Posted by:
Wally Prince
(
)
Date: September 22, 2019 11:13PM
The "Brethren" view serving the institution (the church) and obeying their higher-ups in the institutional hierarchy as being their primary duty and obligation. The members have the obligation to serve the institution as directed and commanded by their superiors (the general authorities). In the eyes of the GAs, serving the members is nothing more or less than serving the needs of the church and the authority structure.
Here is what Boyd K. Packer had to say about it:
---> "Elder Lee had agreed to give me counsel and some direction. He didn't say much, nothing really in detail, but what he told me has saved me time and time again. 'You must decide now which way you face,' he said. 'Either you represent the teachers and students and champion their causes or YOU REPRESENT THE BRETHREN WHO APPOINTED YOU. You need to decide now which way you face.' Then he added, 'Some of your predecessors faced the wrong way.' It took some hard and painful lessons before I understood his counsel. In time, I did understand, and my resolve to face the right way became irreversible."
---> "When members are hurting, it is so easy to convince ourselves that we are justified, even duty bound, to use the influence of our appointment or our calling to somehow represent them. We then become their advocates -- sympathize with their complaints against the Church, and perhaps even soften the commandments to comfort them. Unwittingly we may turn about and face the wrong way. Then the channels of revelation are reversed. Let me say that again. Then the channels of revelation are reversed. In our efforts to comfort them, we lose our bearings and leave that segment of the line to which we are assigned unprotected. The question is not whether they need help and comfort. That goes without saying. The question is 'How?' The Prophet Joseph Smith, when he organized the Relief Society said, 'There is the need for decisions of character aside from sympathy'."
https://www.zionsbest.com/face.htmlOf course, it's difficult to define a phrase such as "doing good for the members".
To the Brethren, getting the members to pay tithing, go to the temple and obey the Brethren is not only "good for the members", it's the best thing they can do for the members.