PPI - Personal Priesthood Interviews?

[silverfox]

My TBM son in law is the Elder's Quorum secretary. When I went by to pick up daugther I told him not to have too much fun while we were gone. He said, yeah, right, too much fun calling freakin' everybody to set up their PPIs?

Then he proceeded to tell me that PPIs are held MONTHLY now rather than every 6 months. This just changed last month. So he is spending large amounts of time on the phone just getting these interviews set up for his ward. Yikes!

He said he wonders how long it will take for the brethern in the ward to get sick of such frequent interviews. He feels like he is calling them and bugging them constantly.

The interviews are used to touch base with the priesthood holders? Asking if family home evening is being held, etc? He mentioned these questions but I am just wondering what these interviews entail these days. Have they changed?

[Born Free]

My TBM son in law is the Elder's Quorum secretary. When I went by to pick up daugther I told him not to have too much fun while we were gone. He said, yeah, right, too much fun calling freakin' everybody to set up their PPIs?

Then he proceeded to tell me that PPIs are held MONTHLY now rather than every 6 months. This just changed last month. So he is spending large amounts of time on the phone just getting these interviews set up for his ward. Yikes!

He said he wonders how long it will take for the brethern in the ward to get sick of such frequent interviews. He feels like he is calling them and bugging them constantly.

The interviews are used to touch base with the priesthood holders? Asking if family home evening is being held, etc? He mentioned these questions but I am just wondering what these interviews entail these days. Have they changed?

I have forgotten who performs that interview. I guess that must be the EQ Pres? Sounds like they are building in some redundency over the Home Teachers. I am guessing people will weary of tha tprocess quickly and just tell him to pi$$ off. That will make it a fun assignment.

Sure sounds like micro-managing to me. Is this the anal-retentives going into overdrive to stop the decay?

(God, I am sounding narky this afternoon! Better review my bitter/twisted levels. It's all that song Silverfox got into my head "Take that rod and shove it!")

Daryl

[peter_mary]

When I was serving in the Elder's Quorum presidency, the purpose of the PPI was to bring the Home Teaching "spy network" full circle. The thinking behind the program was that the home teachers invade (sorry, I meant "visit") the home and evaluate their needs, both temporal and spiritual, offering help and support as they can. Then they return and report to the EQ or HP what they found, and the EQ and HP in turn return and report the important (i.e. "juicy") stuff to the Bishopric in the twice monthly Priesthood Executive Council (PEC). Then the Priesthood leaders and Bishopric members discuss those families (read: "gossip") to determine what should be done. If necessary, the EQ then takes those recommendations back to the Home Teachers, who implement.

It never works. :rolleyes:

I would bet my last nickel that the monthly PPI is for one purpose and one purpose only...keeping the guilt level turned up so high that the Home Teachers actually get out there and make their visits. It's likely a classic case of, "I don't care HOW stupid the program is, the Lord said do it, so by damn, we're gonna make 'em do it."

Does anybody else think that this smacks of "Satan's Plan", i.e. the removal of free agency and forcing people to do what is commanded?

Me too...

Paul

[Born Free]

When I was serving in the Elder's Quorum presidency, the purpose of the PPI was to bring the Home Teaching "spy network" full circle. The thinking behind the program was that the home teachers invade (sorry, I meant "visit") the home and evaluate their needs, both temporal and spiritual, offering help and support as they can. Then they return and report to the EQ or HP what they found, and the EQ and HP in turn return and report the important (i.e. "juicy") stuff to the Bishopric in the twice monthly Priesthood Executive Council (PEC). Then the Priesthood leaders and Bishopric members discuss those families (read: "gossip") to determine what should be done. If necessary, the EQ then takes those recommendations back to the Home Teachers, who implement.

It never works. :rolleyes:

I would bet my last nickel that the monthly PPI is for one purpose and one purpose only...keeping the guilt level turned up so high that the Home Teachers actually get out there and make their visits. It's likely a classic case of, "I don't care HOW stupid the program is, the Lord said do it, so by damn, we're gonna make 'em do it."

Does anybody else think that this smacks of "Satan's Plan", i.e. the removal of free agency and forcing people to do what is commanded?

Me too...

Paul

I just love this sort of heavy handed micro-management. ;)

If there is anything guaranteed to push the intelligent ones out the door, it is this sort of busy, busy stuff. :)

The smart ones reach the point where they say "Enough already! I'm out of here!"

More power to them.

Hey, I remember being a young Elder, buddied with an older guy for HT. One of the families we visited was a 30ish mother of two, member, married to a non-member, frequently absent Army NCO.

Some time after I was released from that assignment, I found out somehow that the woman had been having an affair and that this was known to my HT companion, but not communicated to me.

How cute! And Home Teachers are so well prepared to deal with such situations (Not)! Marvellous what the Power of the Priesthood can handle though.

Daryl

[free thinker]

I served as executive secretary for a couple of years. These years really were the seeds of my burnout and discontent. So Daryl is right on again!

I could never live that life again. It is so utterly banal!

