"God's Busywork: How the LDS Church Turns Devotion Into Free Labor and Full-Time Surveillance"
The Role of Church Callings in Maintaining High-Demand Religious Membership: A Critical Examination of the LDS Church
Abstract
Mormon Callings and Structures Within the Cult
This article critically evaluates the practices of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), focusing on its system of "callings" and structured obligations as mechanisms of behavioral regulation, social surveillance, and organizational control. Using sociological and psychological frameworks, the analysis situates these practices within the broader context of high-demand religious groups. Drawing comparisons to cult dynamics, the article explores the ethical implications of time domination, unpaid labor exploitation, surveillance, and theological framing. Early and modern examples are used to illustrate these dynamics, offering a comprehensive critique of authoritarian leadership, perfectionism, and resource commodification. The article concludes by emphasizing the need for ethical accountability and further scholarly scrutiny of these practices.
Introduction: A Framework for Institutional Loyalty and Behavioral Regulation
The LDS Church’s organizational structure is meticulously designed to foster a high level of commitment among its members, employing mechanisms that prioritize institutional loyalty and behavioral regulation. These practices, deeply embedded in the church’s history and theology, are framed as spiritually enriching, emphasizing obedience, service, and sacrifice as pathways to salvation. However, a closer examination reveals that these mechanisms also function as tools to sustain the church’s influence, operational efficiency, and centralized authority.
Institutional Loyalty: Theological and Structural Underpinnings
The LDS Church emphasizes loyalty to the institution through a combination of theological doctrines and structured obligations:
Theological Framing:
Core teachings such as “following the prophet” and the concept of “eternal progression” reinforce the idea that obedience to church leaders is synonymous with obedience to God. This theological framing discourages dissent and prioritizes institutional directives over personal autonomy (Quinn, 1994).Structured Commitments:
Members are expected to adhere to a highly organized system of responsibilities, including callings, tithing, temple attendance, and participation in weekly meetings. These structured commitments create a rhythm of life that orients members’ focus around the church, reducing exposure to external influences (Stark & Finke, 2000).
Behavioral Regulation: Historical and Modern Practices
The church’s focus on behavioral regulation has historical roots and modern applications that ensure conformity and compliance:
Historical Context:
In the 19th century, the church utilized practices such as communal living and public disciplinary councils to enforce obedience and loyalty. For example, early Mormon settlements were structured around a centralized authority that controlled land, labor, and resources, effectively tying members’ livelihoods to the institution (Arrington, 1979).Modern Practices:
Today, behavioral regulation is achieved through programs like ministering, worthiness interviews, and surveillance mechanisms that monitor members’ adherence to church standards. These practices ensure that members internalize the church’s expectations, reinforcing self-regulation and dependency (Hassan, 2018).
Mechanisms of Control: Time, Labor, Surveillance, and Theology
The LDS Church employs several interrelated mechanisms to maintain control over its members:
LDS Leaders Control The Congregation With Time, Labor Exploitation, Spying, and Theology
Time Domination:
The church monopolizes members’ time through a demanding schedule of meetings, activities, and callings. This tactic reduces opportunities for members to engage with alternative perspectives or pursue personal interests (Stark & Bainbridge, 1985).Labor Exploitation:
Unpaid labor is a cornerstone of the church’s operational efficiency. Members are assigned roles ranging from janitorial duties to leadership positions, all framed as “service to the Lord.” This reliance on unpaid labor significantly reduces the church’s operational costs while fostering a culture of obligation (Heaton & Goodman, 1986).Surveillance Mechanisms:
Surveillance practices, both formal and informal, ensure conformity and discourage dissent. From worthiness interviews to social media monitoring, these mechanisms create an environment where members feel constantly observed, fostering self-censorship and performance anxiety (Campbell, 2013).Theological Framing:
The church leverages its theology to justify its demands, presenting callings and sacrifices as divine mandates. This framing not only legitimizes institutional authority but also shifts the burden of compliance onto members, who are taught to view obedience as a measure of faithfulness (Bushman, 2005).
Broader Context: High-Demand Religious Groups
By situating these practices within the broader context of high-demand religious groups, it becomes evident that the LDS Church shares characteristics with other organizations that prioritize institutional control. High-demand groups typically:
Require significant investments of time, money, and labor from their members.
Employ mechanisms of social control, such as peer monitoring and public accountability, to enforce conformity.
Justify their demands through theological or ideological frameworks that discourage critical thinking and external engagement (Hassan, 2018).
The LDS Church exemplifies these dynamics, using its organizational structure to create a self-sustaining system of loyalty, labor, and regulation. While these practices are often framed as spiritually enriching, they raise significant ethical concerns about the balance between institutional priorities and individual rights.
