Three straight members of my local Branch Presidency have left the church completely after being released. My wife completely lost her faith after her calling as RS President (but still attends because she still has friends at church). Wonder what they are seeing...

I'd bet they're exhausted from being asked to do more and more and finding it's just not worth the time and effort.

Am I correct in my assumption that generally speaking, BPs have fewer people to whom duties can be delegated, and thus have proportionally greater opportunities to burn out, despite all the promises that "ghawd would never ask you to do more than you are capable of doing"?

And I bet when they go to their SP of District President, he's just as harried and out of control of the situation as they are!

Yay, ghawd, for your personal spokes-holes'* over-promising and under-performing!!


*spokes-hole is a derisive version of spokesman/spokesperson. John & Ken thank you for learning it.

I can certainly understand why.

I was a branch president as a missionary. LDS, Inc. doesn't have an effective simplified program for small branches. You still have to confront all the systematic bureaucracy of any ward. It just makes you feel like you can't keep up--especially since they didn't provide any useful training on how to run it. They just hand you a manual and set up some meetings with a high councilman, who you can ask questions of. But if you don't even know enough to ask informed questions that's not terribly helpful.

Of course, this didn't stop folks from piling on the guilt when something wasn't done. Ugh...I guess I just didn't have the spirit to instruct me on the correct procedures--too bad. A computer would have helped too.

The only conceivable need for a simplified program in a small Branch is that when the very-soon-to-happen revelation-commandment comes from the holy prophets-seers-revelators in SLC for us to return to Missouri then the Branch population will decline very quickly. Typically why we need to have the full program in every branch is because of the monstrous growth that's going to happen in the future, particularly amongst the literal descendants of Father Lehi. When people look at the Church and say "wow what an awesome transparent/honest organization" then the numbers will grow because they'll see it as being a true church - i.e. an honest/transparent church.

Yes I know there are some naysayers who don't think the Church is going to grow. But thanks to the beloved Correlation program I have been well-indoctrinated to ignore any naysaying and just focus on what the Church teaches us is Joy - obedience and enduring my numerous trials/tribulations with no complaint as the purpose of mortality is for us to be controlled by the holy middlemen assigned to preside over us at the local level under the control of those glorious GAs in Salt Lake.

Oh one other thing .... the real big purpose in our well-correlated lives is to assimilate as many people into the Church so they themselves can assimilate as many people too. That's why I got to go hound the neighbors, raise a decent size family of 12-15 kids, and make sure the neighbors/kids do their part to hound others too into being well-correlated thinkers and doers.

elderolddog Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Am I correct in my assumption that generally
> speaking, BPs have fewer people to whom duties can
> be delegated, and thus have proportionally greater
> opportunities to burn out, despite all the
> promises that "ghawd would never ask you to do
> more than you are capable of doing"?
>
> And I bet when they go to their SP of District
> President, he's just as harried and out of control
> of the situation as they are!
>
> Yay, ghawd, for your personal spokes-holes'*
> over-promising and under-performing!!
>
>
> *spokes-hole is a derisive version of
> spokesman/spokesperson. John & Ken thank you for
> learning it.

I cannot say for certain what their motivations were. Two of them have just completely stopped coming since being released. The first was about three years ago. I do not know if he had his name removed, but he made it known he wanted no more contact from the church. I have not heard about the other, which occurred about 18 months ago. He just stopped coming. The third moved, with his family, out of our branch area and into a neighboring area, which was the reason for his release, and then after settling in told his wife he wanted a divorce and no longer wanted to be a member of the church.

As for my wife, yes she did get burnt out in her calling. There were a few times in the branch meetings where she would say that she could not accept an assignment due to time constraints only to be sternly lectured at by the BP that as RS President, she did not have the option of saying no to an assignment. That really disturbed her. But what really killed her faith was witnessing the church practice of hiding/overlooking sexual abuse if the abuser is a high ranking or wealthy member (who makes a large donation to the church), while punishing the victim.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/22/2018 08:21AM by alsd.

alsd Wrote:
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> Three straight members of my local Branch
> Presidency have left the church completely after
> being released.

