I do not remember Mormon being so visible in past years doing work that people are normally paid to do.They are doing jobs that would cost local governments maybe $100,000 dollars in wages to perform.

Are the Mormons so aware of their repuation as being a cult that they have to do this community service?

It's them doing their service in secret - bwahahahahaha!

I don't really care about their motivations. If they want to focus more on service projects and less on doctrine, then I am all for it.

Just because you see the Mormons wearing yellow shirts doesn't mean they are doing MORE service. They are wearing them to try and make a GOOD IMAGE for LDS Inc.

PR

Well, I see the problem as Mormons now only doing work if they are allowed to make it an advertising event as Mormons doing work for people they don't know. "Look! It's us, and we're being Christian! Suck it, people!" Other Christians can give their time, money, and goods quietly and cheefully, but Mormons gotta advertise, and only after they've been pressed into it by the priesthood press gangs.

A group of women in our stake were chastised by the stake president a year or more ago for responding to a local disaster without "permission of the priesthood" (yes, women can just go willy-nilly helping people) and because they did so without wearing the mandatory T-shirts and smocks advertising "Mormon Helping Hands."

cludgie

"permission of the priesthood"

Sounds like the American Catholic Nun group that was recently chastised by the Vatican for helping the poor too much and not doing enough against gay marriage, birth control, ect...

Got to love the priests don't ya!

How about:

Yellow t-shirts for the Mormons
Red t-shirts for the Catholics
Blue t-shirts for the Presbyterians
Purple t-shirts for the Muslims
Green t-shirts for the atheists
Orange t-shirts for the Jews
Fuchsia t-shirts for the Lutherans
etc...etc...
Are there even enough colors to go around?

All corporations do it.

+ 1

Didn't the yellow shirts come out as a way for missionaries serving in certain foreign countries to be able to do so without getting mistaken for CIA?

You have to make sure the little you do is as visible as possible.

We always had some kind of service project. The matching shirts came later. I know people who have been serving and volunteering for decades ...but no matching shirts!
It's just a way of identifying who is participating and knowing who is in your group. Lots of projects have multiple groups participating.

Nothing nefarious, just identification.