NO?
Then I will follow their example and not go either.
I will be following my fearless leaders

The elite don't serve missons.

I've always wondered about that, why the double standard. Also currently one of the biggest branches of the church is the motion picture industry down in provo, there's a number of performers and design people serving getting paid, making bom movies, who didn't do the mission. It's a multi million dollar behemoth down there producing book o moron movies for ces, and once it's done then they start all over again. Thousands of extras, then there's the temple Square sisters from who knows what strange lands in China. That's not a mission but an English indoctrination moment there undertaking.

How many are Veterans of military service?

Mormons are under-represented in the military. They talk patriotism and run and hide when it comes time to serve - are you listening Romney & so many others?

I served in the Army during Vietnam and later served a mission and knew of others who did the same as for Mitt Romney the guy makes me sick.

Russell M. Nelson was born in 1924, so he would have been the right age to have served in WWII, but he didn’t do anything in the military until he became a doctor (he served in the Army Medical Corps at Walter Reed Hospital during the Korean War).

During the 1940s, he was the right age to be either a missionary or a soldier, but for whatever reason, he did neither.

My father born 1924 fought in the Battle of the Bulge. However, we aren’t Mormons so he did what was expected.

My father (WWII) and brother (Vietnam) were both combat veterans. Neither of them served a mission, even though they were both TBM.

I'm not a fan of Russell M., but, in fairness, my uncle who was born in 1924 was also on track for med school. My uncle actually entered medical school in 1944 despite being shy a few credits of his B.S. (He completed the remaining credits concurrently with med school courses to finish the B.S.) Those who planned to attend medical school and who had reasonable expectations of getting in and getting through were often deemed to be more useful to the military once after having completed med school and, in some cases, even residency.

I would love to be in possession of some sort of crystal ball that would tell me if Mitt Romney would have served a mission had the Viet Nam War not been happening.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/15/2022 05:05PM by scmd1.

I think he would have. He's always, always had his eye on top church positions and whereas guys 20 years older were free not to go on missions, by Mitt's time that option was no longer available if you wanted to be considered for the top jobs.

At that point, was he prioritizing church leadership over higher-level government leadership?

My guess is he was aiming at both, much as his father had.

I want to think that he prioritized making a poop-ton of money and once he succeeded there, the other two worlds just naturaly opened up for him.

In today's world, if you want a career in either the church or politics you must start out by making a pot full of money. So whether you want to be rich, holy, or powerful, the first step is the same.

The first step is the same for all three careers.

Makes perfect sense. If mittens hadn't followed his failed presidential bid with the senate gig or something similar, would he likely have been sucked and fast-tracked into the body of GAs by now?

Edited to add: I can just see Ann in the R.S. General Presidency. Gag.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/15/2022 06:48PM by scmd1.

scmd1 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Makes perfect sense. If mittens hadn't followed
> his failed presidential bid with the senate gig or
> something similar, would he likely have been
> sucked and fast-tracked into the body of GAs by
> now?

A person needs to understand the various different roles for high profile MORmON leaders and the distinctions between them.

Romney is a high profile MORmON political leader ..... when LDS Inc wants Romney to play up ROmney being a MORmON and being associated with THE (MORmON) church. When LDS inc does NOT want that then they quickly revert to their BS MORmON line: "THE church does not get involved in politics" AS IF that is true along with the BS that LDS Inc has no care or interest in Romney's political successes.

Romney is NOT a MORmON Church leader. It is worth noting that ET Benson is an example of someone who was both a political leader who happened to be MORmON and a MORmON church leader.
LDS inc has learned enough to know that they want to avoid that scenario in the future because it erodes their credibility in making their BS claim that they do not get involved in dirty tawdry politics.....that LDS Inc is ALWAYS meddling in.

LDS Inc has a vested interest in keeping Romney as their money man sock puppet operative and as their political operative while keeping Romney out of formal High church leadership circles in order to insulate themselves from accusations of being directly involved in politics, which is so very important because they are endlessly involved in politics for self serving reasons so contrary to their BS MORmON claims.

With that in consideration, it is highly UN likely that Romney as designate LDS Inc money and political operative will ever be assigned to cross up designate roles to be "rewarded" with a high formal (professional) ecclesiastical title like GA. Romney is where LDS inc wants/needs him and that is where Romney will stay.

Romney is filling his LDS inc assigned role, being a political operative for LDS Inc, doing very important dirty, worldly work that is deemed far below that of a MORmON ASSpostHOLE who are supposed to be more concerned with more "spiritual" things.

LDS Inc wants to be able to distance themselves from nasty worldly concerns and those dealing with them at any instant for what ever reason.