The gay ones left long ago.

Elder Berry Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> alsd Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Three straight members of my local Branch
> > Presidency have left the church completely
> after
> > being released.
>
> The gay ones left long ago.

LOL!

Did they leave because they were forced out? Resigned? Or just went inactive (if you know?)

In another era that would be surreal for the entire troup of them to leave at around the same time.

It isn't due to a "lack of faith" crisis. It's because of a "Truth" crisis!

...and where else but LD$, Inc., would "truth" be considered a crisis?

A lot of people were getting double callings before I stopped attending. This was the stake too, not the branch , which had a low attendance rate.I felt sorry for the poor bishop, who was overwhelmed and not wanting or giving any prayers or talks.
I knew it was more work for someone else, so eventually stopped attending.They never tried to get me back in either,

Is it bad that i want the leadership to stay in the religion?

Badassadam1 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Is it bad that i want the leadership to stay in
> the religion?

No, I want it too. I want the leadership to stay, and everyone else to leave. Just because that would be funny ;)

There's a French expression: "if all the disgusted leave, only the disgusting remain". And that's what's happening in the morg ;)

Visitors Welcome Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Badassadam1 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Is it bad that i want the leadership to stay in
> > the religion?
>
> No, I want it too. I want the leadership to stay,
> and everyone else to leave. Just because that
> would be funny ;)
>
> There's a French expression: "if all the disgusted
> leave, only the disgusting remain". And that's
> what's happening in the morg ;)

It would be funny if they were the only ones left standing with no more money to suck from the people or anyone left to boss around. That would be justice.

It isn't due to a "lack of faith" crisis. It's because of a "Truth" crisis!

Great come-back! I'm going to use this, whenever the Mormons use their new catch-phrase "faith crisis."

This happened in my old ward in So. Cali. The bishop's first counselor, the eq president, the gospel doctrines teacher, 2 dentists, two brothers, and a former bishop all left the cult, all at once!

The lid had been blown off of a sex club that the men had formed, under the guise of a gospel doctrines group, led by the gospel doctrines teacher, who was a charismatic motivational speaker by trade. They would cover for each other's lies, and say they were in a meeting, or playing golf together, or helping someone move--and other stock excuses. They would actually brag to each other about their conquests. The wives had no clue. My brother-in-law in the bishopric was excommunicated, the two dentists (cousins) were ex-ed, and both of the brothers were ex-ed.

All of these men got divorced, and never returned to Mormonism. The former bishop and wife moved away, and all that remained was the sociopath motivational speaker and his wife, who kept on pretending they were wonderful Mormons. My husband and I had left gone completely inactive, 2 years previous to this.

This was a dying ward, too, and most of us faithful members had two callings, plus the mandatory calling of HT/VT. I burned out with all the organ and piano playing, plus cup scouts. Yes, like Devoted Mo wrote, "It's just not worth the time and effort." It isn't God's work. It isn't helping the less fortunate. It's a scam.

Wow!! I never cease to be amazed at the stories on this site! Glad those a-holes got caught!

What about cleaning the toilets?


With only two callings, plus HT/VT, you should have had plenty of time left to clean the meetinghouse bathrooms.


Surely you didn't shirk your responsibilities to wrestle with the Tidy Bowl man?

That's kind of why I left. I was about to start a very difficult graduate school and my third calling was going to be in the elders quorum. I said no, and haven't been back since. Kind of got tired of the guilt trip, manipulation, control, and other bs.

Not to mention that I already knew that DNA tests showed the BOM was made up.

Going to a church and let the preacher do all the work. enjoy the sermon, jokes, etc and get up and leave.

The mormon church calls everyone to several positions as much as they accept the job. Branches can be tight but are often very strained. Add in all the gossip and bickering and Sunday is no fun.


I haven't been to a church sermon for a long time but over all I think church is a waste of time if you aren't looking for friends or some community to draw fun for resources.

I stopped attending church when I learned how enjoyable sitting under a tree and reading books that equipped me for freedom.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaEuYfWWKG0

People are finding they can live without the cult-pressure-dogma-bars.