Certain stereotypes persist regarding those that come to the realization that the church is not what it claims to be. One of these stereotypes is that people who leave were not fully committed in the first place. Of course, this is faulty thinking. To refute this stereotype, please list any callings that you held that would reflect your prior commitment to the church.

Personally, I detested the emphasis on what positions people held in the church. The fixation on callings is not healthy, at all, and is seriously messed up. But this exercise will help illustrate an important point regarding who leaves the church.

I'll start:
Bishopric
Elders quorum president and counselor
Gospel doctrine teacher
Young men counselor and advisor
Scout leader
AP (on mission)

I started a thread like this one a few months ago. Interesting results.

Most recently: ward clerk and EQ's instructor.

Before that: ward secretary, EQ President, SS instructor, AP, etc.

According to Eric Hoffer (and yes, I am aware of the implicit potentially negative prejudices--I don't share them, but this quote is timely and enlightening):

"When a movement begins to rationalize its doctrine and make it intelligible, it is a sign that its dynamic span is over; that it is primarily interested in stability. For, as will be shown later, the stability of a regime requires the allegiance of the intellectuals, and it is to win them rather than to foster self-sacrifice in the masses that a doctrine is made intelligible."

Question: Do you think the Church is making its doctrine more or less intelligible?

Less. They're aligning with fundamentalist christianty which reduces everything to mystery and god's will.

There are no answers.

Gone are the days of hieing to kolob, blood atonement, elohim having sex with mary, and black folk being fence-sitters in the war in heaven.

Works over faith? Not anymore. If you have real faith the works just happen. If you're not doing the works, you don't really have faith.

Heavenly Mother? Pssshaw!

Becoming a god? I don't know that we teach it! I don't know that we emphasize it.

Polygamy? It'll all be worked out when we die.

Another couple generations and mormonism will be just another christian religion with an eccentric history.

That is what I hate about this trend. I want my old Mormons back. Now.

When the Jews were persecuted did they become less Jewish? Did they change? Did they disguise their synagogues to look like churches? Hell no.

When the Blacks were discriminated against, did they cower? No. They chanted Black is Beautiful and grew their Afros and dynamited us with their brilliance.

The Gays, with all the gaybashing and bigotry? No way did we tone it down. Were here and we're Q^**r. You loved La Cage aux Folles? Well there's a lot more where that came from.

But the Mormons? What's with the backtracking, the little flecks of history, the myths and folklore? What's with the slow steady under-the-radar (almost) journey to the generic?


I want MY Mormons back!

I want the proud to be peculiar, annoying, blaming everybody else, gaybashing, Kolob dwelling, interracial throat slitting, polygamy flip-flopping, seerstone gypsies to stand up and say this is my heritage and I am proud of it.

I want them to stand in testimony meeting and say I know beyond a shadow of a doubt with every fiber of my being that God wanted Joseph to fuck Fanny Alger in the barn.

I don't want them to get away with this.

Journey to the generic - so articulate. Perfect.

Yep, that's the path LDS Inc has chosen in hopes of establishing a steady state of tithing income. No more filling the earth, fastest growing church rhetoric.....it's all about stabilizing on a nice, solid income. If they can keep 2-4 million paying tithing, they'll learn to live on $6-8 Billion a year.

1st Counselor in 3 Bishoprics (Thank gawd for the military-moves kept me out of the hotseat)
Branch Prez
YM Prez
EQ Prez and counselor many times
HP Group Leader
Dry Council
WML
Activity Chair
Seminary teacher
Ward missionary

You get thrown in everywhere if you hang around long enough.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/12/2013 01:43PM by iflewover.

Elder's quorum president, counselor, instructor, secretary
Cub master
Nursery worker
Primary teacher
Ward Clerk
Ward Membership Clerk

RS Secretary
RS 1st counselor
RS teacher
Activities Committee
Co-chair of Service Committee
Sunbeam teacher


Random sidenote: The second to last ward I ever attended was having such a hard time getting individuals to come to choir that the Bishop decided he was going to make it a calling! People were called to be choir members- and ohhh did that tick a lot of people off.

