Runtu also said the following, with which I also agree:
Runtu wrote: For what it's worth, I think it's as much a distortion to see the GAs as these humble guys making do on a modest stipend as it is to portray them as fatcats living off the largesse of the membership.
harmony and some others have mentioned the Church trying to have it both ways by claiming that we are better than other churches because we don't have a paid ministry. But the LDS Church does in fact have a paid ministry with General Authorties (and mission presidents), and that's before we even talk about CES employees, who are paid to teach the Church's teachings. (Look! Chiasmus!) And if it's supposedly wrong to have a paid ministry on a local level (which the Church never tires of saying), then the Church has failed to articulate why it is okay to have a paid ministry on a church-wide level.
I can't decide what movie I feel like watching right now, so I'm starting a thread about something I do begrudge. That something is the habit church leaders have of making misleading statements about having a paid ministry in order to make the LDS Church look superior to all them other religions that preach for "filthy lucre." This is particularly disingenuous because such statements about not having a paid ministry have been made by men who are paid to minister. Here are some examples:
Thomas S. Monson
May 2006 Ensign
I was visiting with the East German state secretary, Minister Gysi. At that time our temple at Freiberg, in East Germany, was under construction, along with two or three meetinghouses. Minister Gysi and I visited on a number of subjects, including our worldwide building program. He then asked, “Why is your church so wealthy that you can afford to build buildings in our country and throughout the world? How do you get your money?”
I answered that the Church is not wealthy but that we follow the ancient biblical principle of tithing, which principle is reemphasized in our modern scripture. I explained also that our Church has no paid ministry and indicated that these were two reasons why we were able to build the buildings then under way, including the beautiful temple at Freiberg.
Gordon B. Hinckley
November 2002 Ensign
We are a Church of lay leadership. What a remarkable and wonderful thing that is. It must ever remain so. It must never move in the direction of an extensive paid ministry.
Boyd K. Packer
September 1979 Liahona
In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints there is no paid ministry, no professional clergy, as is common in other churches.
Boyd K. Packer
November 2007 Ensign
The Church has no professional clergy. The call to leadership positions worldwide is drawn from the congregation. We have no seminaries for the training of professional leaders. [Editor's note: what did Boyd K. Packer do for a living before he became a General Authority?] Everything that is done in the Church—the leading, the teaching, the calling, the ordaining, the praying, the singing, the preparation of the sacrament, the counseling, and everything else—is done by ordinary members, the “weak things of the world.”
We see in the Christian churches their struggle to fill the need for clergy. We do not have that problem. Once the gospel is preached and the Church is organized, there is an inexhaustible supply of faithful brothers and sisters who have that testimony and are willing to answer the call to serve.
Boyd K. Packer (again!)
November 1985 Ensign
The Lord said that “every man might speak in the name of God the Lord, even the Savior of the world.” (D&C 1:20). So humble men and women, and even young people, not professionally trained for the ministry, carry on the work of the Lord—many of us with little more than the spiritual conviction that it is true.
Surely we must appear at times to be very amateurish when compared to the professional clergy of other churches.
Boyd K. Packer (that's right: a man who has been paid to teach Mormonism for approximately 6 decades continuously insists that we have no paid ministry)
November 1974 Ensign
“Well, we believe in helping one another. If someone is in need or ill or out of work or in trouble, we are organized to assist, and you would be expected to help.”
“Did they also tell you that we have no professional clergy? All of us contribute our time, our talents, our means, and travel—all to help the work. And we’re not paid for it in money.”
Gospel Principles
Chapter 28: Service
In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints there is no professional clergy, so the lay members must carry on all of the activities of the Church.
Sometimes we get statements about the Church not having a paid ministry at "the congregational level." This question-begging statement is also misleading, since it does not address a paid ministry at "above the congregational level" and because it fails to address why a parish priest is corrupt because he is paid a salary but General Authorities are virtuous when they are paid a salary.
Dallin H. Oaks
November 2002 Ensign
We have a great tradition of unselfish service in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Indeed, one of the distinguishing characteristics of this Church is the fact that we have no paid or professional clergy in our thousands of local congregations and in the regional stakes, districts, and missions that oversee them. As an essential part of God’s plan for His children, the leadership and work of His Church is provided by His children who give their time freely for the service of God and their fellowmen.
In summary:
pro·fes·sion·al
–adjective
1. following an occupation as a means of livelihood or for gain: a professional builder.
2. of, pertaining to, or connected with a profession: professional studies.
3 .appropriate to a profession: professional objectivity.
4. engaged in one of the learned professions: A lawyer is a professional person.
5. following as a business an occupation ordinarily engaged in as a pastime: a professional golfer.
6. making a business or constant practice of something not properly to be regarded as a business: “A salesman,” he said, “is a professional optimist.”
7. undertaken or engaged in as a means of livelihood or for gain: professional baseball.
