Trouble Brewing

[creekster]

Originally Posted by Solon

You act like people would come to your funeral.

I guess the big attraction to having an LDS funeral is that it's free. Shell out the bucks for a funeral home, and I'll bet you can do whatever you want.

You can pretty much do what you wqnt in an LDS funeral. I have seen many funerals that are not at all like the HOI description. You must be one of those rare wealthy pseudo-intellectuals to have that free-spending attitude.

[Mormon Red Death]

Originally Posted by Solon

You act like people would come to your funeral.

I guess the big attraction to having an LDS funeral is that it's free. Shell out the bucks for a funeral home, and I'll bet you can do whatever you want.

screw that... I've been paying my monthly dues my whole life. I'm sure as hell not going to pay to use a funeral home.

[MikeWaters]

I haven't been to a funeral where a person's life was not discussed.

I will say about giving on a talk on the gospel....I went to a funeral, and one of the speakers, who happened to work for CES, gave a talk that was much overwrought, in a General Authority voice, that I found very lacking in tone and tenor to the occasion. My father felt the same way. So yes, there are distasteful ways to talk about the plan of salvation in a talk at a funeral I discovered.

[RC Vikings]

Originally Posted by El Paso Coug

I was just surprised at how regulated Church operations are. I would be very surprised if any other church had a handbook that was as detailed as the LDS Handbook is. However, I could be wrong.

In spite of our lay clergy I doubt any other church is run like a big business as well. Other may be in it solely for the money but nobody does it as well. Every ward is like a franchise.

[MikeWaters]

I am pressured much more about home teaching than I am tithing.

Where is the public display of giving to the church, such as a collection plate?

If the church were about collecting money, they could do a much better job using shame.

[El Paso Coug]

Originally Posted by MikeWaters

I am pressured much more about home teaching than I am tithing.

Where is the public display of giving to the church, such as a collection plate?

If the church were about collecting money, they could do a much better job using shame.

Members don't want to be required to look the Bishop in the face and say that they aren't full tithe payers. Tithing settlement does a very good job of collecting money. If you don't sign up, you'll get a call from the executive secretary to make sure everyone is accounted for.

[MikeWaters]

Originally Posted by El Paso Coug

Members don't want to be required to look the Bishop in the face and say that they aren't full tithe payers. Tithing settlement does a very good job of collecting money. If you don't sign up, you'll get a call from the executive secretary to make sure everyone is accounted for.

not in my ward. I was the ES and I never called anyone. And the number of people who attended was low.

In fact, for a couple of years, I was a FTP and I didn't attend.

Additionally it is never made public who attended and who didn't.

[il Padrino Ute]

Originally Posted by Mormon Red Death

screw that... I've been paying my monthly dues my whole life. I'm sure as hell not going to pay to use a funeral home.

You don't have to use us to have the funeral service on site, but you can't escape us for the rest of the funeral services.

Truth be told, I much preferred a funeral anywhere other than the mortuary. It's a lot less work for the funeral directors.

[creekster]

Originally Posted by El Paso Coug

Members don't want to be required to look the Bishop in the face and say that they aren't full tithe payers. Tithing settlement does a very good job of collecting money. If you don't sign up, you'll get a call from the executive secretary to make sure everyone is accounted for.

Then they should pay or not go. At least have the courage of your actions. The bishop never asks how much you pay, he only asks if you are a full tithe payer, part tithe payer or non. There is no shame at all. In my life I have gone to many settlements,sometimes I was paying and sometimes I wasn't and I always told the Bishop the truth and have never felt unduly pressured. into paying.

In fact, the only discomfort I have felt was when I told him I was a non-payor and I knew inside this was not consistent with my true feelings. No shame, no pressure no discomfort and nothign public like the collection plate.

[splitbamboo]

Originally Posted by El Paso Coug

cover to cover within the last few weeks. What is amazing to me is that the LDS Church is run on a very, very detailed scale. There are procedures for every aspect of Church leadership operations. Micromanagement is a very fair word.

For example, read the section on funerals. You wouldn't think that there would be that much guidance on this topic and funerals are not something that a Bishop deals with that often. Nevertheless, every aspect of a funeral service is regulated. Funeral shouldn't last more than an hour and a half. When the casket can be open and closed. Which songs are allowed. No video or slide shows. Don't focus on the decedent, but instead focus on the gospel in all talks.

Bishoprics, Stake Presidencies and High Counselors really don't have that much leeway as to what they are supposed to do. Sure, there are a lot of areas where leaders are to use their best judgment, but the level of regulation and structure is shocking. I kept asking myself: Would the Lord's only true church really need to be micromanaged to this degree?

Just my thoughts.

I remember my current Bishop stating how thankful he was that he had a clear process to follow when he dealt with his first funeral. As we all know, they aren't full time with no formal training and in the midst of the fight, the instructions are incredibly useful.