Missionary Age Lowered to 18 for males, 19 for females

[_Analytics]

Two comments.

First, I find it quite interesting that the prophet said, ""I am not suggesting that all young men will — or should — serve at this earlier age." Not only is the prophet not commanding everybody to go at the prescribed age, he isn't even suggesting they should. Of course cultural expectations will strongly suggest that everybody should go right after graduation, but it's refresing to hear the prophet explicitely give kids some leaway on this.

Second, this isn't about retention or military service or marriage as others have suggested. It's about BYU football. As Elder Jeffrey R. Holland said, now student-missionary-athletes "can go sooner and return sooner and play four straight years."

[_Drifting]

Wouldn't a more Christlike pronouncement have been:

"We are lowering the age at which young men may serve a mission to 18. In conjunction with this we are also discontinuing proselytising missions and replacing them with humanitarian and community service missions".

[_Stormy Waters]

The biggest impact, of course, will be much greater numbers of young women going, thus increasing the devotion gap between the men and women of the church. Second, I see a lot more mission weddings; in fact, this may be a desired outcome. A little harmless flirting and group dates galore (although they won't be called that), and one person comes come a few months before the other and starts laying the groundwork for a rapid-fire wedding.

I agree. Now girls right out of high school will decide they are going on a mission and will plan their lives around it. Hell I've already seen it starting. Already playing with the idea of going on a mission instead of starting school...
I've got to hand it to the church. It will probably prove to be a good business decision.

[_Drifting]

Will this change 'rase the bar' for missionary standards or perhaps lower it?

[_angsty]

I also wonder about the marriage connection. I have heard from several sources that LDS leaders are concerned that the rate of marriage has slowed among LDS youth, and they are waiting longer to get married. (my personal theory is that access to internet porn can be thanked for that, but that's just my own personal theory, I'm sure the economy contributes) But if RMs are returned, fresh and horny, at the age of 20, will they be more likely to enter into an impulsive marriage than they would be one year later? It will be interesting to watch.

I'm not sure porn really figures in that much (of course, I am out of the loop on this culturally, since I don't care about porn, and don't view it as public enemy #1, thereby enabling its psychological power over me or anyone else), but I do think this will probably help increase marriage rates among young Mormon men. By lowering the age, they increase the number of young men who are done with missions, and on to the pursuit of marriage stage on their LDS Living Checklist before reaching cognitive maturity (mid-twenties). Young adults at this stage are more susceptible to influence and don't have the kinds of life experience that might motivate them to be more cautious about serious matters such as marriage. I say this knowing full-well that I married too early under a lot of formal and informal pressure from LDS authority and culture. If I had been a bit older when I met dh, I think I would have had the sense-of-self to hold off until I was good and ready, authority be damned.

[_ajax18]

The biggest impact, of course, will be much greater numbers of young women going, thus increasing the devotion gap between the men and women of the church. Second, I see a lot more mission weddings; in fact, this may be a desired outcome. A little harmless flirting and group dates galore (although they won't be called that), and one person comes come a few months before the other and starts laying the groundwork for a rapid-fire wedding.

If I were still a TBM, I'd rejoice and call that a good thing. I didn't really have much time to devote to socializing due to the pressures of college. Missions did seem to lend themselves as a chance to work with the opposite sex that I didn't have at other times in my life. I think this is a very good step in the right direction for the Church.

But again, why can't the young women go at the same age and why couldn't they have done this 30 years ago.

[_Fence Sitter]

So with a retention rate of 30% for converts we are now going to send out 18 year old boys. Yeah I can see how younger Elders will imporve convert rention rates.

[_Darth J]

When I was on my mission in Italy, I had three different companions who were from Italy. There were many other Italian missionaries there, too. Italy has compulsive military service. And yet kids who wanted to go did go. So you seem to have come up with some great speculation about a non-problem.

What year did you serve your mission?

In the 90's. I'm not getting more specific than that on a public message board. But how about you, Why Me? When did you serve your mission?

Whoops! I'm sorry, I keep forgetting that your are pontificating about things you don't know anything about.

It works this way: young man finishes high school and the army calls. Young man dresses up like a soldier for well over a year. Then, a mission calls. And then college. By the time the Mormon boy enters school he was a couple of years older than the others. Now it makes more sense to serve a mission first, then the army and then school. He can get a deferment from the army to serve a mission. No problem in many countries. Now one can go on a mission, then the army and then college.

No, it doesn't work that way. There are all kinds of ways Italian guys arranged their mission around the military. You don't have the slightest idea what you're talking about. And Italy ended compulsive military service several years ago. So have many other countries. Here's the CIA's country-by-country comparison of who does and does not conscript its citizens:

https://www.cia.gov/library/publication ... /2024.html

Of the countries that do have mandatory military service, there is usually a wide range of ages when this can be done. Doing military service before or after an LDS mission is the same matter of personal preference that it always was. However, I am glad to see you so ecstatic about your unsupported assumption about why the Church is lowering the missionary age, especially since your assumption addresses a problem that does not exist.

And in america, he can go right from high school and not waste a year or attend school for a year. It makes sense.

Yes, having a job, living a normal life, going to college, joining the military.....look at all these things 18 year-olds would be wasting their lives on instead of spending two years as a door-to-door salesman for Joseph Smith's frontier tall tales. Two years of cultish indoctrination and unpaid labor, during which educated people summarily reject your message, while semi-literate third world people will join and then promptly forget that they are now Mormons.

Of course it makes sense to have adolescents go out and do this. They're far too stupid and have far too little life experience to understand the concept of "opportunity cost."

[_Drifting]

So with a retention rate of 30% for converts we are now going to send out 18 year old boys. Yeah I can see how younger Elders will imporve convert rention rates.

I think it is now crystal clear that converts are merely a bi-product of the Church's programme of indoctrination for young adult men, designed to prevent them leaving the Church in droves before they turn 30.

[_Drifting]

This big new announcement isn't even new, it's been in place for ten years!

"These age adjustments are new options now available to bishops in evaluating what is best for each of their youth,” he said. He continued, “Young men and young women should not begin their service before they are ready spiritually and temporally.”

He stated that schooling, family circumstances, health, and so forth still remain important considerations for the timing of missionary service.

Over the past decade, permission has been given in 48 countries to let young men serve at age 18. Now, the Church will have a single policy worldwide.

http://www.LDS.org/church/news/church-l ... e?lang=eng

And in addition to getting them out there at a younger age, the Church is going to compliment this move with LESS training!

Time at each of the Church’s 15 Missionary Training Centers (MTCs) will be reduced by one-third for all missionaries.