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During SM, I was thinking about an overseas volunteer opportunity through a religious NGO that I have been asked to think about. It would be a week in Uganda working within my speciality. The thought of Uganda makes me more than a little uncomfortable. I wondered what the LDS church had available, so I logged on and checked needs at LDS.org and at LDS Charities. There is a single contact listed for medical peeps to call and find placement. So many religious organizations have long lists of placements and needs for medical/dental people.They have set clinics and hospitals that they support and staff. The LDS church does not. It surprised me. I had expected to see more.
While looking through other listings, I was stunned at some of the volunteer needs listed:
Water Resource Specialist — but not for third world countries — It is a technical position for the Western US to help church entities protect the Church’s water rights in 11 western states.
Petroleum Reservoir Engineer to assist in performing economic evaluations of oil & gas interests in the US and Canada
Petroleum Landman to assist in determining oil and gas mineral ownership
Revenue-Expense Processor –for Natural Resource Section
Plumber for the PPC (Polynesian Cultural Center)
Painter for PCC
Purchasing Agent for PCC
Welder/Fabricator for PCC
These positions are part of the more commercial arm of the church, it made me uncomfortable to think of them as volunteer positions.
Any thoughts?
On a tangent, I do recall that Jeff Burton really does not count himself anywhere near a devout believer, but he went on a mission (with his wife also?) and he basically helped the church with some very technical issues with meetinghouse ventilation (if my memory serves me correctly). This was with his bishop in full knowledge he was way way less than TBM. It may have been in one of these 2 podcasts.
http://mormonmatters.org/2008/05/15/people-who-helped-me-stay-mormon-part-i-jeff-burton/ ” class=”bbcode_url”> http://mormonmatters.org/2008/05/15/people-who-helped-me-stay-mormon-part-i-jeff-burton/ http://www.mormondiscussionpodcast.org/2014/11/jeff-burton-for-those-who-wonder/ ” class=”bbcode_url”> http://www.mormondiscussionpodcast.org/2014/11/jeff-burton-for-those-who-wonder/ To me Jeff living right in the middle of mormondum is probably a good strategy. Out where the church is thin, I don’t know that it makes as much sense nor is as easy to do. I did find it interesting he was willing to do the mission with so little belief and that he was allowed. I can see some MP’s not allowing this at all.
But back to your post AP.
I am very much at a point where I can see the good that the church does. I feel the analogy that it is good with it being for kids (not just age – children of God), but not for those moving into the adult stage (starting to be on our own). It seems to be like a parent that does stupid/immature things when their child is going to be leaving home, but the parent in a way really wants to keep them dependent. The whole milk before meat, but we never give the meat.
So I look at these as generally a church that does good, and volunteering for these is good. Some of them can be situations where it works very well for a retired person. It can be something that only needs a bit of their time and it allows them to use some of their skills to help a church they love. It keeps them moving rather than retiring and sitting too still and driving their spouse crazy. But for some of those you mention, it does really seem like this is a corporation. Volunteering as a “international money manager” (just making one up) just seems to feel really odd.
But I really wish they would give some opportunities for cleaning the churches to members in need. The disruption to take 4 hours on a Saturday when you have tons of kids soccer games, only 1 day to work on the house, etc. It feels too “serving ourself”. As I have said before, I would rather go mow a needy person’s lawn in the middle of the hot humid summer than this effort.
Thanks for pointing this out AP. Thanks for one more thing to try and come to grips with!
I have said before that I participate in various area Christian churches. One thing that I have noticed in several of these is their support for foreign missions. Missions as they use the term are individuals and families that live in the foreign country building up churches but also setting up social services like schools and orphanages. There are walls in the church covered with framed photos showing the missions/missionaries that the church supports and what work they are performing. Sometimes a missionary will do a presentation for the church on the work that they are doing and ask for support/donations. I have noticed that this helps to connect individuals to a sense of global Christianity and global fellowship. I personally have given to help support an church/school/orphanage in Romania and it felt really good.
This seems lacking in the LDS church. I do not doubt that the LDS church does good is so many countries but there does not seem to be the same opportunity for me to become aware and personally contribute to specific efforts.
I concur with Roy Quote:This seems lacking in the LDS church. I do not doubt that the LDS church does good is so many countries but there does not seem to be the same opportunity for me to become aware and personally contribute to specific efforts.
I have been thrilled with our growth in the humanitarian areas. Years ago I worked with a devout Catholic woman, it was before we had any kind of humanitarian efforts with the exceptions of fasts for things, she pointed out all the Catholic Charities that existed. It was embarrassing for me. I think if I lived in Utah I would start figuring out how to volunteer on the local level and try to get the church to do as others have done. I was so impacted by some of the comments at the Parliament of World Religions Event, especially the line,
Quote:Build toilets, not temples to tackle real-world problems.
There is a book called Mormon America written by some journalists that was popular a decade ago or more. It was a fair look at Mormonism, I thought, backed with statistics. I read it during my grapple with tithing, and one thing that struck me was the % of contributions that actually go to non-LDS charities and causes. The authors compared the LDS Church with another church of about its size. I can’t remember which, but it might have been Lutheran. They found that LDS contributions to extra-LDS church causes were 1/2 of that comparison church. It was part of the reason I decided to alter my view of tithing to a less orthodox view.
Your search for volunteer opportunities underscores my perception that the church is a bit too much interested in its own organizational, economic interests for my liking. I even remember on my mission feeling a bit bothered that people called missionary work “service”. It seems to be self-serving to the church because it’ has a strong volunteer and financial recruiting component to it.