Free Thinker

[mindbender]

When I was serving in the Elder's Quorum presidency, the purpose of the PPI was to bring the Home Teaching "spy network" full circle. The thinking behind the program was that the home teachers invade (sorry, I meant "visit") the home and evaluate their needs, both temporal and spiritual, offering help and support as they can. Then they return and report to the EQ or HP what they found, and the EQ and HP in turn return and report the important (i.e. "juicy") stuff to the Bishopric in the twice monthly Priesthood Executive Council (PEC). Then the Priesthood leaders and Bishopric members discuss those families (read: "gossip") to determine what should be done. If necessary, the EQ then takes those recommendations back to the Home Teachers, who implement.

It never works. :rolleyes:

I would bet my last nickel that the monthly PPI is for one purpose and one purpose only...keeping the guilt level turned up so high that the Home Teachers actually get out there and make their visits. It's likely a classic case of, "I don't care HOW stupid the program is, the Lord said do it, so by damn, we're gonna make 'em do it."

Does anybody else think that this smacks of "Satan's Plan", i.e. the removal of free agency and forcing people to do what is commanded?

Me too...

Paulone time i was serving as the Bishops sec , so come meeting time i had to read out the minutes to the previous ward welfare meeting , halfway thru the minutes i realized that the previous meeting , which i never attended , was all about my family , all about how one of my daughters was breaking the law of chastity with someone , i kept reading as if it was totaly impersonal to me , when i finished everyone looked totaly embarrased , the Bishop just said , has anybody anything to say , nobody said anything , then he assigned a prayer and the meeting was closed . All the gossip i have heard in these meetings , never saw a whole lot done to actually help anybody

[silverfox]

one time i was serving as the Bishops sec , so come meeting time i had to read out the minutes to the previous ward welfare meeting , halfway thru the minutes i realized that the previous meeting , which i never attended , was all about my family , all about how one of my daughters was breaking the law of chastity with someone , i kept reading as if it was totaly impersonal to me , when i finished everyone looked totaly embarrased , the Bishop just said , has anybody anything to say , nobody said anything , then he assigned a prayer and the meeting was closed . All the gossip i have heard in these meetings , never saw a whole lot done to actually help anybody

I am speechless. I hope they all shat their pants. What really bothers me, too, is how this gossip leaks to the ward members. So and so tell his wife and she tells her best friend who tells her hubby who tells his best friend who tells her best friend and it just snowballs into a mess. And does a lot of damage.

[peter_mary]

I am speechless. I hope they all shat their pants. What really bothers me, too, is how this gossip leaks to the ward members. So and so tell his wife and she tells her best friend who tells her hubby who tells his best friend who tells her best friend and it just snowballs into a mess. And does a lot of damage.

Right! For anyone reading this forum who still has occassion to visit with their Bishop, please understand that confidentiality is a myth in the Church. First of all, the Bishop is highly likely to share what he knows with his counselors, and those meetings often include the Ward Executive Secretary and the Ward Clerk. Then the EQ President and/or the High Priests Group Leader will need to know, so that they can work with their home teachers. In the process, they will no doubt feel it is necessary to discuss this with their own counselors in their own presidencies. Same is true for the Relief Soceity, who needs to know so that they can "help" and so they can also discuss the needs of the sister in question with the Visiting Teachers. If there are young men or women in the family, then the Young Men's leaders or the Young Women's leaders have to be brought in the loop, along with the appropriate class teacher. Primary aged kids? Then the Primary Presidency needs to know.

And then a few months later, the whistle blows, everybody switches jobs, and a whole new crop of Elders Quorum Presidencies, Releif Society Presidencies, and everyone else under the sun has to be briefed on the needs of your family. In the course of a few months, 25% of the ward might be informed of your personal matters because they have or had "a need to know." Not to mention stake leaders.

And that doesn't include the occassional slip where someone who "needs to know" tells their spouse, who starts the grapevine to buzzing. Or the "talk" that happens after a leader is released and they no longer feel the burden of that confidentiality.

Never, never, never assume that your personal issues will be kept confidential.

That's not to say that there aren't Bishops who are better about it than others. I'm certain their are Bishops who can keep their mouths shut. And my understanding is that they TEND to be pretty good about confessional information. But anything else is fair game.

For me and my family, we assume that whatever we say will be broadcast, and we let that be the determining factor in what we will or will not talk about. Once you recognize that your Bishop has no actual "authority" and is in fact nothing more than a nosy neighbor, you realize that you don't have to tell him anything. The information you possess about your journey, your struggles, and your decisions regarding the Church, your children or whatever belongs to YOU, not to him, and no one is entitled to that information unless you choose to share it.

Paul

[dogzilla]

Thank you, Paul, for once again bringing a topic, kicking and screaming, into the light of day. This is a subject that most people I would bet, would prefer remain in darkness... like mushrooms. (And we all know where THOSE grow!)

It's yet another reason I could no longer accept that the church is True. In what True Church would the details of a teenager's sexual abuse be shared with the spouse of the bishop? Apparently, in the one I attended as a teenager.

