This is inspired by the thread about whether exmo pianists and organists felt used when they played for church.

Long story short, I am a professional musician, and a big part of my income is from church work. Based on market rates, I estimate that I donated about $25,000 worth of free organ playing to the church during my college and mission years. Additionally, I spent 18 months as ward chorister and choir director. Where I live now, an equivalent professional position would have paid $15-30,000 during that time. So, the total value of the professional services I donated to the Corporation is somewhere between $40-55,000.

The thing that really ticks me off about this whole thing is that while I lived in Utah, the church was simultaneously screwing me three different ways: by taking my tithing money, utilizing my professional services for free, and undermining my ability to achieve professional success by eliminating demand for paid keyboardists and artificially reducing market rates for music teachers.

Classical music is a very difficult career path that takes many years of hard work before it starts to pay off. In most parts of the country a good keyboardist can make decent money doing church work, but the Mormon Corporation has effectively eliminated that opportunity in Utah by creating a culture in which musicians are expected to perform in church for free. Additionally, families earning what would be a middle-class income are forced by the exorbitant church tax to become cheapskates just to survive. Things like music lessons become luxuries that some families just can't afford unless teachers drastically reduce their prices.

Back in the 1800's, the church used to accept in-kind donations in lieu of cash for tithing. Farmers could donate milk or eggs as their tithing, which would then be used to help needy families. The market value of the professional services I donated to the church far exceeded gross tithing on the income earned by my wife and I during those years. The way I figure it, we should have been able to count that as tithing. That would have allowed us to have a comfortable savings margin in addition to our modest budget. Instead, we struggled to make ends meet, while the church took the bulk of what was left after taxes and living costs.

Meanwhile, MoCorp hands out IOU's in the form of promised eternal blessings for which it can never be held accountable, and preaches about how fortunate we are to have the restored gospel of Cheese and Rice in our lives.

So, yes, I feel used.

On top of taking your money in three different ways, you're told not to express yourself as a musician. They demand your service for free, and dictate what you can and cannot play.

This part bothers me the most, because I'm an amateur organist (minor in Music) and I can live with not getting paid for my work. However, I expect access to decent organ (don't get me started on this topic) and the ability to play what I want. In the LDS church, a simple descant is "drawing attention away from the message".

I began the other thread because it was my perception that piano- and organ-playing Mormons are very much taken advantage of by TSCC. Even so, I was amazed at the number of responses on that thread, the great majority affirming that yes, they had felt taken advantage of, in this way.

The Church does not care how a member may be negatively impacted by a calling, even if it is for years or decades. Your story illustrates this with painful clarity, benjimanluther. While members are told to give, the church itself takes and takes, on and on, unless or until the bled-dry member walks out.

I hope you found professional success once you left Utah and were free of the church's demands!

The belief that you aren't supposed to work on the sabbath probably blurred the possibility that you could go play for pay at a DIFFERENT church.

Can LDS professional football players play on Sunday? Well YES, they can, because that's just when professionals play football. Can LDS church musicians go play for money at another church? Well, I don't know if I've ever met one who did. Perhaps that's because that would be breaking the sabbath, even though THAT IS generally the only day when churches meet. Honestly, it never occurred to me to go do that. And besides, if they did, who would be left to play for free for LDS services?

I did play for another church after I left the LDS church. They paid me (not much, but better than nothing), and more importantly they let me play whatever the heck I wanted to play, and they actually LISTENED and expressed appreciation. It was like therapy.

I enjoyed being the ward and primary pianist when I went through my piano phase, but when it came to the music I do for a living, it was another story. When you're surrounded by people who value your life's work at $0 per hour, it's um, insulting.

As a member, I was asked to perform over and over at church. It would have been great if I was lacking performance opportunities and couldn't pass up a captive audience, but that wasn't the situation. It was tiresome-- especially considering the constraints on approved material for sacrament meeting.