At the time, I dismissed the thought but I’ve thought of it many times since then.
The only thing that doesn’t add up for me in the “church as self-interested economic force” perspective is the prevalence of temples. I don’t see them as necessarily smart investments because they are not really general purpose buildings if sold. You could argue they do generate revenue because they require people to pay tithing to go into them. But they seem to be cost centers. I suppose that if the church got into trouble, they could close them, and “undedicate” them and they could be sold as beautiful churches. They probably have significant, increasing real estate value against which the church could borrow if necessary. But they seem to be the only emblem of faith I see in church real estate holdings, which has some redeeming value.
Anyway, the prevalence of temples still doesn’t nullify my belief that church service is just that — service to the church as a primary consideration. And volunteers are very often taken advantage of, and neglected in the process. As with the female, prospective missionary we’ve been discussing in another thread.
I would look for volunteer opportunities with a few criteria in mind. Consider criteria such as fit with your philosophy of how volunteers should be managed and treated, the percent of donations that goes to altruistic projects as another possible. I don’t see the church as affording such opportunities. And they will try to motivate you with a strong dose of Mormon reasoning about why you should obey and serve….but you can count on them being organized, that is for sure.
There was a letter from the First Presidency read in Scrament Meeting last week encouraging people to contribute to the humanitarian fund AND to volunteer in local and/or global humanitarian efforts, wherever possible. I like that approach, since it broadens immensely the efforts members would help accomplish – and it implies strongly that the LDS Church supports all good efforts everywhere.
I agree Ray. It’s great to hear that we are encouraged to expand our horizons that way, where I see two flaws – 1. The church, which claims to be from Christ himself, (in my opinion) should be front and center in having arrangements ongoing where we can do non-proselyting, toilet building service. World wide.
2. I too love humanitarian service. It’s my present calling now, and my ward is great to help out BUT service is on the bottom of the to do list. Callings and church stuff comes first, then family, then service. For instance we had more ward members attend the planting flowers at the temple service project than any of the humanitarian ones. It’s a massive mindset problem.
The letter is ephemera, it will float past us. I would wager that very few people donated to the Syrian Refugee crisis until the letter was read. We don’t live to lift and serve our non-religious brothers and sisters. We live to keep our place in the kingdom line.
Quote:Ray wrote:
There was a letter from the First Presidency read in Scrament Meeting last week encouraging people to contribute to the humanitarian fund AND to volunteer in local and/or global humanitarian efforts, wherever possible.
When I was in Budapest 6 weeks ago, we ran into the refugees at the international train station.. We were at the train station as it was closed, as police in riot gear pushed the refugees out and did not allow them on to our train — even though hey had tickets. To walk among 1000’s of young families with young children and babies, sleeping on the floor of a train station. .. Obviously middle class people who have just fled a war in fear of their lives. It was humbling. We were literally on the last train out as international borders were closed.
Coming back state-side, the media was talking about the horrific and desperate issues of the largest migration of people since WWII. During this, so many LDS peeps were posting on FB multiple comments about the importance of keeping Muslims out of our country, and comments about how Europe should “send them all back”. There were so many nasty comments that lacked basic empathy for humanity .. As well as kindness and charity. It was a poor reflection on the LDS people.
The FP letter thrilled me. It places the church firmly on the side of taking care of needy people. And yet, I am sad that as a culture, the LDS people too often do not extend themselves unless their leadership commands it.
Old-Timer wrote:There was a letter from the First Presidency read in Scrament Meeting last week encouraging people to contribute to the humanitarian fund AND to volunteer in local and/or global humanitarian efforts, wherever possible.
I saw that too and it is a great step. (seriously, sometimes we wish that the new church essays would be read over the pulpit. Such is the quickest way to get the message out to the faithful).
However, when I went to drop my kids off for Royal Rangers/Missionettes at the local Assembly of God church I noticed that the church is doing a donation campaign to purchase a van for the church/orphanage/school in Romania that the church supports. There was a poster board display with a posted monetary goal and a thermometer to track the progress toward the goal.
If I donate to the LDS church humanitarian fund then I have no doubt that the money will be well spent – I just have no idea how. That reduces my motivation. I feel less connected to the people that are being assisted.
On the other hand, I understand that the church does not want to do anything that might look like soliciting donations at church (exception for friends of scouting). I also appreciate that with the centralized control of the LDS humanitarian fund there is a reduced chance of fraud. I imagine that it is possible for the administrator of the church facility in Romania to embezzle the funds that were intended for the bus and maybe the local Assembly of God church would not even know. However, there does seem to be a difference in culture or attitude towards charitable giving between the two churches.
Incidentally, my LDS ward has a very similar poster board display in the church lobby for deceased person name indexing. We have a stake goal and a thermometer to track our progress. Once again, this just seems to highlight our different cultures and priorities.
I would like to add that when I indicate I am devoting my time to the community now, members do not approve. They will say it’s OK do serve the general community IN ADDITION to traditional church service, but they will not see community service as a substitute for, or at the exclusion, or dilution of church service — even if you are active on Sunday and support your family. Service must benefit the church somehow, for the average LDS person to validate where you spend your time.
And as always, I’m sure there are members who see it differently, but that has been my experience among members of my immediate family, and the people I interact with in the Ward I attend.
I heard rumors of the letter from HQ re: humanitarian aid, but it was not read in my ward. Wonder why that is? Joni wrote:I heard rumors of the letter from HQ re: humanitarian aid, but it was not read in my ward. Wonder why that is?
Same here. We did have stake conference, but it wasn’t read the next week either.
Maybe your local leadership hates refugees?
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