Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<\/a> is a corporation that cares only for its own interests and doesn\u2019t care about the needs of its members.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
I must admit that I find such remarks baffling. \u00a0Weird, even.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s true, of course, that believing Latter-day Saints (presumably including their leaders) regard the Church as the Kingdom of God on the earth, and that they feel a powerful obligation to consecrate their time and effort and resources to building it and strengthening it. \u00a0I certainly do.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
But an essential part of building and strengthening the Kingdom is caring for the needs of its members.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
I was \u2014 no false modesty here; I\u2019m quite serious \u2014 a mediocre bishop. \u00a0But even I, not naturally the most caring and empathetic of men, devoted many hours each week to counseling, one-on-one, with young people who were struggling with their social lives (or lack thereof), with various kinds of addiction, with burdensome guilt, with dysfunctional or absent families. \u00a0I helped members prepare for missions and marriages. \u00a0I encouraged large responses to blood drives. \u00a0I performed a few weddings. \u00a0I dealt with unwed pregnancies. \u00a0I accompanied sick and injured people to hospitals, often in the middle of the night. \u00a0I dealt with police situations. \u00a0I sent people with mental and emotional problems to professional counselors, if they wanted that, and I picked up their bills with Church funds. \u00a0I paid rent for those who would otherwise be homeless. \u00a0I bought food for those who would otherwise not eat.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
And I was just one of thousands of such unpaid bishops, who were and are doing similar things at any moment of any given day, worldwide.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Moreover, I loved doing it. \u00a0I found it exhausting, but profoundly gratifying.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
To which some will respond, \u201cYeah, but you were just one of the exploited underlings. \u00a0The Church, as such, doesn\u2019t care about its members.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
To which I respond, \u201cWho or what is this \u2018Church\u2019 you speak of, if it\u2019s not precisely such people as I was (and, I hope, still am)?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Take away its members, and there is no \u201cChurch\u201d left over.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Moreover, the very highest leadership of the Church doesn\u2019t come from any sort of distinct professional caste. \u00a0Just a few years ago, they too were bishops and stake presidents, and elders quorum presidents and deacons quorum advisors and home teachers, helping to load moving vans and serving at ward breakfasts and accompanying Scout camps and caring for families and counseling with members, one on one. \u00a0And they still do quite a bit of the latter, even now.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
I happen to know many of these highest leaders, some more familiarly than others. \u00a0If they\u2019re not honest, committed, and sincere men, dedicated to both the Church and the Saints, I\u2019m a leprechaun.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u2019m reminded of a remark from Heber J. Grant:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a letter when I, as a young man, was made an apostle, from a nonmember of the Church. . . . \u00a0Of prominence in the world so far as business affairs are concerned, he was the manager of a great corporation.. . . \u00a0He said: \u2018I never thought very much of the leaders of the Mormon people, in fact I thought they were a very bright, keen, designing lot of fellows, getting rich from the tithes that they gathered in from a lot of ignorant, superstitious, and over-zealous religious people. But now that you are one of the fifteen men at the head of the Mormon Church<\/a>, I apologize to the other fourteen. I know that if there were anything crooked in the management of the Mormon Church you would give it all away.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Posted from Paris, France<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 I frequently read online comments, especially from former believers, claiming that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a corporation that cares only for its own interests and doesn\u2019t care about the needs of its members. \u00a0 I must admit that I find such remarks baffling. \u00a0Weird, even. \u00a0 It\u2019s true, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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