Don Bradley on MormonThink

[_Maksutov]

I'm not upset or angry. I just think the site isn't helpful or fair. I'm all for full disclosure for future missionaries. This ain't it.

I really do not like the the LDS Church missionary program. I did serve a mission for the Church, but having looking back on it, I felt that I wasn't mature enough and emotional ready to do so. I believe that the Jehovah Witness Church missionary program is a lot better than the LDS Church missionary program. The Jehovah Witness Church missionary program has their adult members do the missionary work as a part time activity.

Dude, don't go there.

[_Bob Loblaw]

I really do not like the the LDS Church missionary program. I did serve a mission for the Church, but having looking back on it, I felt that I wasn't mature enough and emotional ready to do so. I believe that the Jehovah Witness Church missionary program is a lot better than the LDS Church missionary program. The Jehovah Witness Church missionary program has their adult members do the missionary work as a part time activity.

I'm no fan of the missionary program, either, as it is built on numbers at any cost. Missionaries aren't taught to think about what's good for their investigators or how they can help them. They are just taught how to get them into the font. That community service hours are recent and mandatory says a lot of about the focus of the program. My mission really screwed with me in many ways, and I do not want my sons to go through that.

[_Mayan Elephant]

My mission really f****d with me in many ways, and I do not want my sons to go through that.

My mission was the opposite. it gave me great opportunities, a new language, a posse of really really good friends, some of which are still part of my life. my education, marriage, kids, career all have ties to my mission. if i thought there was something that could do as much for my kids as my mission did for me, i would sign them up.

but there is risk with a Mormon mission too. many in my mission were really screwed up by the experience. the risks can be offset if these young adults know what they are getting into. it is the delusions and salesforce managing that cause the crises, not the white shirts, frumpy dresses and long hours.

[_Themis]

I object to MormonThink on similar grounds, though not nearly as strenuously. While it is duplicitous of the MT folks to claim to be Mormons and to claim to be trying only to fairly represent "both sides," when their site's content shows that they are critics who purposely stack up one side and skimp on the other; that duplicity is mild relative to the deception perpetrated at FutureMissionary. MT falsely presents itself as sympathetic but neutral. FM falsely presents itself as "pro-Mormon" and as a group of paternalistic returned missionaries trying to help Mormon high schoolers or new graduates learn the ropes of how to help investigators learn the truth of the gospel despite the hard questions.

MormonThink is (decidedly) to the critical side while claiming to be neutral. FutureMissionary is overwhelmingly on the critical side while claiming to be overwhelming on the positive side.

I think you are wrong about MT. I don't find saying they are primarily members producing the material as deceitful. It's probably an accurate statement. Many of them may not be TBM, but I don't think they say they are. I don't believe in the core claims of the LDS church, but that does not somehow make me a non-Mormon, nor that I cannot have something to say on the subject. Their assertions of being fair may be wrong, but it is not dishonest or deceitful. Fair and farms makes the same incorrect assertions, but I am sure they all believe they are being fair and objective. This is a problem I see over and over again on forums. Everyone calling other dishonest simply because they think something they say is wrong. I think they are fairly open about what they are discussing.

I think it likely, based on how I think believers would act, futuremissionary.com is not being honest about their intent, but it is not fully established. I do think if they are being dishonest about it they should come clean. I think prospective missionaries as well as all members should have all information available to them in order to make informed decisions. I know if the information I know know had been available in my youth I would have made different decisions. Who really has the right to control what information I should have, and the church certainly does do this in the way they condition it's members to avoid critical information calling it anti. I thought we were better then JW. I would also agree with others that you need to be more critical of the church in order to avoid the double standard everyone sees here.

[_Equality]

"Cajoling"? Excuse me, but I did not cajole people into joining the LDS Church. Maybe that's what you did on your mission, but speak for yourself. Don't paint me with that brush.

Cajole: To persuade by flattery, gentle pleading, or insincere language.

I am glad to hear you never did that on your mission. If you are seriously going to argue that a substantial percentage of the 60-90,000 LDS missionaries out in the field today do not "cajole" people, well, to quote John McEnroe, you cannot be serious. The quotes from Preach My Gospel and Thomas S. Monson encourage it.

I did not serve a mission, as I joined the church when I was a month shy of my 21st birthday. In my 18 years of active membership in the church I did, however, serve as a stake missionary (multiple times), ward mission leader (multiple times), stake mission presidency counselor, and as stake mission president, so I feel qualified to comment on the church's missionary program. I was not personally cajoled by any missionaries as I was pretty much self-taught (a "golden contact" if there ever was one: I called the missionaries to set up an appointment for my baptism interview--that was their first contact with me.) Not that any of that is relevant. I meant only that these "kids" are young adults about to embark on an intensive two-year recruitment campaign on behalf of their church. I am still flummoxed by the notion that this innocuous little web site could pose such a threat to their delicate psyches as to dissuade them from serving if they are passionate enough about their beliefs to contemplate serving a mission in the first place.

[_Bob Loblaw]

I am still flummoxed by the notion that this innocuous little web site could pose such a threat to their delicate psyches as to dissuade them from serving if they are passionate enough about their beliefs to contemplate serving a mission in the first place.

I don't believe it poses a threat to anyone's psyches. On the contrary, a more thoughtful and evenhanded site would, in my opinion, be potentially much more "harmful" to kids' testimonies. Truth is the Church's kryponite; presenting information the way FutureMissionaries has just makes it that much easier for church leaders to label them "anti-Mormon" (which is synonymous with "dishonest") and get kids to ignore the truth.

[_sock puppet]

I really don't understand how I am supposed to be upset and angry at the web site futuremissionary.com when the LDS Church sends out males as young as 18 years of age out on missions.

I'm not upset or angry. I just think the site isn't helpful or fair. I'm all for full disclosure for future missionaries. This ain't it.

It paints a more accurate picture of missionary life than the LDS Church does.

[Guest]

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[_sock puppet]

My mission really screwed with me in many ways, and I do not want my sons to go through that.

You're a good father. Happy Fathers Day, a couple days early.

[_Bob Loblaw]

It paints a more accurate picture of missionary life than the LDS Church does.

Sure, but that's no excuse for being shoddy. Maybe we should pool our resources and experience and come up with a site that gives an honest, accurate, and balanced view of missionary life. Such a site would show the church how honesty and truth are done.