I was also frequently asked to provide entertainment for ward functions, which I NEVER agreed to. I wasn't going to ask my band-mates to forgo a paycheck to come play at a venue that wouldn't even foot the bill for a decent PA. If it was going to be for charity, okay, but a ward party is not a charitable endeavor.

Even after I left the church it didn't stop. For the longest time, I kept running into the ward activities persons, who would ask me if I would bring my band to play for a ward event sometime. I would say "I don't know what your budget is, but we're an 8-piece band and that's not cheap". I'd get surprised looks-- every time. I know they expected it to be a freebie.

Other churches: Most other churches don't think twice about paying for good musicians at their services and special events. They wouldn't dream of asking a musician to give that for free. They'll pay good money, thank you profusely, and then feed you a good meal afterward and ask you back.

your time and your talents freely. I think maybe the expectation comes from the temple oaths. But members with musical talents are taken advantage of disproportionately.

It's good you stood up for yourself.

Well at least they allowed you to play your instrument of choice.

As a guitarist I was just screwed

My DW is an artist of the drawing and painting kind. She even has a degree in fine art. I can't tell you how many hours it took her to do posters for various activities, and she always did a great job. She no longer does them,(bless her heart) as it takes too much time that she doesn't have. The irony is, the best artwork looks like it doesn't take any time at all. Artwork that looks fresh and spontaneous really isn't. It takes time and planning to layout, experiment and find the right color combinations for the look you want, etc.
A woman in our ward is a retired school teacher. What does she do? Thats right, she teaches sunday school.
Imaworkinonit is spot on. The attitude comes from the temple oaths. Members are brainwashed into thinking that they are obligated to do whatever the church asks them to do, for free.

There was an article in the Ensign (in the 80s) about a woman who played the organ for another church and got paid for it. Because of the block plan she was free to attend the other church and still attend her ward.

She spoke of what a missionary opportunity it was because the other church not only liked her playing their songs, they liked her PRIMARY Childrens songs!!!! Apparently the church paid her to play childrens songs and she used the TSCC ones!!! and there was a passing aside about the small amount of money she made helped her family through a hard economic time....

Maybe the story was made up to encourage women to believe they could support their families playing for other churches if their husband was laid off work!!!!!

Every non-Mormon church I have ever attended pays their musicians.

My DD is a talented amateur pianist. Our non-Mormon church asked me if they could ask her (she was still in HS) to be a back-up for the regular pianist (who was LDS BTW). The pay was pretty good but I still told them no because I thought it would be too stressful for her as I knew what pressure she put on herself just preparing for recitals.

They tell you "your talent is a gift from god! You should share your talents!"

Yeah, right: as if Mormon God was the one who put in those hundreds of hours of practice and rehearsal.

Yeah, right: as if ANYTHING from Mormon God didn't come with a price tag attached.

I guess that's what bothered me more than anything else--that my musical ability was seen as "talent"--as in you didn't have to earn it, God just GAVE it to you. I've never added up all the dollars and hours of practice spent honing my unearned "talent." It would be many, many, many.

I always got comments also about how the other person wishes that they had "talent" but didn't, so basically they were excused from making any effort. I was seen as the lucky one, not the hard-working one who sacrificed to be able to do this "talent."

And, accompanying screeching sopranos with no musical background in the choir who were telling ME how it should be played . . . well, don't even get me started!!

My DD was a professional bassist in MI. He loved music, but he also had 7 kids and a full-time job. He never got paid for what he did for the church, but it sure was expected. He played for every concert, road show, musical, etc. It was just expected.

Oh, he also did square dances and the like. While paying tithing, doing HT, being the ward chorister, etc. No wonder our house was falling apart, he was too busy to do anything about it. I do resent him putting the church over family, but as I have grown older and learned more, I realize it was not all his doing. He even payed tithing on his deathbed, everyone knowing that he was leaving his disabled wife with a 6,000 life insurance policy, and they still took it from him. That I did not get at all.

He wanted to make everything right before he died, with the church that is.

Now I'm pissed off!! Damn mormons.