 2019: Preparing for Zion and Stewardship of the Earth are Inextricably Linked

The tone for our Fall Forum was set by the historic and venerable location of White Memorial Chapel. Every pew and seat were filled by eager listeners, ready to hear what Sister Sharon Eubank came to share. After introducing our Board of Directors, presenting the Steward of the Year award, sharing highlights from the past year, and announcing the Duty, Love and Stewardship campaign, the majority of the evening was left to our special guest.

Sis Eubank Smiles at Audience Sister Eubank opened graciously, explaining that she hadn't written down her thoughts because she wanted to have a conversation. Her first topic was how humanitarian work and environmental stewardship intersect: the migration of displaced people. Environmental degradation is one of the top three reasons that people leave their home. Long-term environmental changes such as saltwater intrusion from rising sea levels and increasingly extreme weather patterns like droughts and hurricanes force desperate departures that are perilous and risky. Sis. Eubank pointed out that the scale of the migration happening right now hasn't been seen since World War II. Naturally, our response needs to cover the immediate needs of the displaced, but it's equally important to address the root causes of migration—which include environmental concerns.

The second topic centered around Zion. Sis. Eubank highlighted the strange choice that Joseph Smith made after establishing the Church; of all the things he could have put his time and effort into, Joseph translated the Old Testament. She proposed that it indicates how important the experiences of Moses and Enoch are. After reading some of the verses in Moses 7, she asked us to seriously and thoughtfully consider what preparing the earth to be Zion—of one heart and one mind, dwelling in righteousness with no poor among us—has to do with stewardship of the earth. "Are they not linked so inextricably that we can't do one without caring for the other?" she asked.

For her testimony, Sis. Eubank closed by leading the attendees in singing Guide Us, O Thou Great Jehovah. The Spirit swelled with the sound of beautiful voices. After finishing, she added, "I pray that Jehovah . . . will guide me so that little tiny drops of action can somehow flow together . . . and finally create Zion." She acclaimed the work of LDS Earth Stewardship by lauding our Resource Library, appreciating how we stay true to Church teachings, and explaining that her attendance at this forum was approved by Church leadership. "There is no question: we are stewards of the earth and we care for the earth," she affirmed, "It is a godly and holy work."
Sharon congratulates Sarah

With hope of continuing the conversation at future events, she asked three questions that she wants us to help her answer. We list them below, with some context from the evening’s discussion, for you to ponder:

1. When we waste what others desperately need, what physically happens to unity and our hearts?

Reflecting on the hand-carved pews we sat upon in the chapel, Sis. Eubank brought attention to how it feels when we're familiar with the process of how something is made. She expressed the weighty seriousness of wastefulness by tracing the "value chain" of resources required to get a package of raspberries into her fridge. We are indefensibly culpable when we waste something that could have benefitted someone else; if we all reduced our waste, we could fulfill many of the needs of our poor without even sacrificing. When we look at the processes that God designed in the natural world, there is no waste; that is a divine pattern.

2. Why do we feel God in His creations? What do others feel in our own creations?

In discussing Zion, Sis. Eubank shared a handful of quotes about individuals' experiences in Zion National Park. They all touched on the physical reactions and deep feelings that come from being in nature. One possible explanation for this phenomenon Sis. Eubank suggested is that the obedience of the natural world to its Creator has an uplifting influence. In her words, "It makes us better people; it raises and lifts our spirits so that we treat ourselves and our fellow beings differently."

3. What would move our hearts to swell "as wide as eternity" (Moses 7:41)?

Noting that the way we often talk about environmental issues is polarizing, Sis. Eubank identified the need for a new framing that can open the conversation up again. However, she warned that the position of a ‘moral high horse’ is unlikely to be constructive. Instead she encouraged creative persuasions that appeal to others’ practicality and humor. Because “we are the Church,” we don’t need to wait for Church leaders to give direction before enacting eco-friendly practices in our wards and stakes.

The transcript was first shared with the members of LDSES via the newsletter,

but is now freely available to read here.

White Memorial Chapel Daytime

Published in News & Events

October 09, 2019

Announcing LDSES Fall Forum With Sharon Eubank and Gratitude Campaign

[SALT LAKE CITY] LDS Earth Stewardship (LDSES) welcomes Sharon Eubank, Director of Latter-day Saint Charities, as the keynote speaker at the annual LDSES Fall Forum this Thursday, Oct 10, at 7 pm at White Memorial Chapel in Salt Lake City.

Sister Eubank will discuss how the environment affects the poor and vulnerable and share her first-hand knowledge of what people throughout the world are facing by way of pollution, displacement, and poverty. “We are so honored to have Sister Eubank talk with us,” said George Handley, LDSES Trustee and Professor of Interdisciplinary Humanities at Brigham Young University. “Her love and compassion can serve as an example to us for what we can do to help serve our neighbors.”

At the Fall Forum, LDSES is also launching the “Duty, Love and Stewardship” campaign, asking Utahns to sign their names online in praise and support for the growing number of earth stewardship efforts undertaken by Saints throughout the world. People can add their name here. People can also share the campaign by using the hashtag #DutyLoveAndStewardship.

“We hope people learn about the campaign and are excited to sign their names in praise of all that’s being done to honor the Creator through earth stewardship,” said Handley. “This is a simple way to say thank you to our leaders and fellow Church members, and to inspire more stewardship.”

The Love, Duty and Stewardship Campaign showcases an infographic celebrating key earth stewardship acts led by Latter-day Saints in the last 10 years. Highlights include powerful guidance from leaders, including President Nelson's conference talk titled "The Creation,” in 2000, and “The Moral Imperative of Environmental Stewardship” by Elder Steven E. Snow in 2018. The leadership of young Saints is also highlighted, such as Clayton Kearl’s massive trash clean-up effort in Peru, which reached 93,000 social media followers, and green projects by BYU students, such as clean energy solutions for communities in Mongolia.

“If you look back over just the last decade, more and more Church members are connecting the dots between our doctrine and earth stewardship,” notes Rebecca Bateman, LDSES Executive Director. “We are seeing a groundswell of Latter-day Saints connecting with gospel-centered earth stewardship and doing meaningful acts of service.”

Capacity is limited for the LDSES Fall Forum this Thursday, and seating will be offered on a first come first serve basis. After the event, LDSES will also provide a transcript of Sister Eubank's words on their web site.

Published in News & Events