By TIFFANY PING
The morning shift got Robert Johnson up at 5:30 a.m. He puts on his thick-soled shoes to protect his feet from broken glass, and his eyes look a little less strained behind his black-rimmed safety glasses.
While everyone else awakes to begin his or her day, Johnson was already on his way to the Anheuser-Busch beer processing plant in Cartersville, Ga., to begin his work shift as a lab technician.
Work for Johnson consisted of testing the quality of ingredients such as hops, rice, yeast and barley kernels, checking the various processes of beer making, examining the final product and making sure the packaging was done right with the correct 'born date' on each can or bottle.
The brewery plant in Cartersville produces 15 different brands of beer and over 7.5 million barrels of beer each year. This one plant alone generated $40 million in 2003.
Nothing too out of the ordinary, except Anheuser-Busch produces beer sold internationally, including Budweiser, and Johnson is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Now a car salesman, Johnson retired in March 2003 from the world's largest brewer.
Johnson said he did what he needed to support his family and fulfill his callings in the church, but his lab work at the beer company seemed to be a conflict of interest to him.
'I had certain mixed feelings about it, but I just feel like overall the Lord blessed me because the way I got the job was miraculous itself,' he said.
Johnson said he also felt it was a blessing from the Lord because he had been out of work for nine months when he found out Anheuser-Busch was hiring. Having previous experience in brewing, Johnson got the job when the original person hired for the job decided not to take it at the last minute.
'I needed to have something to do,' Johnson said. 'I got the job, and I was able to work a lot of over time, so it was a great financial benefit to me.'
Official word from the church is parents, mainly fathers, are to provide for the family financially while living the principles taught by the church to their best ability.
Coke Newell, LDS church spokesman, said: 'The circumstances in which Latter-day Saints live and work worldwide is so diverse as to render any sorts of rigid parameters unusable. As a general guideline, though, church members in the work force are expected to seek and pursue honest employment that allows them to be contributing members of society, but the church does not proscribe the sorts of employment that a member may appropriately pursue. Such decisions are left to the discretion of the individual, guided by the more general principles of the gospel.'
Johnson, a convert to the church, said he was working for a different brewing company when the missionaries taught him.
'They told me I couldn't drink or smoke or chew tobacco, but I don't recall them saying anything about I couldn't work in a brewery,' Johnson said.
While working for Anheuser-Busch, Johnson worked in the Atlanta, Ga., Temple and was the high priest group leader for a while.
'I said to myself, 'I work here and the money I make I pay tithes with, it is not rejected by the church,'' Johnson said. 'If I was a hit man to earn my living, then that money would not be accepted as tithe money.'
Although Johnson's job was to test and inspect the quality of the beers and its ingredients as well as overseeing the whole packaging process, he neither supports nor encourages drinking.
'I don't encourage people to drink,' he said. 'Matter of fact, it's the opposite. I just say to myself, this is the way the Lord provided me to make a living for my family. Because it certainly was a blessing the way I got a job there. Then I felt like if the Lord were displeased with me, he would let me know. It didn't bother me too much. I just felt that it was a living, and it wasn't illegal.'
Other members of the LDS church agree with Johnson.
'It's like a doctor who operates on all people,' said an LDS member who works for a major insurance company that insures Las Vegas casinos that asked to remain unidentified. 'It is like a lawyer who defends a criminal. You just have to do the service they pay you for. It completes your job even if you don't agree with what they are doing as a business.'
This may be a concern for BYU students as they look for majors to study in or career fields to go into after graduation.
'If you were to come to me, I would say to you, 'Consider the end of your salvation. What would you be doing 20 years from now if you take that job?'' said Randy Bott, a religion professor at BYU.
Melinda Brinton is a student at Utah Valley State College from Orange County, Calif., majoring in theater. She came to Utah wanting to go into musical theater, but changed her dream to opera after realizing the difficulty in balancing work and her values.
'That's one reason why I'm turning more toward opera,' Brinton said. 'The entertainment business is very liberal in the career field as far as jobs goes. There are not a lot of morals for the people in general.'
The LDS Church warns of the negative influence the media can have on each individual, therefore, working in the entertainment business would not be an easy thing to do.
' is not happy-go-lucky any more,' Brinton said. 'There's a lot of stuff on and off stage. You have to some way compromise your morals, or you would not be finding jobs as often. If you had an agent, and you tell him you don't feel comfortable with nudity, swearing or smoking, they will tell you that it would be a miracle to find jobs. It would be very hard. You will be competing against people who are willing to do those things. It would be more complicated to change the scripts and stuff to fit your standards.'
Elder Richard G. Scott, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said, 'Think of the long view of life, not just what's going to happen today or tomorrow. Don't give up what you most want in life for something you think you want now.'
Students may feel it is a privilege to attend BYU because of the church principles applied to secular learning. Professors are able to help students understand challenges they may face in their particular career field with a special emphasis placed on the importance of a family in connection with a career.
'We try to work with our students, knowing that they will be challenged,' said Bob Nelson, theater and media arts chair. 'We talk directly about the issues that they may be facing. We do careful reading and analysis. We want to help them to develop critical thinking skills. They will all one day be consumers, and they need to be careful consumers. The goal is for us to be charitable and not be afraid of different view points.'
Lisa Trout, a junior from Cincinnati, Ohio, majoring in modern dance, said BYU helps its students to dance in a spiritual way.
'BYU helps us to focus on the sanctity of the body,' Trout said. 'Everything done in our dancing is done with the intent to make the body beautiful but always in a sacred way. Every dance class they try to bring in the spiritual aspect. We are taught that through our talent, we are supposed to share our testimony.'
Trout said she understands there may be a conflict with dress standards in dance, and she plans to enforce modest costumes when she owns her own dance studio.
'In dance, everything is about the body and the movement of the body,' Trout said. 'There's a line between looking at the body as art and looking at it in a pornographic way. BYU is pretty strict about rehearsal attire and performance attire. Even to some people, it still may be a bit risqu?, but if you dance fully clothed, you wouldn't be able to do some of the movements. Part of dance is the movement of the body. I think it's the way people go in looking at it.'