marge

I agree, st vincent de paul do both those things as well.  I think I might be confused by what you mean by charity. In my faith charity is when a person loves God above all things for his own sake and loves others for God's sake. Its not about giving necessarily (although giving obviously comes from it) but about love.

I didn't mean to be dismissive at all, its just different ways of doing things.

We’re entitled to make jokes about your country being founded by prison inmates and koala bears for the next three years bro. 
 
😛 

Very cool! 

Today...right now...I am reminded of how grateful I should be to be the father of daughters. 😉

lol fun times right!  I'm not a former catholic, I did step away for a while and had a crisis of faith, looked at a lot of other belief systems but I went back to Catholicism in the end.
I like to find the similarities in religious beliefs. I think every denomination is just doing their best and fully believe in what they are doing.
I should update my profile so it says that

The quote I remember is:
Light a fire and you will warm a person for a few hours.
Light them on fire and you will warm them for the rest of their life.
 
The Traveler

Hey @marge! I’m a former Catholic too. I got a ton of service hours folding clothes and ringing up customers at my local SVDP store while I was in high school.
Welcome to the forums! 

I think Carb has brilliantly and succinctly outlined the period of the fast.

It probably sounds more impressive than it really is. In reality, as long as you start out well-hydrated, 24 hours without water is not a big deal.

I guess every church has a different view on how they practice charity, each to their own

Interesting!  24 hours with no water is so hard core.
Technically our fasts are you can have two snacks that put together would not make a complete meal. No meat, and its only mandatory on Ash Wednesday and Fridays during lent.  But many people do Wednesday and Friday every week and go without all food, but still drink water (I do water on Fridays, not that great at Wednesdays yet!).  We do it out of reverence for Jesus and offer up our 'suffering' it causes to God to come closer to him and work on the virtue of fasting.
I guess our version of the bishops storehouse is St Vincent De Paul, anyone can go and get food or clothes, or they will deliver it to you if you can't get there, pay utility bills, fuel cards, help with teaching budgeting, housing applications that sort of thing. I didn't know the Bishops storehouse was for everyone, that's awesome, I got the impression it was just for struggling LDS and you had to sit an interview with the bishop first?  

For the most part the "law of the fast" is similar to what I've heard from people of other Christian faiths. But there are tweaks from denomination to denomination.  Here are some differences.
We fast both food and water.  Many only fast food.  Some only fast specific foods.  For us it is a complete fast of all food and drink.  Although medical reasons may limit this. It is supposed to be for a complete 24 hrs, or as reasonably close to that as conditions may dictate.  I doubt anyone has a timer going and say that they still have to wait 12 more seconds before taking the first bite.  It is from finishing dinner on Saturday to beginning of dinner on Sunday (whatever times they may be, but relatively close to 24 hrs). Prior to the settlement of Utah, there were special instances where a fast was called for.  And we invited all those who would participate to do so.  But during the settlement of Utah, we had droves of people who had given all their worldly goods to make the trek across the country.  And they came to Utah, starving.  Brigham Young then instituted Fast Sunday wherein we would have a fast and donate the food that would have been eaten to those who did not have anything. Even today, our fast offerings go to fund the Bishop's Storehouse which is reserved for the poor.  All other fasts do not have the donation associated with it.  But I'm sure there are some who give a fast offering for individual fasts as well.

I don't know the LDS law of fasting or blessings associated with it.  But I did grow up with fasting as a big part of my religion.  I still fast every Friday and sometimes Wednesday as well.  We don't have any money offerings associated with it though.
 

I dislike when this is done with MLMs.

You mean blue rare, comrade.
You have a more expansive and, perhaps, more charitable view of what "the commitment pattern" means than I have. I was taught "the commitment pattern" as a series of steps designed to maneuver people into agreeing to do something, whether that's to be baptized or to stop smoking or to pray or just to meet with us again. I did try to use it, but I didn't like it, and after a while I got away from using it because it didn't feel honest. I believe that certain personality types could use "the commitment pattern" as it was taught to me as a normal, natural, honest part of their conversation. I think such personality types would rub many people wrong; those so taught would often feel like they're being sold something. But, as you note, if by "the commitment pattern" you just mean a pattern of honest communication, then of course there is nothing wrong with that.

I'm guessing the latter. There is nothing wrong with getting a commitment; that's solid communications. But requiring a verbal commitment before proceeding with the conversation feels, I don't know, not bullying, not quite manipulative, but something along those lines.

The controversy is that officially undergoing gender reassignment has permanent consequences. Even the hormones and other chemicals can be life-altering if someone holds to the routine for too long regardless of whether or not they actually undergo the physical surgery. 
Basically, it's something that there's no going back from. 
Because of this, quite a few individuals, including individuals who did transition, are objecting to the prospect of minors transitioning, and feel that only legal adults who have undergone psychiatric evaluation should begin the process. This is where the controversy and legal battles are coming from, whether or not minors are informed and mature enough to consent to the process. 

