Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/05/2012 09:18PM by steve benson.

Sorry - not quite the same, but my father spent years in CES. He is evil, so I figured, any entity who hired him to work with young people (and he's a narcissistic sociopath as well) had no idea what they were doing and were just as fooled by him as everyone else. Helped grease the skids, for sure.

Not a career, because it was part time while I was in college in the late 90s up until 2002, but I was employed at the Salt Lake Temple. First I was at the Family File desk and then moved to the endowment/marriage/sealing appointment desk, totaling about 6-7 years including a stint as a volunteer at Family File before a paid position opened up. I left the job because I moved out of state, and then left the church six years after that. There are a couple coworkers of mine about whom I wouldn't be shocked to hear that they'd left the church.

There was definitely plenty of good dirt on the top 15, some from observation (such as: apostle's kids get special rules as far as sealings and stuff) but especially from a coworker who had been around for years and knew church security folks (such as: Monson's a total dick).

It used to make me laugh that the engineers had a big stash of Dr Pepper in their fridge in the basement --evil caffeine in the lord's house! They very generously used to share it with a few of us who worked an early shift.

I pretty much only went to church so that I could continue to be able to get a TR and keep my job, but I still really believed in the church at that time -- I just hated going on Sundays. I had to get my recommend renewed about three weeks before I moved away, and my self-righteous bishop almost took my recommend away because I didn't attend enough (he also tried to keep my still-valid recommend saying that I couldn't have "two valid recommends at the same time, which was complete nonsense -- it's not valid until it's signed by the Stake President -- and I never had a Stake President keep the old recommend even if it was still valid for a few days. Nice to have to educate the prick on stuff like that, but it scared me that I woudln't be able to get into work the next day.)

I think when I left the church it helped that I had the first hand knowledge that even the most "holy places" are run just like any other place of employment -- there is nothing spiritual or sacred about it. The dirt on the top 15 was pretty eye-opening as well. My experience was that quite a few people who worked at the temple as employees, at least those in the departments that I knew well (office staff, engineering) were really cynical about the church.

[I do have to say that the my direct boss was a wonderful person, and they were extremely generous with changing my schedule every semester when my class schedule changed. It was by no means all bad working for them -- I always felt like I had some great insider knowledge.]

27 years ago I had an internship at the Church Office building. (Do not wish to say which dept.) I was 23 and about to go to graduate school. I worked with a team of very professional women. I enjoyed what I did that summer--but concluded quickly I never wanted to be employed by the church other than maybe be a professor at BYU if I went on for Ph.d. (I didn't). Even then, I was leary of church employment. I was offered a job at the end of the summer, but turned it down--one ofthe smartest things I've done in my life, to turn down church employment.

During the time that I worked for the Church, I began to recognize things about the organization that I'd never noticed before.

The first thing was what a good old boys club it was. When one of the long-time Church employees applied for the top position in the office, she was basically patted on the head and told that she needed the discernment which holding the Priesthood would give her, in order to do that job. Therefore, she shouldn't bother applying.

She did, and they indulged her by interviewing her, but they had already made up their minds even before they interviewed her. Yes, there were some women holding that job in the Church, so it wasn't as if you had to be male.

The other thing was the pressure to do a perfect job, while not being given the resources, nor the time to complete such perfection. I had people calling me in tears, feeling that they were letting down the Church because they couldn't complete the job to their expectations.

A GA came in from Salt Lake and pretty much laid it on the line for us. If during our performance evaluation we received a poor rating, we'd be bringing down the scores of our entire office. Heck, we'd be bringing down the scores of our entire region.

But why stop there? We'd be bringing down the scores of the entire country and it would be our fault. That was another thing which appalled me.

My testimony was beginning to falter at this point. I began to think of the Church as nothing more than a corporation, with their product being their brand of eternity.

My attendance suffered a bit and my tithe-paying as well. Because of that, they put me on probation from my job, telling me that I was worthy to go to church, but I wasn't worthy to work for the Church. You had to keep absolutely temple-worthy in order to work for the Church.

I'm sure that my friends still believe that it was being put on probation which made me leave, but that's not true. If I really believed that the Church held my eternity in its hands, I'd simply have said, "What a jerk," when that Bishop said that to me and I'd have continued going. I wouldn't have let someone being a jerk keep me from my eternal destiny.

What made me leave was that I finally realized that the Church was damaging to ones self-esteem. I thought to myself, "Why am I doing that to myself? I should leave," and so I did. I just walked away and never went back.

From the moment I left, my self-esteem began to heal. It wasn't until 4 years later that I found out many truths about the Church I hadn't known before and that's when I officially resigned.

But it was shortly after leaving Church employment that I left and never went back. I guess getting a job for the Church woke me up. I used to tell my friends, "If you want to keep your testimony, keep your employment and your Sunday life separate. Don't ever work for the Church."

Nothing of the sort, but I did happen to meet a fellow pilot who flew the Huntsman jet. Sadly no horror stories; just faith-promoting BS about what great men the LDS leaders were.