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Tuesday March 9, 2010
The Mormon Index

By Douglas MacMillan

The Mormon Index

Gas prices are at roughly $4 a gallon, unemployment hovers at 5.7%, and the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression is grinding along. Is this the end of the world as we know it? Perhaps, judging from the growing waiting lists to shop at the 100 food warehouses run by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in the U.S. and Canada. Run by appointment, these depots sell wheat, flour, rice, canned goods, and other nonperishables at cost. They were originally set up to supply the faithful in the event of a catastrophic event, such as the Great Tribulation—a period of suffering that, according to the New Testament, precedes the Apocalypse. But lately, rising costs at the grocery, fear of national food shortages, and growing job insecurity have boosted traffic at the centers to levels not seen since the Y2K scare and the September 11 terrorist attacks. Mormons anxious about hard times are building stockpiles for their families, says Greg Mott, the stake president (a lay church leader who overseas local congregations) for the Spokane (Wash.) area. And it’s not just the faithful who are stocking up: Mott says about 5% of customers at the Spokane warehouse now are nonchurch members