I feel there WERE warnings in Noah's time.  They probably started BEFORE Noah actually even started building his Ark.  In that light, it could have been going on for HUNDREDS of years prior to the flood.  People just didn't act upon those warnings and didn't believe in them.  They saw life continuing as it always did, and lived it as such while ignoring the prophets and anything they said. 
We see this today, even among Church members.  In a more literal and recent event, we saw it with the pandemic.  We had prophets and apostles come out and tell us to wear masks, social distance, get vaccinated.  Instead of actually listening and doing what the Prophets asked us to do, we had MANY go to these statements and tear them down.  These were members of the Church doing this.  We had OPEN rebellion in some Church buildings and services with people REFUSING to wear masks OR social distance.  We had people making up all sorts of excuses NOT to get vaccinated. 
The pandemic was something we literally could see occurring in front of us.  The statements from Apostles and First Presidency were directly dealing with a situation occurring in real time, and even then, we had so many within the church (not even those who are not members, we are talking the membership itself) go in open rebellion.
If something that is seen and experienced in the immediate present is treated in such a manner, how is something that is not yet seen (such as Noah's flood before it finally occurred) being treated by people?
When the events of the Second Coming actually occur and the Lord comes, there could be a lot of death and destruction from formerly confident individuals.  If it happens within my lifetime, I'm not sure I'm going to survive it (nothing in my patriarchal blessing indicates that I will survive it).  Many look forward to it as if they will be one of those spared, I find very few actually look at it and think...I might not actually survive this. 
We will be there in the afterlife to see it perhaps, but there may be many who think that they are among those sanctified that are eating and drinking today, marrying and frolicking, and all sorts of other daily activities who will not live in the mortal flesh to see the Second Coming (and that probably includes myself). 

Mental Health Awareness and Overdose Awareness--two causes that came onto my radar with the death of a great-niece. At 20 Fetinol took her life. She believed there is a God, and in some ways showed openness--though she never agreed with "religion." What we can agree on is that she now sees much more than she did. She now knows God the Father is real and that Jesus is the way to reconcile with Him. This story might cause some here to renew their dedication to Baptisms for the Dead. For me, it is a reminder that life is short and our love must be intentional and out loud.  

Such an interesting question! I also think about why the Jews don't recognise Jesus as their Messiah, I mean they were there, its their prophesies that foretell the coming of the messiah, yet they 100% believe it's not Jesus.

You’re certainly right that our theology emphasizes the role of community both as an end of salvation and as a means of salvation, though I might quibble about whether some of the examples you cite are really manifestations of this culture.  I imagine in both religions, people can see the way an adherent lives his life and note incongruities between what the adherent claims to believe versus what he actually does.
I guess the question is, in Catholicism, whether the institutional church and/or individual laypersons a) believe that such incongruities may actually cause a third party to lose their salvation, and b) the degree to which they believe that an individual’s losing their salvation represents a loss to the community as a whole, and the nature of any theological/moral obligation the community may have to try to minister to/bring back the wayward.
And perhaps I have over-generalized about Catholicism generally.  Frankly, I just don’t know what to think—it was Catholic culture, as I understand it, that gave us Carnival/Mardi Gras with their “go ahead and get all your sins out now” ethos; and it’s odd to me that (from my outsiders perspective) the Catholic hierarchy hasn’t formally condemned this mindset that I trust, per the actual theology, would be widely acknowledged as being spiritually toxic.

You must be referring to easter and Christmas catholics lol.  Seriously though Catholicism can definitely rival the LDS church with the amount of rules you have to follow (when I was looking at the LDS church I found it to have less rules than Catholicism)
I think the big difference, and this is just my perspective having attended both denominations, is the LDS faith seems very public where as the Catholic faith is very private. In the LDS church your salvation status is very much 'on view' to the rest of the members. If you don't take the sacrament or you can't speak in church you're obviously in some sort of trouble. A temple wedding and if you can even attend as a guest is another example or your salvation being 'on show'. Even the temple recommend itself I guess is too.
In the Catholic Church as long as you get to confession on Saturday you are good to have the Eucharist at Sunday Mass. And even if you don't go to communion, no one says or thinks anything about it. It's not 'clicky' like the LDS church, you're there to worship God not make friends, not to say that there aren't activities and study groups, there is, if you want to be involved.
There's also no 'callings' - I mean people volunteer for things but its not expected. I think the callings also create a 'status' type thing in the LDS church. I don't know how bishops find the time, its a huge sacrifice, to work full-time, be a husband and father and a bishop too. Hats off to them, its amazing.  A Catholic priest has a University degree in theology and nothing else to do except look after his parish.
I think protestants do believe in works they just don't want to admit it lol they like to think its 'I'm changed by grace and that's why I do good works' its just a different motivation for doing the same thing.

I spoke of Catholicism as that is the other thought process I am considering.  After seeing the authority question answered in the church, I have problems with the just "do whatever" nature of the protestant denominations (and I know that isn't a super fair way of wording it, but it makes my point).  With that in mind the only other place I see as viable is Catholic.

And ironically the thought comes to mind, that "This is life eternal, to know thee the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou has sent" and "It is necessary for us to have an understanding of God himself in the beginning. If we start right, it is easy to go right all the time; but if we start wrong we may go wrong, and it will be a hard matter to get right."

So in my mind, the question is, if God is obedient to law, then where did that law come from?  I don't think that's a bad question to ask.