Me:
RS presidency
Youth Sunday School teacher
Nursery teacher x3
Primary teacher more times than I can remember
Primary presidency
Ward bulletin x3
Ward missionary

Hubby:
Ward mission leader
YM counselor
YM secretary
Scout leader
Youth Sunday School teacher
Nursery teacher x3
Physical Facilities Rep
Ward missionary

Bishopric counselor
Executive secretary
EQ counselor
YM counselor
Scoutmaster
11-year-old Scout leader
Assistant District Commissioner (Scouting)
Family history consultant
Temple ordinance worker

in no order

Primary pres, councillor,teacher, Nursery leader
RS Pres, councillor, teacher
Activities chair (hated this one)
Seminary teacher
Youth SS teacher
Employment rep
VT supervisor

Looks like I have been around the block!!

-EQ president
-SS secretary
-11 year old scout leader
-Webelos Leader
-Librarian
-Primary teacher
-Facilities Coordinator (Guy who checks if the church is locked after everyone leaves each night)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/12/2013 12:30PM by rationalguy.

2nd counselor in the YM
Exective secretary
Sunday school president
Primary teacher (this where it hit the fan, teaching about the jaredites and their ships that were like a dish)
Nursery crap

Primary teacher
Primary President
Second Counselor in Primary Presidency
Relief Society President
Seminary Teacher

Anyone else think it's weird that we are still attaching importance to the assignments that some dude (your bish) gave to you? In the exmo community it seems like higher callings are shown off like merit badges. Maybe I'm just irritated because *even here* it creates little clubs that us women can't join. Look! The old boys let you feel all important!

But for the record:

Family home evening coordinator (four singles' wards in a row - think Wendy and the lost boys)
Institute council

So far 8 men and 6 women have stated their callings - I don't see how that is a boys only club?

The only importance is to illustrate that Mormons from all walks of life leave the church, not only those who were never "all in".

When I spoke with my stake president 1st councilor about not believing he only made a few points to attempt to dissuade me - one of those points was that very few people who leave the church have any actual leadership experience in the church, men or women - this post refutes that point.

Do you have a chip on your shoulder that you are just waiting for someone to knock off?

The higher callings are not so much a badge of honor as a badge of "I was duped".



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 02/12/2013 01:26PM by bc.

@bc

I guess I don't see different callings as being indications of "how far in" you were, but how well you fit the superficial expectations of a bunch of men in charge. Sure, women have posted their callings here. How many of those callings were given to them by women though?

It is interesting to see where everyone else here is coming from, and I don't think that people are only posting them to show off. However, the type of callings you held in your pre-exmo life goes a long way towards your credibility with TBMs. But if we are going to reject the credibility of the organization, shouldn't we also be able to reject their definitions of what credibility is?

Do you think anyone would be making a big deal about what Brooke Mclay thinks if she hadn't been *married* to a big shot CES man? What about the fact that she has managed to create a thriving business/persona based solely on *her own* skills.

Yeah I've got a chip on my shoulder, it's a big fat feminist one. It's discouraging to not be able to escape - here - both the obvious and latent misogyny of TSCC.

I attach zero importance to any of these "callings" now. It is all just make-work to keep the faithful in line and busy. I cringe at how much time I wasted supporting an f-ing cult for the good of what? A bunch of old white guys in SLC mentally masturbating about how much money they are making.

Disgusting. On my way out, I made it a point to call everyone by their first name. No more titles or illusions of grandeur.

I don't think anyone is attaching any importance to these callings. In fact, in my OP, I was attempting to emphasize that a culture that attaches any importance to these positions is misguided. If I didn't communicate this clearly, I apologize.

The fact remains that a stereotype exists among many TBMs that many people that find out the church is false were not very committed to the church in the first place. A TBM could easily view this thread and see that this is not the case.

I am pleased to see the responses from many women. I was fearful that this would become a "brethren only" thread (old/pathetic habits die hard).

