You would think that the first one to come out would make a bundle exposing church secrets. I think to get to that point you have to really want to believe and enjoy the perks of the position. Even if it were all true, they tell themselves it is a noble lie, and that the church is making the believers better people.
Always thought the authorities are well educated and most importantly they are from well-to-do, close, well connected families. Seems like many of them are attorneys. If they spilled the beans and left the church, they would have to join the same pool of workers like everybody else.
In the past they have written a book or two, after they are excommunicated. They probably do alright financially.
They do recieve a modest salary. They're not independantly wealthy necessarily. But I'm sure they could go back to their old jobs...unless, their old job was the CHURCH. GAs, especially apostles, disproportionately tend to come from paid church backgrounds, not all-unpaid priesthood experience only. But money or not, I think GAs are so socially invested that they couldn't bail even if they wanted to. I think a small percentage, but still hundreds or thousands, of members would commit suicide if the church came clean, and IMO there must be GAs including apostles who fake it because they're in a dilemma.
I agree Amos, there may be a few who fake it til they make it. We just don't know. But we do know there are many people who visit here who are still members but want out of the church. I would not be surprised in the slightest to find out one of the big 15 was a closet doubter.
I think they really believe it. They believe in their achievement of personal wealth and righteousness. It always strikes me as odd that there are no fishermen in the 12.
There has to be a closet doubter among the big 15. But all the perks, being the object of worship and their huge egos keep them from seriously entertaining the idea of walking away. And of course, they likely also rationalize it away as something that promotes the greater good, even if it started out from a questionable source.
But I just have to believe there is a closet doubter or two in there.
I've met and on RfM I've read about hundreds of non-believing mormons who are scared of not going on a mission, worried about shopping on Sunday, afraid of their parents finding out if they resign, horrified that their neighbord will see them drinking coffee, and tied in knots that they might not be invited to family gatherings. These are regular lowly mormons who think they have "too much to lose," so they can't buck the system.
GAs? Leaving the church means they would lose more money, more adoration, more family support, and more social acceptance than anyone.
If morg programming and peer pressure can control a lowly primary teacher, it can certainly have even more control over a GA who has a hundred times more to lose.
It's a huge thing to give up, what with the adulation of the faithful and their treating almost everything you say as semi-inspired and almost scriptural. Where else are you going to find that? Certainly not in the business world.
As long as they keep lying, the only thing they lose is their self-respect, but when compared with money (which they obviously worship), what's self-respect????
With humans in the battle between money and morality, money seems to win most of the time.
I've heard that they get about $200,000 in perks as part of the big 15. To get that on the outside as a retirement wage, they would have had to put 4 million away to live off the investment and get the $200,000 a year to live off.
Having the equivalent of a 4 million dollar retirement plan is a hard thing to walk away from. I talked with a public service employee over the weekend who has worked in law enforcement for 32 years. His city funded retirement investment is only up to $700,000 after 32 years of work. He's got a long way to go to catch up with the big 15.
William Law apparently was asked how Smith kept the secret from getting out. (http://waynesimister.mysite.com/lawint.htm ) Law said the following:
"...This was simply the result of a very smart system adopted by the prophet and his intimate friends like Brigham Young, Kimball and others. They first tried a man to see whether they could make a criminal tool out of him. When they felt that he would not be the stuff to make a criminal of, they kept him outside the inner circle and used him to show him up as an example of their religion, as a good, virtuous, universally respected brother."
One imagines that if he was the "stuff to make a criminal" he was good for the inside job.
Add this thought to the knowledge the 15 sit on the board of many many billion dollar corporations and land holdings of which many are claimed as tax exempt and not required to report earnings, well, it's not hard to imagine that they engage in some corporate shenanigans. Honest men acting as gods' spokesmen and corporate executive officers? Yeah, right.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/27/2010 01:51PM by Jesus Smith.