I just read a shared Facebook post of a family member boasting of how proud they were of a missionary who is serving a mission...while on chemo. States some days the missionary can barely move but is proud he's out there.

Comments are along the lines of, whatever happens, at least he got to serve a mission...

I had to read it several times to make sure I was really reading what I thought I was reading.

How can 1) a family expect a person with cancer to serve a mission; and 2) how can the church permit it?

I am flabbergasted.

This should be reported to local authorities where the person is serving. Forcing someone on chemotherapy to do missionary work is abusive and psychotic behavior.

I don't know who this person is. It's a Facebook friend who shared someone else's post. This person could be anywhere.

I'm both having a hard time believing this is true, and thinking if this is true how can the church allow this? Who is taking care of this young man, getting him to treatments, etc? Does the church really permit this?

Why hasn't hospital staff reported this situation to the authorities?

I've read some pretty horrific tales of missionary mistreatment and family pressure on this site, but this Facebook post is probably the worst I've ever encountered.

That is a new low. I hope this is not true. WTF. Messed up family.

Not to seed distrust of your FB friend, but this does not sounds true at all. If true, the guy may be serving a part-time mission, living at home.
There is no way the morg would have a guy on chemo full-time, away from home. They have too many lawyers to for the possibility of a lawsuit to be ignored.

You make a good point, but they're sending elderly people out on senior missions. A good number of them must have health concerns. Apparently they consider it worth the risk. And LDS culture emphasizes missions so much that it's possible even a kid in that condition would insist on going, so they could always defend themselves by pointing out that it was his choice.

What makes me more skeptical of the story is how chemo could even be arranged in a typical mission, constantly moving around. To make that work, he would have to serve in his home area and keep seeing his present doctors. Maybe it's some kind of modified mission.

This sounds like FPS to me. I had a friend a few years ago who was denied a mission for medical reasons because he had a liver disease that required him to take several pills a day. He was devastated. He had been managing his disease since he was a kid, but they said he was too high-risk.

If there is a missionary on chemo, I think it's a pretty safe bet that they are staying local, assigned to the family history library or something. More like a volunteer job where they get to wear a nametag.

My guess is that someone was called to do a very part-time, service mission probably involving genealogy. Something an elderly person could do from home. When they got their cancer diagnosis, the "missionary" thought they might like to continue, since it was easy stuff they could do from home and have something to take their mind off their illness.

It's pretty much the only thing that makes sense - unless it's someone who has battled cancer on and off as a child and can't be called on a regular mission, so some sort of mission was made up for them so they could at least serve the mission they dreamed of. Maybe a mini-mission. One of my friends has a son with a mild Autism spectrum disorder and they weren't sure if he could serve a mission. But this boy really, really wanted to do what his big brothers had done, so they sent him on a summer mission to the next state over - easy driving distance if there was a problem. He did wonderfully and put in his papers for a two-year (minus 2 months he'd already served) mission. Again, the church assigned him in a nearby state but he seems to be doing well. The church will make efforts to accommodate people who really want to go on missions, even with disabilities. Chemo seems like a stretch though.

I slaved in 2003-2005 and this wouldn't have been an option. You'd have to be in tip-top shape to be a missionary.

My heart still aches for a young Italian guy serving a mission in Rome. He was an older, more mature missionary, very talented, had gone to BYU, and back to Italy. He had already survived lung cancer with operations and chemo. He became ill again on his mission, went home, received therapy, and was back in the mission. He came over and ordered a cookbook through me which I could get on-line and have delivered to my APO. I felt so guilty about him giving me the money and telling me about how he really planned to get into those recipe ideas when he returned home. But he had to leave again, and passed away shortly after. I think it really affect the MP's wife, who was his devotee. He was such a good guy, excellent to have over as one of those missionary guests, since he could actually carry the conversation. Even after surviving lung surgery, he could really perform as a singer.

Just sad. It's so seldom that you meet Mormon missionaries like this guy, and he had to be so ill.

Not fair to the missionary or anyone else involved. This could be a fatal mistake for this poor guy.

It is plain and simply abuse. I have been on chemo (not for cancer but for an autoimmne disease) and you have no brain power to think, let alone do anything else. You need a caretaker because on chemo you are certainly not yourself. What in the *** was his family thinking?

Mmmmm - kinda doesn't make sense.
Even the cult is liability and adverse publicity shy.

So - imagine this chap actually dies.
Investigation/news item:
"Cult forces person with cancer to be a missionary!"
"Was on chemo!"
"They KNEW!"
"Worked to death!"
"Modern slavery!"
(Not that anyone in the real world actually cares one whit about the cult)

Wonder if this is not a histrionic family member who badly needs attention and status?

-------------
Then again, it is a cult.

Mormonism:
Oppression is not just a way of life.
It’s a calling.

the mish is in the "bargaining" stage of grief over having a life-threatening disease, and thinking that maybe serving a mission will give him a leg-up with God, and heal him?

Wouldn't be the first case of magical thinking I've heard of in the church.

We know an elderly couple called to a mission in a rural area in one of the northern states that border Canada. The winters there are brutal. The wife was already frail and had all kinds of health issues. However, she was convinced that if they served this mission, she would be healed.

She looked absolutely ghastly when they got back from the mission - they both got up and talked about the mission experience. It was totally Twilight Zone, to see this woman in obviously ravaged health talking about how wonderful the mission had been. She died a few months later.

Sometimes cancer is control or treated with oral agents. So, chemotherapy for this missionary could mean taking a pill a day. It may be controlling his cancer well with few side effects.

I bet good money not many people are surprised here....
Church will suck every ounce of you if you let them...
We all are fair game for them....

I think that the LDS church will greatly approve of this because it'll make a rockin' story for Church News. If he passes away, so much the better for Church News, so much more the inspiration. My God!, people will weep over that one and feel the closeness of Joseph Smith's Holy Spirit.

Every member a mish.

This is right up there with the poor donating their gold teeth in order to build a temple.


Disgusting.

It could likely be that this guy is third cousin of mine - the family has been talking about his serving a mission for years even though he's had cancer for years and has been declared terminal at this point. I doubt that he's in any condition to serve more than a modified service mission that kept him close to home. Frankly, I've not wanted to know too much about it because I find it so dispiriting that his family would want him away from them at all in the last few weeks and months of his life. But that's the mormon zeal - church before family and relationships.

I've had cancer twice. The first time it was treated by radiation therapy for testicular cancer. Then a few years later it went to my head. I had full on chemotherapy. This was in the summer of 2008. I was so tired from chemo every day all I got was eat liquids, jello and ice cream. I tried to eat regular food but often couldn't. I also slept a lot before,after and during the chemo. It basically wears you out and ages your body by a couple of years.

How is someone even serving a mission during chemotherapy? Oh I forgot it's the morg we are talking about here!! Is this for real? If it is someone ought to turn in the morg for abuse!!