Hi there, Why Religion Lessoners Anthony Swat here from B.O.U. Church History and Doctrine. Welcome to another great episode of the Why Religion Podcast.

The word refuge has been mentioned in general conference a total of 58 times since 1850.

Now here's what's interesting about that statistic. At the time that I am recording this introduction more than half of those references, 33 to be exact have been given since the year 2000.

The last few decades have seen countless plights of God's children as refugees across the globe and the Lord's Church has sought to respond.

In 2016, Sister Linda Kay Burton, the General Releases Society President of the Church at that time, gave a landmark talk called, I Was A Stranger.

A phrase based on Jesus' teaching in Matthew chapter 25 where he taught, quote,

for I was in hunger and he gave me meat. I was thirsty and he gave me drink. I was a stranger and he took me in.

Here is part of Sister Burton's call to the church.

There are more than 60 million refugees, including forcibly displaced people worldwide, half of those are children.

These individuals have undergone tremendous difficulties and are starting over in new countries and cultures.

While there are sometimes organizations that help them with a place to live in basic necessities, it is our hope that you will prayerfully determine what you can do according to your own time and circumstances to serve the refugees living in your neighborhoods and communities.

In this talk, Sister Burton discussed the general primary, young women and relief societies combined efforts to assist refugees through the church's new I Was A Stranger initiative.

The first presidency released a letter around this time stating that, quote,

we remind Latter-day Saints throughout the world that one of the fundamental principles of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ is to impart of your substance to the poor.

Every man according to that which he hath, administering to their relief, both spiritually and temporally according to their wants and of quote.

The last part of that citation came from Mosiah chapter 4 verse 26 in the Book of Mormon, which has, along with the Bible, many verses related to caring for those in need.

The word that the Bible often uses for these various translation is the word gear.

Dr. Crystal Pierce of BYU Religious Education has recently published a chapter on the teachings in the mosaic law and also the Book of Mormon related to what she calls gear laws.

Depending on your translation of the Bible, it's translated in different ways. So in the King James version, it's translated as stranger.

And in other versions, it's alien or alien resident or foreigner things like that. And so what the gear really comes down to is it's somebody who's been displaced from their home.

Anyone who's been displaced and anybody who's under threat of losing their freedom, losing their rights, losing their life, they become a gear.

As a covenant people, we should have empathy with those who become garrers. Abraham was a stranger in a strange land.

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