Ethical Concerns: Autonomy, Mental Health, and Social Costs
The church’s methods of fostering commitment and regulating behavior have profound implications for members’ autonomy, mental health, and social well-being:
Autonomy:
The emphasis on obedience and conformity undermines members’ ability to make independent decisions. By framing dissent as spiritual rebellion, the church creates a culture where questioning authority is stigmatized (Quinn, 1994).Mental Health:
The demands placed on members, combined with the pressure to meet the church’s high standards, often lead to stress, burnout, and feelings of inadequacy. This is particularly pronounced among women, youth, and marginalized groups (Sullivan, 2011).Social Costs:
The church’s focus on loyalty and regulation can strain relationships, foster mistrust, and create a sense of isolation for members who struggle to meet expectations or question their faith.
Time Domination and Behavioral RegulationStructuring Members’ Lives
The LDS Church assigns unpaid callings to nearly all active members, ranging from administrative tasks to leadership roles. These callings are accompanied by an expectation to participate in frequent weekly activities, including Family Home Evenings, youth group meetings, and temple worship. Together, these obligations occupy a significant portion of members’ time, leaving little room for secular pursuits or personal reflection.
This deliberate structuring of members’ time aligns with Stark and Bainbridge’s (1985) observation that high-demand groups often monopolize their members’ schedules to reinforce loyalty and reduce exposure to alternative perspectives. By embedding church-related tasks into every aspect of members’ lives, the LDS Church ensures that their primary focus remains on the organization.
Perpetual Busyness and Information Control
Hassan (2018) describes perpetual busyness as a form of information control, wherein members’ cognitive and emotional energy is consumed by the group’s demands. In the LDS Church, this is achieved through a relentless cycle of callings, meetings, and events that leave members with little mental bandwidth to question leadership or explore alternative worldviews. Members who struggle to meet these demands often experience guilt or spiritual inadequacy, further entrenching their dependence on the church.
Labor Exploitation
Unpaid Labor as a Cornerstone
The LDS Church relies heavily on unpaid labor to sustain its operations. Members are tasked with roles such as clerks, youth leaders, teachers, and janitors. These positions are framed as “callings” inspired by divine revelation, creating a sense of spiritual obligation that compels members to serve without monetary compensation.
Economic and Social Implications
The reliance on unpaid labor reduces operational costs but disproportionately impacts members, particularly those already burdened by financial or time constraints. This exploitation aligns with Hassan’s (2018) analysis of high-control groups, where labor is framed as a spiritual necessity to obscure its exploitative nature.
Modern Examples
Contemporary examples of labor exploitation within the LDS Church include:
Members cleaning church buildings after meetings instead of hiring custodial staff.
Volunteers constructing church facilities or participating in unpaid administrative tasks for local congregations.
Missionaries funding their own service missions while adhering to strict schedules that demand full-time labor without financial compensation.
Surveillance Mechanisms
Formal Oversight
Programs like worthiness interviews allow leaders to assess members’ adherence to church standards, including payment of tithing, attendance at church meetings, and personal morality. These interviews are framed as opportunities for spiritual guidance but often serve as tools of formal oversight.
Informal Peer Surveillance
Ministering programs, previously known as visiting and home teaching, create networks of informal oversight where members are assigned to monitor one another’s spiritual well-being. These systems foster mutual accountability but also reinforce conformity and discourage dissent.
Digital Surveillance
Technological tools like the LDS Tools app enable leaders to track attendance and participation. Missionaries, in particular, are subject to extensive oversight through apps that monitor their daily schedules and interactions, further institutionalizing surveillance.
Social Media Monitoring
A New Frontier of Oversight
The church also encourages members to use social media platforms to share their faith and promote its teachings. While framed as missionary work, this initiative serves as an informal method of monitoring members’ online behavior. Leaders may review social media posts to assess members’ alignment with church standards, particularly among youth and missionaries.
Impact on Youth and Vulnerable Populations
Youth are encouraged to participate in campaigns such as Light the World, creating pressure to present an idealized version of their faith online. Vulnerable populations, such as LGBTQ+ members, face additional scrutiny, as deviations from church teachings on social media can result in disciplinary action or ostracism.
Psychological and Ethical Concerns
Social media monitoring exacerbates performance anxiety, self-censorship, and emotional strain among members. The lack of clear boundaries around monitoring practices raises questions about privacy and trust within the community.
Worthiness Interviews: A Breach of Personal Boundaries
Invasive Questions
Conducted by bishops and stake presidents, worthiness interviews often delve into highly personal aspects of members’ lives, such as adherence to chastity laws. For minors, these interviews are particularly concerning, as they frequently involve explicit questioning about sexual behavior. Studies in psychology suggest that such questioning can lead to feelings of shame, confusion, and anxiety, particularly when conducted without proper context or safeguards (Fahs, 2011; Klein, 2018).
