Missionary Age Lowered to 18 for males, 19 for females

[_Yong Xi]

Perhaps this has been mentioned, but this may result in reducing the average age at which LDS get married. 20 year old returned missionaries will be looking to marry LDS girls aged 20 and less on average. This may cause a slight increase in the average number of children produced due to starting families at an earlier age.

Seemingly, the Church is going to be a big beneficiary in many ways. Too bad these kids don't get to experience conventional adulthood. The machine rolls on.

[_Tchild]

Well it's good to see that the oracles are alive and well in the church. To now have verified that the channels between God and the Leaders of his Church are vibrant and active!

Yes a momentous revelation that will affect every man, woman and child in the church.

Hard to fight back the yawns isn't it?

Reading the comments on KSL, you might think that this administrative tweek equates to the saints being translated and about to join the city of Enoch in the sky.

WOW! So young men have the option of serving a year earlier and women two. The gospel is "true", as one commentator on KSL gushed.

[_sock puppet]

Can't have them out in the real world for a year after HS. Nopw, can't do it. THey might get corrupted with things like facts and adult life.

That was similar to my first thought. By doing this, they are keeping Mormon youth--well, the boys, at least--away from post-secondary education.

Lest they be tempted into thinking critically and for themselves.

[_just me]

Perhaps this has been mentioned, but this may result in reducing the average age at which LDS get married. 20 year old returned missionaries will be looking to marry LDS girls aged 20 and less on average. This may cause a slight increase in the average number of children produced due to starting families at an earlier age.

Seemingly, the Church is going to be a big beneficiary in many ways. Too bad these kids don't get to experience conventional adulthood. The machine rolls on.

This is a huge concern to me. HUGE.

Maybe in 15 years we will see a huge rise in the divorce rate, too.

[_angsty]

They explained the age difference at the press conference. They said it works better when the women are slightly older.

I thiinnk they are tryiing to discourage romance in the mission field, but I don't think the year difference willl really do that.

If that's the reasoning, it seems terribly poor. I mean, maybe the youngest women arriving will be a year older than the youngest men, but that's really not much of an age difference to begin with, and in any case there will still be men and women of the same ages serving together-- and much more so than before.

If concerns about mission romance really are motivating the sexism, I'd expect to see a policy that reflects a more meaningful age difference.

[_Mercury]

Can't have them out in the real world for a year after HS. Nopw, can't do it. THey might get corrupted with things like facts and adult life.

That was similar to my first thought. By doing this, they are keeping Mormon youth--well, the boys, at least--away from post-secondary education.

Win win then. I wonder if this will affect the rates of education? Also, if a family has to spend over 10k over 2 years, where will they get money to send them to even a community college? This is an act of enslavement, creating a dependent class who's sole purpose is to be raised to be a missionary and income source for dependent businesses. This is sickening.

[_bcspace]

Leaving the sisters to one side for the moment, I am dazed by the idea that if you want to convert people to a new religion, the best thing to do is to send them a kid of 18. The younger they get, the more risible they will seem. I mean "Jesus has a message for me, and he sent you? What the hell do you know about life, 'elder'?"

You obviously haven't read the scriptures.

[_Chap]

Leaving the sisters to one side for the moment, I am dazed by the idea that if you want to convert people to a new religion, the best thing to do is to send them a kid of 18. The younger they get, the more risible they will seem. I mean "Jesus has a message for me, and he sent you? What the hell do you know about life, 'elder'?"

You obviously haven't read the scriptures.

Try to hold in your head, just for a second, the possibility that I might actually have read the Bible quite a lot and still disagree with you that sending kids is the most effective way to convert adults to a new religion.

Of course the major factor to consider here is the reaction of people who have not read anything much by way of books, let alone 'scriptures' who find kids at their door asking them to undertake fundamental life changes. If 18 is not too young, what about 16? 12? Where is the boundary to be set?

The CoJCoLDS faces a massive problem in the lack of effectiveness of its missionary program in converting normal Americans to its faith. The idea that sending younger missionaries will help deal with this situation is so obviously crazy that it becomes obvious that the main purpose of the program in the eyes of the church leadership is not to convert new members, but to retain those they already have.

But that's not what they tell the young recruits in the MTC, is it?

[_why me]

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? 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.

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

[_why me]

Win win then. I wonder if this will affect the rates of education? Also, if a family has to spend over 10k over 2 years, where will they get money to send them to even a community college? This is an act of enslavement, creating a dependent class who's sole purpose is to be raised to be a missionary and income source for dependent businesses. This is sickening.