The Birthday Defense

April 6th is a pretty big deal in Mormon Culture. In 1830, it was the day on which the LDS Church was officially organized, and a revelation received at that meeting indicated that it was in fact also the official birth date of Christ some 1830 years prior.

And since I think criticizing someone on their birthday is bad form, I'd like to take a slightly different approach to today's post.

I'd like to discuss the local leaders of the LDS Church today, specifically Bishops who lead the individual congregations. There have been a few events recently which got me thinking about this.

First, a friend made a comment last week about what an excellent Bishop I will be one day. I assured them that such an occurrence is not only unlikely, but since I know how to say no, it definitely wouldn't happen. This person is also not a reader of my blog - obviously!!

Second, shortly before another friend of mine ended his life last week, he was reportedly in the presence of 2 Mormon bishops.

Third, Utah State Senator Kevin Garn, who recently confessed to naked hot-tubbing with a minor and subsequently paying her off, was also caught DUI a few years back, while serving as an LDS Bishop. Fortunately for him, it would appear that his political weight came into play, and I don't know if charges were ever filed against him, nor was any disciplinary action convened against him by the Church (But probably because they never found out about it). Ah - the benefits of political life! Interestingly enough, the payoff for his initial indiscretions were orchestrated by his and the young lady's bishops. How the plot thickens!!

For those who are not as familiar with the culture, perhaps a little information about LDS Bishops and how they are chosen.

Each congregation is called a ward or a branch and covers a very specific geographical area. With very few exceptions, a leader of the unit is chosen from within the members residing in that area. He must be a man, and is required to be a High Priest in the Melchizedek priesthood, although he may be ordained a High Priest at the same time as he is set apart as the Bishop. As qualifications for the position, he needs to hold a valid Temple Recommend and be set apart. Setting apart is a laying of of hands type ordinance where the person is official named as the bishop, and the person performing it provides some additional blessings as dictated by the Spirit at the time. And that is about it!

The Bishop / Branch President is now officially in charge of the ward. He oversees the congregation, presides at meetings and basically runs everything. His duties will typically involve a great deal of time each week for meetings and interviews with various members of his ward. One of the reasons, aside from the obvious ones, that I would never accept such a call is due to this time commitment. I suspect most Bishops spend between 20 and 40 hours a week taking care of their duties, and all of this is done voluntarily and without any form of compensation.

A large part of the job is meeting with members to counsel them. This can range from annual meetings with each of the teenagers in the ward to discuss their progress, to counseling them in matters of morality. Adult members will meet with the bishop if they have engaged in activities such as adultery, masturbation, pornography addiction, and others, all the way down to child abuse, pedophilia and any number of problems related to mental illness.

There are other duties as well, but this last section is the one I want to focus on.

These men receive absolutely no training in how to handle someone who is suicidal or someone with a problem such as pedophilia or other sexual type behaviors. My understanding is that the LDS Church has a dedicated phone line for these men to call when they encounter problems which may have legal ramifications for them and/or the church, but in my experience they often will not call. Perhaps they see it as a sign of weakness, or perhaps they don't feel the problems arise to the level that legal advise should be sought. I shared the experience I had with another member of the Church a few weeks ago, a man who should have been charged with at least one felony, but it was all resolved spiritually between him and the bishop - for the third or fourth time in his life - but this time, he was really sincere...

I write this post in defense of these men. They're not perfect and they, like all of us frequently make mistakes. The biggest problem I see that they face is that they have been given a responsibility, and yet receive minimal training on how to deal with problems they will likely encounter. A relative of mine who served as a Bishop several years ago, related that in the course of his tenure as Bishop, he dealt with people who broken every single one of the 10 commandments, and pretty much all others. That's a huge weight for someone to bear as a volunteer leader.

In my opinion, these men should be compensated for their time, and they should be given professional training as councilors, as well as legal training on how to deal with various issues. There is definitely something to be said for having a dedicated minister whose sole responsibility is tending the flock and counseling the members. And I think it goes without saying that having such a minister be a celibate man, is likely a problem too, but that's a whole other discussion.