dccanon
Doctrine & Covenants
Section 83
The Lord establishes legal standing within the covenant community for women who have lost husbands and children who have lost parents. Wives hold lawful claim on their husbands for maintenance while the marriage holds; widows who have kept covenant retain full fellowship. Children hold claim on their parents for provision until adulthood; if parents cannot supply an inheritance, the claim passes to the Lord's storehouse — funded by consecration — which likewise covers the poor. Faithfulness determines fellowship, not circumstance alone. The storehouse is not a charitable program but a covenantal institution anchored in the law of consecration.
1
Verily, thus saith the Lord, in addition to the laws of the church concerning women and children, those who belong to the church, who have lost their husbands or fathers:
2
Women have claim on their husbands for their maintenance, until their husbands are taken; and if they are not found transgressors they shall have fellowship in the church.
3
And if they are not faithful they shall not have fellowship in the church; yet they may remain upon their inheritances according to the laws of the land.
4
All children have claim upon their parents for their maintenance until they are of age.
5
And after that, they have claim upon the church, or in other words upon the Lord's storehouse, if their parents have not wherewith to give them inheritances.
6
And the storehouse shall be kept by the consecrations of the church; and widows and orphans shall be provided for, as also the poor. Amen.
