Recovery to Mormonism

What?
The Church isn’t a democracy?

No, church members do not elect the Prophet of the Church.  They do not elect their bishops, their Relief Society Presidents, or their pianists.  There are no ballots. 

Of course, most other churches aren’t run by ballots either.  So why the fuss that the Church isn’t a democratic organization?

It may be a simple misunderstanding of the purpose of the “sustaining vote.”  Recovery from Mormonism sites complain that these are usually unanimous, thus indicating, perhaps, that Mormons are all brainwashed, terrified sheep who vote the same way as everyone else. 

But a sustaining vote isn’t about whether you’d actually like your grandfather to be the pianist, or the Prophet.  Church service isn’t about the person’s “credentials.”  So Susan has been a concert pianist for fourteen years and Sara’s only just learned how to play the hymns?  It doesn’t mean that Sara shouldn’t hold that calling.  The Church isn’t about who’s got a resume, it’s about who can serve and grow while serving. 

And a sustaining vote is about whether you promise to support the person in their calling.  It’s about whether you’ll abide by their counsel.  Of course, this means counsel given in the right setting.  If the pianist tells you that you need to give more service, it’s not really his or her calling to tell you that.  If the President of the Church or the Apostles counsel the Church to do better in this area or that area, and we sustain them, then we do need to think about how we’re doing.

Do you have to sustain?  No.  You never have to put your hand up.  And if you have a strong reason to believe that someone should not hold a calling, then you can indicate that.  Why is this rare?  Because callings are, again, not about who is the most “qualified” for anything. 

Mormons have no paid clergy.  People hold callings without being trained for them.  Someone called to be a teacher or a Relief Society President may have no experience in teaching or administration.  Some ex-Mormons present this with horror.  The concept that people are called partly for their benefit and their enrichment, their growth, might be foreign to some people. 

The idea that any person can be given a calling, and maybe one they don’t want, and maybe one that’s time consuming, is presented as something foreign and frightening as well.  What if you have to teach and you already have a full time job and five kids at home?  Isn’t that an unfair pressure?

What the anti-Mormons don’t point out is that serving in the Church is always voluntary, like sustaining.  You don’t have to accept a calling—and if you do accept one, it’s your choice how much time you want to put into it.  While “recovery from Mormonism” sites might then claim that the Mormon Church will then apply such overwhelming guilt that you’d rather lose a toe than not serve . . . there is a point where this becomes ridiculous.  As with any other church, what you want to do or not do is up to you.   Some callings do take more effort than others and some may take up your free time, as will other such things the Church promotes, such as humanitarian aid and going on outings with your family.  You will learn to prioritize.  For example, family takes precedence over Church callings.  And you know what you’re capable of.  But everything is always voluntary.  Whether you feel guilt over it or not is a personal matter. 

The interesting thing is that the idea of a member based clergy should rather diminish any claim that the Church is some kind of brainwashing conspiracy.  When any member can be put in a position to teach a congregation, and is, one wonders exactly what the anti-Mormons are worried about.  Are they worried that these untrained teachers will spread false doctrine?  (According to them, isn’t it all false doctrine?)  Or is this their proof that everyone is brainwashed, so the Mormon leaders don’t worry about any of them?

One would think that the existence of ex-Mormons and people “recovering from Mormonism” proof that there isn’t any such brainwashing.  People sustain other people in their callings and understand that they’ll have callings themselves.  The Church is a church that gives people responsibility, both to hold positions and to help those in other positions.  While some people might prefer to have no responsibility, or not to risk being put in a “demeaning” position (since, oh dear, you might be asked to clean the church), Christianity itself has a rather strong focus on service and on following the counsel of leaders.