LDS callings: we've got it backwards

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AdmiralHoldo
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LDS callings: we've got it backwards

Post by AdmiralHoldo » Sun Nov 07, 2021 1:27 pm

I was ruminating on the weirdness of how callings work in the church. The church tells you what calling you are going to do, and then they proceed to attach a bunch of conditions to it. (You're going to teach church history but don't you dare mention polygamy, that sort of thing.) They aren't paying us, they don't hold anything over us other than imaginary "blessings" that you have to be dead to receive. And we all accept this as totally normal.

Outside the church, when someone asks you to do *them* a favor, who dictates the conditions of that favor? That's right - the person being asked, not the person asking.

It's like when they are in RS begging us to feed the missionaries. Give these kids free food (says the church while sitting on $100B), and it can only be between 5 and 5:45, and MOST importantly my husband has to be home to prevent me from sexually assaulting teenage boys less than half my age.

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2bizE
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Re: LDS callings: we've got it backwards

Post by 2bizE » Sun Nov 07, 2021 7:05 pm

I like the idea of setting conditions and expectations with a calling:
Bishop: we want you to serve as nursery leader.
Me: I will accept if you install a small fridge in the nursery, a slurpy machine, and a cotton candy machine, and provide all of the supplies.
~2bizE

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blazerb
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Re: LDS callings: we've got it backwards

Post by blazerb » Tue Nov 09, 2021 6:14 am

A related issue is the whole, "We are not a church of volunteers. We are a church of assignments." We were told to stop asking for volunteers for things like cleaning the church or going out with the missionaries. We were to make assignments and "hold people accountable." That last bit was code for, "shame the blazes out of them." Except some people had learned that the shame wasn't a big deal.

We had a HPGL who bluntly told the high councilor that the assignment method wouldn't work with his group because the old guys had dealt with it all before. They knew that it was just manipulation and wouldn't accept it.

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nibbler
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Re: LDS callings: we've got it backwards

Post by nibbler » Tue Nov 09, 2021 7:34 pm

You sound like you're in my stake. They went full tilt on the church of assignment messaging a year or two back. You'd think it was the stake theme or something.

I remember one Sunday School class where the BP got onto the instructor for asking for a volunteer for a closing prayer. Apparently they should have assigned someone to give the prayer. :roll:

It's like people at church meditated, "If an abusive jerk ran a church, what would they do? They wouldn't ask people to do something, they'd tell them to do something!" and then they went with that.

I think it all came from a misinterpretation of the temple video. Elohim assigns tasks. Jehovah assigns tasks. People report back. Let's make church about assignments, reporting, and measuring!

They also have to ignore Abraham 3:27 with that plan.

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