Mormons Make Great FBI Recruits

As a former mormon with most of my family in intelligence or military, the Security Clearance reason may be valid but I call bullshit on the language skills reason. Most mormon missionaries will never learn enough of their respective mission languages to actually have normal conversations, as 99% of their conversations revolve around religion. And the FBI doesn’t really have an emphasis on language anyway, that is more of a CIA thing (which also recruits a lot of Mormons). It’s funny how all of the glowing traits that are claimed about Mormons that are cited as reasons to hire them always come from the perspective of other Mormons.

That being said, this is the first one that I’ve read that has slightly touched on one of the major reasons: Mormon nepotism. The Mormon Mafia talk in this article may sound like a joke, but it is very much a real phenomenon. If you hire a single Mormon, and that person achieves a position of influence in your company, you will wake up some day to the realization that there are now hundreds of Mormons...and they all had a say in hiring each other, and they all give glowing reviews about each other, and they all end up in the same organizations, and they all get promoted in lockstep with each other. The Mormon Mafia isn't an FBI thing, it is a real phenomenon that happens in a lot of different places. I got a great job out of college primarily out of Mormon nepotism. I got fired after leaving Mormonism for the same reason.

A good way to prevent this from happening is, not surprisingly, a general anti-nepotism practice: don’t allow people interview candidates from their alma mater. 99% of these asshole Mormons that try to create Mormon Mafias within companies went to BYU, and 99% of the people they want to hire at the exclusion of others also went to BYU. It works surprisingly well for non-Mormon nepotism as well...never underestimate an HBS grad's tendency to think other HBS grads are the bee's knees. Don’t let them have a say in their hiring.

As a former Mormon myself, I think you're being ridiculous. And frankly, you sound pretty bitter and may not be the most neutral of judges.

Mormon nepotism isn't anything more than you see from other people around their things (church, schools, even sports teams). I lived and worked in Utah County of all places for years (where huge percentage of people are Mormon) and the majority try to be open minded, tolerant, and accepting. Now if you go around shitting on their most sacred beliefs or being an asshole, don't expect it not to affect their feelings toward you, just like it would any other human. I've also lived and worked in places where I was the only Mormon (or one of 2 or 3) in the whole group.

If your claim that being Mormon causes this nepotism (rather than say, just being human as I would claim), then it must be something about their faith that causes it. Where do you think that comes from? Can you point out a teaching or belief of theirs that would encourage this?

> They will always prefer hiring other Mormons, and they will use a bunch of bullshit reasons why they’re better than others as their cover.

You realize this is what all humans do right? We make decisions emotionally and then justify them rationally, even to ourselves. Frankly I find it disturbing that you advocate against actively discriminating against a group of people on that basis. You could easily s/Mormon/gay or anything else in there and it would be exactly as truthful/accurate.

Also, the "Mormon Mafia" is a joke, not an actual thing. For most it's a self-aware attempt at humor.

Just anecdotal but as someone in the Pacific Northwest with a large Mormon population I have seen this occur in government and doctors offices, slowly everyone replaced by Mormons. My current office the practitioner I work with is the only non-mormon left and he's not happy about it. Mormons look out for each other, which ends up in this situation. It's nothing more nefarious than that but still off putting to those outside the church as it very much seems like a 'Mormon Mafia'.

Side note, out of prison Mormons were the only religion that actively supported ex-cons and would set you up with a place to stay and a job if you didn't have one. I seriously thought about converting just for the stability (and still might). The Catholic church had monks come to prison but I couldn't even get a visit with a priest/monk at my previous church once outside to just talk about coming back to society, my fears, and re-adjustment. Or a single parishioner to talk with. But they did offer tele-counseling (if I had insurance).

In Military Bootcamp, Mormon Church was the only church they would give you food and allowed you to escape work on Sundays.