I have been mentally out for 15 years but only out to family for the past few years. They are normally quiet on the topic and I interact with them as I always have. I can talk TBM talk with the best of them. They are careful to steer clear of any serious topics.

Anyway, a while back we were talking about my brother's shift working in the Portland temple. I tried to politely ask a few questions to gather some facts. He said the temple president told them that there are about 1500 volunteers - almost 100 people per shift. They meet in the chapel for a prayer meeting first and then begin the 4 hour shift. He works in the morning on a week day. Many times they don't have enough people to start a session. They have to bring workers from other areas so there are enough for the prayer circle, etc. I asked how many "live" endowments they perform. He seemed excited when he said they had one last week.

So my mind starts whirling. I guess I had no idea there were so many volunteers giving so much time collectively. I commented on what a waste it seemed. My brother looked a little sheepish. I brought up the thought that it seemed like something people do for bragging rights. You know, so they can drop conversation about how they are a veil worker / volunteer at the temple, etc. I pushed the conversation a little farther and then shook my head and let the silence speak for itself. Good news is that a month or two later I learned that he told them he could no longer be a worker.

Now to the math: I'm going to be generous in my assumptions. Please feel free to make any corrections you see in my calculations. Let's take one temple X 750 workers each working 5 hours(have to allow extra for prayer meeting) a week X 4 weeks a month. That is 15000 man hours each month or the equivalent of $150,000 at $10.00 per hour. Now times that by 11 months a year = $1,650,000 in opportunity costs. I know not all temples operate like this one, but there are 155 temples world wide. Almost all of the time spent working at the temple is doing made up stuff for dead people.

What a waste...end of rant.

Volunteering for a non-profit is a very common element of our society. One of the main elements of religion in general, is the need for the members to perform rituals that are important to their core beliefs. Mormons are no different.

People who are dedicated to their beliefs will volunteer their time to do anything they can. I did that as a teenager in the Christian Church I belonged to. Most of the jobs were filled by volunteers.

I'm happy to not volunteer anymore. I no longer feel the need or the pressure to volunteer. It was important at one time, but not anymore.

I am not surprised by the number of volunteers the LDS Church uses. They have had a problem for many years now getting enough people to volunteer. Even temple sessions, for instance, have been reduced. Part of that is the need for a family to have more than one person bringing home "the bacon"!
The economy has by necessity cut down on the available hours to volunteer across the board. Many non-profits are hurting for volunteers now days.

I have no belief in the rituals of any religion. They are all unnecessary in my life.
I do recognize that many people like to volunteer in their religion or other charity or groups. Look at the thousands who volunteer for the care of animals, for instance.

We all know that one of the ways of keeping overhead costs down in any organization, particularly non-profits, is to have enough volunteers.

Volunteering has it's own reward, as they often say. It's a good feeling to know you are helping ease the burdens of others.There is also a social element that is very rewarding.

Every church I ever attended or looked into has a throng of volunteers. They do a large variety of donated works from providing music, clean up, providing food, and on and on.

Personally, I find volunteering a way to be helpful and has it's own reward.

I did not like the level of pressure in the LDS Church demanding I volunteer or the number of hours I spent with little or no recognition or cooperation or appreciation. That's the down side.

It's been more that 30 years since I set foot in a temple. Even at that time, outside SLC and Provo, most of the people in the daytime sessions were elderly temple workers called on temple missions. And, the men would fall asleep and miraculously jump up when it was time.

Even as a Mormon, this bothered me. I noticed other churches were doing more things in the community - but we were so insular and only doing work in the temple or visiting teaching for the most part. The church callings took so much of our time, we had no time for any real volunteer work.
By the way, this included "clean the building assignments."
We clearly were getting our time sucked away that we could have otherwise used to do better things.

What I find particularly annoying is that in periodic surveys to measure which states/communities/religions are most "charitable" in donations of volunteer time and money, Utah and the LDS church are almost invariably at the top.

What annoys me is that they count tithing (extortion) as donations to charity, and as "volunteer service to charity" time spent in incessant planning meetings, counting and depositing weekly cash collections, and temple "service." All those things do is feed the monster of Mormonism; they do little actual charitable good.