Refer back to my story on or about page 3 of the Introduce yourselves thread, wherein I said this:

Not long after that -- maybe a couple years -- we had a snow day. I was a senior in high school. That same Bishop's wife called me and asked if she could come over and take me to lunch because she has something she wanted to talk to me about. She had two sons, one a year older than I and one a year younger. At lunch, she told me that the younger son had wanted to ask me out but she refused to allow him to because my spirituality was suspect. She had concerns that her son would not return from a date with me with his virtue intact. Now, the younger son wanted to ask me out and she'd decided to relent and let him. (He was far more rebellious and persistent than the older son, who I'd had a crush on for several years.) She wanted my assurance that her boy would return from dates with me still temple-worthy and mission-worthy. She also insisted, since she was treating me like an adult, that I not share the conversation with my parents or anyone else.

I always wonder what would have happened if there had been real privacy. I might have dated and fallen in love with the older son, married him and have about 14 kids right now.

[Free-soil]

A good friend of mine, the EQP and a pretty liberal TBM (If such a thing exists ;) ) mentioned the change in PPI's to me. He is a member of a singles ward :Puking and was instructed to ask each of the men about "the laws of celestial dating and courtship" in their own lives and in the lives of others. YIKES! This touches on a number of issues that have already been mentioned (privacy, mirco-management, etc.) Bless his heart, I can't imagine having to ask 25 year old men (his peers)about their sexual habits. :Puking YUCK! :Puking

[nate]

And that doesn't include the occassional slip where someone who "needs to know" tells their spouse, who starts the grapevine to buzzing. Or the "talk" that happens after a leader is released and they no longer feel the burden of that confidentiality.

Never, never, never assume that your personal issues will be kept confidential.



This is so true, and it's utterly disgusting!

I remember once, around age 16, I got pulled over on a Saturday night in Logan Canyon and forced to do a field sobriety test (I passed). Apparently a ward member was driving past at the time. At church the next day, by the time priesthood meeting started, I had been told by 3 different people that I "Needed" to set up an interview with the bishop! haha.

Satan's plan to a "T"!

[gracie]

Right! For anyone reading this forum who still has occassion to visit with their Bishop, please understand that confidentiality is a myth in the Church. First of all, the Bishop is highly likely to share what he knows with his counselors, and those meetings often include the Ward Executive Secretary and the Ward Clerk. Then the EQ President and/or the High Priests Group Leader will need to know, so that they can work with their home teachers. In the process, they will no doubt feel it is necessary to discuss this with their own counselors in their own presidencies. Same is true for the Relief Soceity, who needs to know so that they can "help" and so they can also discuss the needs of the sister in question with the Visiting Teachers. If there are young men or women in the family, then the Young Men's leaders or the Young Women's leaders have to be brought in the loop, along with the appropriate class teacher. Primary aged kids? Then the Primary Presidency needs to know.

And then a few months later, the whistle blows, everybody switches jobs, and a whole new crop of Elders Quorum Presidencies, Releif Society Presidencies, and everyone else under the sun has to be briefed on the needs of your family. In the course of a few months, 25% of the ward might be informed of your personal matters because they have or had "a need to know." Not to mention stake leaders.

And that doesn't include the occassional slip where someone who "needs to know" tells their spouse, who starts the grapevine to buzzing. Or the "talk" that happens after a leader is released and they no longer feel the burden of that confidentiality.

Never, never, never assume that your personal issues will be kept confidential.

That's not to say that there aren't Bishops who are better about it than others. I'm certain their are Bishops who can keep their mouths shut. And my understanding is that they TEND to be pretty good about confessional information. But anything else is fair game.

For me and my family, we assume that whatever we say will be broadcast, and we let that be the determining factor in what we will or will not talk about. Once you recognize that your Bishop has no actual "authority" and is in fact nothing more than a nosy neighbor, you realize that you don't have to tell him anything. The information you possess about your journey, your struggles, and your decisions regarding the Church, your children or whatever belongs to YOU, not to him, and no one is entitled to that information unless you choose to share it.

Paul

I am not sure what the original thread was here, but this topic really p...es me off!!!!!!!!! How about the bishop who told the teenage girl he was molesting, the NAMES and incidences of ALL the affairs in the church congregation that occured while he was bishop????! :Puking Including the name of a close family member who was involved in an "indescretion" a couple of years earlier, to the young girls shock and dismay!!!!! Presumably, he made these revelations to convince the girl (OK it was me) that it was totally ok to do what he was doing, it was just what happens. I cannot run into any of these people now without remembering what I know about them; and I am sure they thought at the time of their "confession" that it was in the strictest confidence!!!! :Puking (how many times can I use the puking sign in one post?) I hope this makes sense, I am so sick - literally- about this that I cannot think straight. I guess I will go back to my therapist sooner than I thought.
My point however, is that nothing is sacred in the LDS church- not confessions, not truth, and certainly not people.
Gracie