From beginning to end:
YA Stake Leader
Missionary
RS President
asked to be RS Stake President but declined
Primary President
Primary Stake Leader
RS President
asked again to be in RS Stake presidency but declined
YW President
Apostate

Counselor in bishopric a couple times
A lot of EQ presidencies, including a few times as pres
Taught ctr-7 class (my favorite)
Assistant ward clerk
HP group leadership
Several more, but I've blocked them out - maybe they were too traumatic

EQT

I was in only a year and a half.

On my mission I was sent to help out an "apostate" branch. These were my simultaneous callings:
1st Counselor to the Branch President
1st Counselor EQP
Financial clerk
Branch clerk
YM's instructor
Branch FHE Organizer
Occasional primary instructor
One-time Relief Society Instructor
Trained two new mishies back-to-back
District Leader
Passed sacrament and spoke every week because assigned speakers failed to show. My French got pretty good haha!

Other than that...
primary instructor



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/12/2013 01:51PM by Mormon-0|Science-1.

Well, let's see


EQ counselor (5 or six times)
EQ instructor
Seventy (back when they had 70's in the stakes)
Seventy's group leadership
Full time mission
Stake mission (twice)
HP instructor
HP counselor (3 or 4 times)
Ward clerk (4 times)
Ward financial clerk
Ward membership clerk
Teacher Gospel doctrine, temple prep, family history, each teenage age group, couple of primary classes
Sunday schhol president

Stake Clerk
High council
Stake Sunday school president

Scoutmaster, scout committee chairman

<<very few people who leave the church have any actual leadership experience in the church>>

Yeah, screw you.....ha

RS Presidency twice
RS teacher
Primary Presidency twice
Nursery Leader
Youth sunday school
Stake Primary presidency twice
Family History Consultant

High Councilman
Bishopric x2
YM President
Stake Athletic Director
Ward Mission Leader
Scoutmaster 10 years
Ward Clerk
Full Time Missionary
Primary Teacher
Sunday School teacher
Ward financial Clerk
11 year old scout leader
EQ President
EQ Secretary
EQ 1st Counselor


Oh I love this post. Hope the GA's read this...you are losing MUCH experience and leadership, not just the run of the mill newly converted. Many of us have been in the church for decards. Bwahahahahahahahahahaahahah.

I was on the stake high council when the lights came on for me. I told the SP I quit (didn't "ask to be released") and figured I'd just go through the motions of activity and go with the flow because of my uber-TBM wife. I was immediately asked to be the finance clerk, and I thought I could handle that since it just involved back-room, accounting-type work. Oh my goodness, doing that job for a couple years pounded the final nails in the coffin for me.

Prior to the high council, I had ALWAYS done music callings: everything from primary pianist, choir accompanist, ward organist, to stake music director. In hindsight, it was being involved with the music that kept me relatively happy as a TBM. I enjoyed that part of my membership, and if they hadn't stuck me on the high council where I witnessed the real underbelly workings of TSCC, I'd probably still be dutifully playing the organ each Sunday.

When I piss it goes at least eight feet.

EQP and Counselor
YM 1st Counselor
Ward Clerk
Various Primary
Mission Shit
and all of the Aaronic Priesthood fake callings.

RS Teacher
VT Coordinator
Multiple RS presidencies
RS President
Stake RS Counselor
Stake Girls Camp Director
Primary Music Leader
Primary Teacher
Multiple Primary presidencies (this is what I was doing when I left)
Primary President
YW Advisor

wow the best and brightest really are leaving, that or we were all too sucked in to say no.

EQP
SS pres,
lots of counselors
SS teacher, between this and SS pres I was in SS for over a decade. That is when I started studying the history.
primary teacher
ward clerk


of all these I liked being a teacher the most, getting teens to learn to think for themselves.

the easiest one was SS pres, just make sure you got teachers and ring the bell. and you can delegate ringing the bell ;)

High council
Eq president
Bishopric
Stake ym president
Gospel doctrine teacher

Temple Worker
RS Presidency ward & stake levels
YW President & Counselor
Primary Counselor & teacher

Stake RS presidency
YW presidency several times
camp director several times
Sacrament Chorister
Family History library Director