Mormonism as a Country Club

Let's imagine Mormonism as a very exclusive Country Club which you are invited to join. Membership, you are told is very egalitarian. Everyone pays a membership fee of 10% of their income, so no one pays more than their fair share.

You decide to join and start paying your membership.

After a while you decide it would be nice to enjoy some of the facilities of the club. Can you use the gymnasium? No, you are told, you cannot use the gymnasium of the club.

Well, can you use the steam room? No, you are told that you cannot use the steam room.

Could you use the library of the Country Club? That too, is off limits to you.

Could you have a massage in the health suite? No, that is not available to you.

There is, in the brochure, a high quality restaurant. Can you book you and your family in there for a meal? No, with regret, you are informed that the restaurant is not available, either.

By now you are more than a little frustrated by this. You ask what facilities you CAN use? You are told that you are able to attend weekly presentations as to the benefits of membership of the Country Club and also you can attend special sessions of the Country Club when members who CAN access the facilities denied to you tell you how marvellous being a member is, and how you should live your life as a member of the Country Club.

You ask, with a sense of rising anger, if there is a two tier system of membership at the Country Club? The official who you approach is scandalised by this. But when you question him it transpires that he has never enjoyed any of the facilities of the Country Club, either! But he did once meet someone who knew someone who did enjoy the facilities.

"So, we are expected to pay our membership fees whilst an elite group of members actually enjoy the facilities of the Country Club and we get nothing in return?" you ask. "What are you? Some kind of rebel?" is the shocked response.

Now, at this point, most people would cancel their membership and quit the Country Club. For many people in the Mormon Church this is not an option. Because Mormonism really IS a Country Club for a few very, very few, lucky members (with many more facilities than I have outlined above) who have managed to convince several millions of people round the world that Mormonism is a church and not a Country Club.