“How can I help?”
― Lowell Bennion
“I believe that the measure of my soul is my capacity to love imperfect people.”
― Joseph Grenny
My wife and I moved to East Millcreek from the Avenues some 32 years ago. We landed in an older eclectic and diverse neighborhood—just what we were looking for. I eventually discovered that the well-respected Latter-Day Saint scholar and humanitarian Lowell Bennion once lived in the area. Unfortunately, he passed away before we moved there.
A neighbor, who became a close friend of mine, told me how Lowell used to drive around and drop off his garden produce in an old small beat-up pickup to those he felt impressed to help. He did this at least once for my friend, who at the time was a very young bishop with 5 young mouths to feed. The food, as well as the conversation from Lowell, meant the world to him. He also told me of stake bishop meetings that he and Lowell attended together as bishops. Lowell would always wear a black turtle neck (this was before it became Steve Jobs’s signature shirt) and said Lowell always had a way of directing attention to what mattered most in those meetings. Many people have heard of the Bennion Boys Ranch he formed many years ago. And the University of Utah has the Bennion Center to honor his humanitarian work through outreach and service.
The scholar George Handley has just written a book about Lowell Bennion. I listened to a recent Faith Matters interview with George about Lowell. I found it very worthwhile to hear how Lowell navigated the times he bumped up against the church institution. And how he lived out his ethics through the gospel of Jesus Christ within and without the church that bears His name.
Helping “the least of these” has also been important to the social scientist and New York Times best-selling author, Joseph Grenny. In 2015, Grenny and his colleagues founded The Other Side Academy, a free, 2- to 4-year residential life skills program for those with long histories of crime, addiction and homelessness. In 2023 his team broke ground on The Other Side Village, a 430-home permanent supportive housing community focused on helping the chronically homeless reinvent their lives.(per the Deseret News).
Grenny recently wrote an op-ed for the Deseret News that I found thought-provoking regarding how we help—or don’t help the homeless. Not everyone will readily agree with his views but they are grounded in social science, what he’s learned firsthand in his projects to alleviate homelessness and incarceration. It’s worth a read. You can also find interviews with Grenny and his right-hand man/former ex-con, Dave Durocher at Faith Matters. Grenny’s journey into forming the Other Side Academy is a painfully personal one. And inspiring.