Ethical Concerns for Minors
The lack of parental involvement in these interviews undermines familial trust and leaves minors feeling isolated. Advocacy groups like Protect LDS Children have highlighted numerous cases of harm resulting from these practices, calling for reforms to protect vulnerable populations (Protect LDS Children, n.d.).
Potential for Reform
Require parental presence during interviews with minors.
Prohibit explicit questioning about sexual behavior for individuals under 18.
Train ecclesiastical leaders on safeguarding practices to prevent psychological harm.
Cult-Like Characteristics
Authoritarian Leadership
The church’s leadership structure places ultimate authority in the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, who are considered prophets and revelatory. Members are taught that questioning these leaders is equivalent to questioning God, fostering a culture of obedience and dependence (Lifton, 1989).
Demand for Purity
Strict behavioral standards, such as the Word of Wisdom and chastity laws, emphasize moral purity and perfectionism. Deviations from these standards are often met with social judgment or disciplinary action, creating a culture of guilt and self-censorship.
Economic Exploitation
The requirement to pay tithing—10% of gross income—is tied to temple recommend eligibility, making it a compulsory financial obligation for full participation. For lower-income members, this creates significant economic strain while reinforcing institutional dependence.
Conclusion: The Broader Implications of Control in the LDS Church
The LDS Church’s practices of time domination, surveillance, and authoritarian leadership exemplify the dynamics of high-demand religious groups. While these practices are framed as spiritually enriching and community-building, they function primarily as mechanisms of behavioral regulation, social control, and institutional maintenance.
Institutional Prioritization vs. Individual Rights
One of the most significant critiques of the LDS Church lies in its prioritization of institutional growth and stability over the autonomy and welfare of its members. The church’s systemic demands on members’ time, labor, and financial resources impose disproportionate burdens, especially on women, minors, and marginalized groups.
Ethical and Psychological Costs
The emphasis on perfectionism, compliance, and financial contributions creates significant ethical challenges. Members who struggle to meet these expectations often suffer from emotional exhaustion, stress, and feelings of failure, raising questions about the church’s responsibility to its members.
Recommendations for Reform
Transparency: Provide greater clarity about how member contributions are used and ensure accountability in financial practices.
Safeguards for Minors: Reform worthiness interviews to include parental consent and prohibit explicit questioning about sexual behavior.
Genuine Voluntarism: Reframe callings and programs like ministering to emphasize voluntary participation without fear of judgment.
Final Reflection
Religious organizations have the potential to provide profound spiritual and communal benefits. However, when institutional priorities overshadow individual welfare, they risk alienating the very individuals they seek to serve. The LDS Church must critically examine its practices to balance institutional authority with the dignity, autonomy, and well-being of its members.
Bibliography
Arrington, L. J. (1979). Great Basin Kingdom: An Economic History of the Latter-day Saints, 1830–1900. University of Illinois Press.
Bushman, R. L. (2005). Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling. Alfred A. Knopf.
Campbell, H. A. (2013). Digital Religion: Understanding Religious Practice in Digital Media. Routledge.
Cragun, R. T., & Lawson, R. (2010). The Secular Transition: The Worldwide Growth of Mormons in the Context of Secularization. Sociology of Religion, 71(3), 349–373.
Fahs, B. (2011). Performing Sex: The Making and Unmaking of Women’s Erotic Lives. State University of New York Press.
Hassan, S. (2018). Combating Cult Mind Control: The Guide to Protection, Rescue, and Recovery from Destructive Cults. HarperCollins.
Heaton, T. B., & Goodman, K. L. (1986). LDS Church Members and Informal Social Control: A Sociological Examination. Review of Religious Research, 27(3), 276–290.
Klein, L. K. (2018). Pure: Inside the Evangelical Movement That Shamed a Generation of Young Women and How I Broke Free. Atria Books.
Lifton, R. J. (1989). Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism: A Study of Brainwashing in China. University of North Carolina Press.
Manson, P. (2020). Inside the Wealth of the Mormon Church. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from wsj.com.
Protect LDS Children. (n.d.). Protect LDS Children: Advocacy for Reform in Worthiness Interviews. Retrieved from protectldschildren.org.
Quinn, D. M. (1994). The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power. Signature Books.
Snow, D. A., & Machalek, R. (1983). The Sociology of Conversion. Annual Review of Sociology, 9(1), 167–190.
Stark, R., & Bainbridge, W. S. (1985). The Future of Religion: Secularization, Revival, and Cult Formation. University of California Press.
Stark, R., & Finke, R. (2000). Acts of Faith: Explaining the Human Side of Religion. University of California Press.
Sullivan, S. C. (2011). Living Faith: Everyday Religion and Mothers in Poverty. University of Chicago Press.
Trussell, D. E., & Shaw, S. M. (2012). Organized Youth Sport and Family Life: Complexities and Consequences. Sport, Education and Society, 17(1), 117–133.