Romney is doing what he is supposed to do and expected to do for LDS Inc while maintaining some form of (concocted) plausible deniability for LDS inc's claimed (BS) disconnect between LDS inc operation and political action.

Even with all of his MORmON prominence, Romney is not intended or lined up to be an executive MORmON church leader/ GA . He is LDS inc's political operative and that is where Romney will stay.

TL;DR

The church likes having Romney as a purportedly arms-length ally and is unlikely to give up that relationship by bringing him into the church hierarchy.

Just my take, but I've never thought that Romney was interested in any church position beyond bishop or stake president. I feel that he's all about money and political power.

Probably true.

But in ten years, if he hasn't achieved his political aims or is ready for retirement from politics, the church may ask and I think he may say "yes" to a position in the Q12.

Nothing to stop Romney from a mission and military service. A number of us did both.
Actually baptized more converts into L-d$,inc in the military than while serving the mission.

My dad was born a few weeks before Russel Nelson. Lots of the guys his age in Salt Lake and Davis County were being drafted into the Navy and then converted to marines to fight in the pacific. Most of his friends went down and enlisted in the Army hoping not to get sent to fight the Japanese where they knew would be very bad fighting, My dad signed up for the Army Air Corp and after training was assigned to the 8th Air Force in England and later in Belgium during the Battle of the Bulge and then in Germany at the end. 25% of the young men who were in the 8th Air Force were killed, something like 30,000. My Uncle served in the Pacific fighting on the Island Hopping attacks and when he got home he was called on a Mission.

This isn't an excuse for all in the 1st Pres, but in a historical context when they were at mission age there was a world war going on. During the late thirties and much of the forties there were few missionaries, getting down to as low as 14 of them at one time.

The same applies to the Korean War, 1950-1953.

. . . we would not hear the end of it.

Dr. No Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> . . . we would not hear the end of it.

Boyd K. Packer did serve as did a few others. WWII.

Any who did NOT without very valid medical/other reasons are chickenshiz A-holes.

Ted Williams served. Yogi Berry served - was in D-Day invastion. Both all star baseball players.

Lee Marvin served - wounded on his 3rd Island invasion and spent almost 18 months in the hospital as a result - later became an actor.

Many in all professions served - and yes, a number of Mormons as well. Not all of them are yellow Richard Heads.

He saw to it that Boyd did not complete his training as a bomber pilot until the Japanese surrendered, keeping BKP out of harms way. Packer flew B-24s in post war Japan.

Sometimes the Federal government directed people into support roles as opposed to the military. That's what happened to my father. He was a qualified pilot and wanted to serve in that capacity, but he was also a mechanical engineer who was running a metals factory. The factory was converted into making shell casings for bombs used in the war. That's where the government wanted him.

This made push to serve missions is a desperate attempt to reduce the number of young single adults leaving the church. The church is convinced if a young man serves a mission he's less likely to leave the church and he will more likely marry another member.

It's the old church strategy and they are doubling down on it because it's all they know. It will burn out in a few years just like it always does.

I was hoping the church would learn from the past and be a little smarter but they continuer to double down on their past mistakes and invent new stupid shit. I think Monson was the last laid back prophet there will be for awhile. Russ is gung ho stupid and when Bender get's the seat and is there for a decade or so it's going to really be a freak show.

Good point ✓


LIKE war, the saying goes: Old Men start them; Young Men fight them.

The old men do the "CALLING"!

The young men Need To Learn not to answer... OR learn to do the calling themselves...

P. S. Tell them I said that

I still believe leaders should lead by example. So no members should be forced to serve a mission.

Some of us attended 3 ward services on Sundays as missionaries. -Church overload! It accelerated many to never attend again upon returning home.

Gordon BS Hinckley went on a mission but he also wrote home to his male parent to say that it was a waste of his time and his father's money.....which is something very interesting to me because I would have been disowned ....and worse...... for such a lack of devotion.

Gordon was soon moved into the mission office to spare him from the travails of real missionary work.

Good ol' Media Genius Gordon BS Hinckley took that instance of personal lack of MORmON devotion and put his magic MORmON BS PR spin to it to make a MORmON faith promoting fable. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIkVNWHT-IA

My parents didn’t care if I served a mission or not. They were more concerned about me doing well in college and making a living. Church stuff was secondary to that to be honest. My dad was a social Mormon. He liked the social aspect and never got to into the actual spiritual part of it. He never went to the temple unless there was a wedding. Both my parents liked to help people with or without the church. They were great that way.

Plus, weren't missions three years back in those days? That's a substantial time commitment.

Lowering the age to 18 and making the big push to serve is a desperate attempt of the church to try and retain it’s young single members.

It’s not going to work and the returned missionaries will go inactive as well. It won’t have the results they hope.