Here’s the one lesson I learned from my 3.5 year stint as an Elders Quorum President:  never, ever aspire to be a Bishop.  Seriously, it is a thankless job. To put a finer point on it, being a Bishop is an honest-to-goodness, up-to-40-hours-per-week, full-time thankless job.  Not to mention the fact that the pay (-10%) is really lousy.

An evergreen subject here in the Bloggernacle, it seems, is the outing of “bad Bishops.”  I cannot begin to count the number of posts and comments I have read over the past few years in which people have complained about all forms of mistreatment at the hands of a Bishop.  These purported “bad Bishops” come in all forms, e.g., the ones who ask too many personal questions, the ones who don’t take time to get to know their members, the ones who visit too often, and the ones who don’t visit enough.  Boiled down to their essence, these complaints amount to a disappointment that the mere mortal serving in one’s local ward does not meet the member’s idealized version of what a Bishop should be.  When confronted with this dissonance, otherwise sensible bloggers across the ideological spectrum can whip themselves into a virtual lynch mob.

The purpose of this post is to bring a bit of balance to the discussion.  To be clear, I believe that real ecclesiastical abuse can and does occur  But I also wholeheartedly believe that truly “bad Bishops” are tiny minority.  By contrast, I think most Bishops are regular guys, trying their hardest to make the best of what everyone admits is just about the toughest calling around.  That has been my consistent observation throughout my 36 years as a proud wearer of the worker’s seal.  It’s time we give these guys their due.

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