There have been recently a few posts about the renewed expectation that every young man should serve a mission. Several people have pointed out that it is not an absolute requirement. Several others have pointed out that the prophet Nelson said the exact opposite, and that it must be viewed as a required thing.

Here's why it matters. The last few years have seen a trend away from required service toward a more personalized approach to developing spiritually among young people, and most dramatically regarding young men. Wards have made great strides in accepting that people are different, and that not everybody is the out-going, self-assured, unquestioning type that the church thinks is the only acceptable lifestyle for its members. So yes, Russell Nelson did announce that those dreams are hereby officially shattered. No dissent allowed. This is just one more example of the hard-liners asserting control in their church. IMO.

It may be hardliners asserting control, but it has the stench of desperation about it. Too many deck chairs must be sliding off the edge.

Yes, they are worried. But they are also powerful and increasingly inclined to resort to violence.

They really believe we are in the Last Days, and that means violence.

slskipper Wrote:
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> Yes, they are worried. But they are also powerful
> and increasingly inclined to resort to violence.
>
> They really believe we are in the Last Days, and
> that means violence.
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Siege mentality elevates the hard-liner. Herd-dynamics thing.
On casual review, seems perhaps fundamentalist religions broadly are undergoing a similar transformation.
Seems altogether a lessening of tolerance and humanity.

https://theweek.com/articles/857806/why-evangelicals-oppose-gun-control
But idunno.

It is now and always has been about mind control.
They want to control your every thought and action SO LONG AS
they do not have to play by the same rules

It makes me wonder why the hardliners and cracking down while at the same time watering down every doctrine that made the church unique.

I get that America is much less Christian than it was in the 70's,80's, and 90's, but if the church is the same thing as any old Xian, why require missionary work and why send missionaries to places like Mobile AL, or Ghana?

I agree. The church is taking away the things that differentiate it from mainstream Christianity.

The LDS church is a rowboat rabidly taking on water. In the distance the rowers see an ocean liner, so they send up some flares and are rescued by the much larger vessel.

And thus the Mormon church casts its lot with the other passengers on the Titanic.

This ties in with the lowering of mission age for men from 19 to 18. Instead of going to a semester or two of college, or working a full time job (and possibly moving out of their home), Mormon boys now often have a mission call before they graduate from high school. So, they go from an active family, into the mission field, and return with pressure to go to a church college and start a family. TSCC has a much better chance of keeping them active for life if they never really experience life outside of the church.

If a young man see a mission as optional, there’s a much greater chance of him escaping.

My husband and I were babysitting our grandkids last week (our TBM daughter and son-in-law's children).

We were sitting around the kitchen table chatting, when out of the blue, our 5 year old grandson declared: "I want to go on a mission!" My husband replied that "you don't have to go on a mission", whereupon our 10 year old granddaughter said:"Grampa! He wants to go on a mission; he has to go on a mission!"

My husband said: "he's too little to think about a mission; what happens if he wants to go in the army or be a doctor instead?"
That got them thinking; hopefully, we're not in trouble with their parents. :)

So glad I didn't raise my children in the church (any church). It would have been a marriage killer to have had to explain to my Catholic wife why her beloved son HAD to go away for 2 years and preach some garbage she had no use for.