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The Bishop Did What?! • followHIM Favorites • November 4-10 • Come Follow Me AI transcript and summary - episode of podcast followHIM: A Come, Follow Me Podcast

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Episode: The Bishop Did What?! • followHIM Favorites • November 4-10 • Come Follow Me

The Bishop Did What?! • followHIM Favorites • November 4-10 • Come Follow Me

Author: Hank Smith & John Bytheway
Duration: 00:05:16

Episode Shownotes

SHOW NOTES/TRANSCRIPTSEnglish: https://tinyurl.com/podcastBM45ENFrench: https://tinyurl.com/podcastBM45FRGerman: https://tinyurl.com/podcastBM45DEPortuguese: https://tinyurl.com/podcastBM45PTSpanish: https://tinyurl.com/podcastBM45ESYOUTUBEhttps://youtu.be/X4brw0XkfMcALL EPISODES/SHOW NOTESfollowHIM website: https://www.followHIMpodcast.comFREE PDF DOWNLOADS OF followHIM QUOTE BOOKSNew Testament: https://tinyurl.com/PodcastNTBookOld Testament: https://tinyurl.com/PodcastOTBookWEEKLY NEWSLETTERhttps://tinyurl.com/followHIMnewsletterSOCIAL MEDIAInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/followHIMpodcastFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/followhimpodcastThanks to the followHIM team:Steve & Shannon Sorensen: Cofounder, Executive Producer, SponsorDavid & Verla Sorensen: SponsorsDr. Hank Smith: Co-hostJohn Bytheway: Co-hostDavid Perry: ProducerKyle Nelson: Marketing, SponsorLisa

Spice: Client Relations, Editor, Show NotesJamie Neilson: Social Media, Graphic DesignWill Stoughton: Video EditorKrystal Roberts: Translation Team, English & French Transcripts, WebsiteAriel Cuadra: Spanish Transcripts"Let Zion in Her Beauty Rise" by Marshall McDonaldhttps://www.marshallmcdonaldmusic.com

Summary

In the episode "The Bishop Did What?!" hosted by Hank Smith and John Bytheway, a bishop shares his revealing experiment disguising as a homeless person during sacrament meeting. The reactions of his congregation ranged from indifference to moments of kindness, leading to reflections on compassion and human dignity. This poignant story serves as a lesson on the importance of not only material aid but also the recognition of an individual's worth and the need for meaningful human connections within the community.

Go to PodExtra AI's episode page (The Bishop Did What?! • followHIM Favorites • November 4-10 • Come Follow Me) to play and view complete AI-processed content: summary, mindmap, topics, takeaways, transcript, keywords and highlights.

Full Transcript

00:00:02 Speaker_00
Hello, everyone. Welcome to Follow Him Favorites. This is where John and I are sharing a single story to go with each week's lesson. John, we're in Mormon 7, 8, and 9 this week.

00:00:13 Speaker_00
There's this point where Moroni, who's now writing because Mormon, his father, is passed away. He's writing to us and he says something that's a little harsh. He says, you love money, you love your substance, your clothes more than you love the poor.

00:00:30 Speaker_00
more than you love the needy, the sick, and the afflicted. You adorn yourselves with that which hath no life, yet you let the hungry, the needy, the naked, the sick, and the afflicted to pass by you, and you don't even notice.

00:00:45 Speaker_00
I have a story for you, John. I want to hear what you think. Now, I need to give a couple of disclaimers as we go, so watch out for those. A couple of years ago, I won't give the man's name.

00:00:54 Speaker_00
He was a bishop for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and he decided to do something really different for sacrament meeting. Now, I need to say, John, that since that time, the church has said, please don't do things like this.

00:01:06 Speaker_00
So I don't want anyone out there to go, Oh, I want to try that. No, no, don't don't do that. He wasn't breaking any rules on purpose. The bishop decided to get up early, go to a makeup artist and look like a real homeless person before church.

00:01:23 Speaker_00
Then he sat right outside the front doors of the church as his ward was coming in. I don't want anyone out there to think, oh, I'm going to do this. But he did learn quite a bit. And I think the ward learned quite a bit.

00:01:38 Speaker_00
He said, as my ward was coming in, many went out of their way to purposely ignore me. He said some gave me an apple, crackers or a twenty dollar bill. He said it was most impressed with the children.

00:01:51 Speaker_00
They definitely were eager to want to reach out and help in some way. He was told by several members of his ward to leave the property.

00:02:01 Speaker_00
I had one person who went out of his way to tell me this was not a place to ask for charity and that I was not welcome. Now, John, the second counselor in the ward was in on this. He told him, I'm going to be this person.

00:02:16 Speaker_00
So after the meeting starts, the bishop, who's the homeless man, he walked to the front of the chapel, sat close to the front and listened. And the counselor, the second counselor is the one giving the talk.

00:02:26 Speaker_00
He started kind of whispering or talking to the second counselor from the row that he's at, which is kind of out of the ordinary. And he said, can I say something?

00:02:35 Speaker_00
The second counselor, not realizing that this might give it away, John, he said, brothers and sisters, this homeless man would like to say a few words. There was some odd look, some silence, and the bishop walked to the stand.

00:02:51 Speaker_00
He said he wanted to thank the people for all the kindness they showed. He had some money that he had received and he would like to give a portion of it back as a token of appreciation. He asked, where's the bishop?

00:03:04 Speaker_00
I would like to give the money to him, but no one spoke. And the homeless man started to take off his wig and glasses to show that he was, in fact, the bishop. This is what he said. It had a shock value I did not anticipate.

00:03:26 Speaker_00
He said, I did not have any idea the board members would gasp as they did. He said some attendees started crying, others said nothing.

00:03:37 Speaker_00
Many came forward to apologize for their indifference to the bishop, announcing they would do things to atone for their actions. He said, I felt horrible that they felt so horrible.

00:03:51 Speaker_00
But he said the experiment was more potent than a sermon he could have given. This was the interesting part. This is what he said. There was an unexpected lesson for me. We don't have to give money or food.

00:04:03 Speaker_00
And John, I know that's kind of discouraged to give money.

00:04:07 Speaker_01
Yeah. The principle is commodities over cash, right?

00:04:12 Speaker_00
Yeah. There's organizations you can give your money to and really help. He said, we don't always have to give money or food.

00:04:18 Speaker_00
But if we really believe what we say, but we believe, shouldn't we smile, make eye contact and allow them to have a little bit of human dignity? Now, again, John, please, nobody go do that. It's not something the church would have you do.

00:04:34 Speaker_00
And he wasn't breaking any rules. It wasn't a rule until then. I just like the lesson. Do we walk by with our air pods in? Do we walk by people who need us and we don't need

00:04:46 Speaker_01
That's one of those real stories that causes you to introspect with a, what would I do?

00:04:52 Speaker_00
We hope you'll join us on our full podcast. It's called follow him. You can get it wherever you get your podcasts. We're with Dr. Sheldon Martin this week.

00:05:00 Speaker_00
He has some wonderful insights from his background that you're going to love and then come back here next week. We'll do another follow him favorites.