What are your thoughts about why missionaries cannot call home? It facilitates a cult-like approach to isolating the missionary for more thorough indoctrination. Whether specifically for that purpose or not, that is one outcome.

I have also wondered if it is a holdover from the realities and costs of long distance phone calls when the current leadership were missionaries. Just like the door-to-door approach, which worked from about 1900-1940 and then began to wane, calling home, at one time, was very expensive.

Sometimes things are intentionally set up to control members. Other times I wonder if it is just an inability of the leaders to drag the church out of the 1930s.

It is cult like-because it is a cult, led by angry senile persons.

Calls may have once been pricey. Now they are not, and various FaceTime platforms are free.

People must be isolated from family and friends because they come home with too much contact.

Isolating followers during critical periods of their lives (such as is the developmental bridge between late adolescence and early adulthood) is one of the hallmarks of cults in general.

This isolating can be done in a variety of ways (with physical isolation being just one of the many ways it can be effectively accomplished), but the conditions of isolation from family and friends which LDS missionaries agree to accept is certainly an outstanding, real life, example.

I was in more contact with my family on my mission then when I came home. But that was just me. I don't contact them weekly like I used to on my mission.

Just another mission rule. I’ve never considered it “cult-like” any more than I consider following the rules in my workplace, or following the rules of the road to be cultish. Just like in the workplace, I was well aware of the rules before going on a mission. They were not a secret (now THAT would be cult-like). If you don’t like the rules…don’t play the game.

That being said, I don’t agree with the no calls home rule. I don’t see any harm in allowing (at the least) a monthly call home. I believe the church is feeling the effects of their no calls/no contact policy today more than ever. It appears that putting missionaries out in the world at a younger age, and removing their cell phones from their tightly gripped fists, has led to more “anxiety” cases and early returned missionaries. I believe that allowing more phone calls home could possibly reduce the number of “stressed” missionaries.

But…a rule is a rule no matter how stupid and outdated it is. And since the church is generally 20-30 years behind the times, I wouldn’t expect them to be changing anything real soon.

Don’t like the rule…don’t play. Just sayin’.

Jaxson Wrote:
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>
> Don’t like the rule…don’t play. Just
> sayin’.


The problem I see is the kids going on missions are not making decisions without coercion and there is not full disclosure.

In order for a mission to be a reasonable request, the kids and their parents need to be given complete, detailed information about the problems with church history, the fraudulent origins of the Books of Mormon and Abraham, etc.

As it stands, missionary service is a case of adults taking advantage of the youth through deception. Whether this is intentional or because of the leaders' own ignorance, it is still unethical.

Prospective missionaries are not provided with a list of the rules to which they are expected to comply. Full disclosure of ALL the rules (including the special ones that the MPs come up with) should be disclosed - in writing - prior to submitting their applications.

“generally 20-30 years behind the times”

Try 40-60.

David Cohen Wrote:
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> What are your thoughts about why missionaries
> cannot call home? It facilitates a cult-like
> approach to isolating the missionary for more
> thorough indoctrination. Whether specifically for
> that purpose or not, that is one outcome.
>
> I have also wondered if it is a holdover from the
> realities and costs of long distance phone calls
> when the current leadership were missionaries.
> Just like the door-to-door approach, which worked
> from about 1900-1940 and then began to wane,
> calling home, at one time, was very expensive.
>

LDScultURE is intentionally set up to CONtrol members.
It's about CONtrol, MANipulation, and Wainbrashing.

TSCC does nothing, on accident.
It's got nothing to do with cost.
Members bear those anyway.

It's about DIVIDE and CONQUER!
Starve for the truth and light.

M@t

It's pretty ridiculous. They should be allowed to call home/Skype/email whenever they want. My older brother had more dang freedom in the military than the missionaries.

And why Mother's Day and Christmas? What about Easter, the missionary's birthday, Father's Day, etc?

I guess I just don't understand the purpose of cutting them off from their families so severely. Doesn't seem healthy, especially for the ones with depression/anxiety issues.

...if you agree to go on a Mission in the first place, it shows a drone-like, compliant mindset, whether by the parents, or the individual. Go out in the world and create innovation, and form ideas that go outside the box. We don't need more drones.......

Their phone policy is similar to their funeral policy. You're expected to stay in the mission and not return home. Period!

I battled my MP when the only grandparent that I had ever known passed away. I was told that he would not fight for me to return and there was no guarantee that I could finish my mission. I felt that he strong-armed me to stay.

I agree with others that the forced isolation from families is causing more problems.

I wanted to add that I was very concerned about feeling alone; if not isolated before serving a mission. I brought this up several times with my BP and SP. They told a bunch of lies that I would never feel alone. That I would have companions, other missionaries and church leaders that would be supportive. Well, I had MTC branch presidents that blamed me for companionship problems. A MP that told me he didn't want any excuses for failing to deliver baptisms and I experienced multiple companions that either stopped talking to me or locked themselves in the room for hours at a time.

Did I call home when I needed to talk to family to keep my wits?

You betcha red riding hood!

Anyone or any organization that tries to separate a person from their family is up to no good. Definite cult behavior there.

I'm experiencing this right now.

What do I think? I believe everything in a mission is about control. The local pres can make it worse or better but it is all about controlling other people's children as they try not to act like the children that they are.

From this standpoint mission are a rite of passage because they are so difficult. Cult is a key phonetic part of what I'm saying.

I was a missionary and I knew this was "The Rule." It still seems like a cheap control tactic all these years later.

If it helps kids come home early and not deeply indoctrinate the ones who stick it out I can deal with it. If the isolation isolates me from my daughter then LDS Corp will cause a repeat of the anger I felt for it several years ago. I hope the latter doesn't happen. I'm so sick of LDS-ism and its attempts to control people.

During foreign mission, I became very ill with amoeba, and I was not allowed to call home. My family knew nothing about it till I arrived at the airport looking like a damn skeleton. And it was not an early release. I also had a companion whose father died unexpectedly and she was not allowed to go home. CULT



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/04/2018 06:02AM by Aquarius123.

Thats both sad and sick... total control...CULT!!!!!

was she not allowed to go home?

Or did she make the "choice" to stay?

I imagine the peer pressure and being shamed could make someone think that they needed to stay on their mission no matter what.

Being lonely on their missions, they’re going to miss family more than ever, if they were close. Hearing their voices all the time would make them more homesick and want to go home more than if they didn’t hear their voice.Out of sight ( or hearing), out of mind.

My Mission did not allow any calls, period. Not on Christmas or Mothers Day. When my Grandma died, I was not allowed to call my family. I served in a poor, third world country, so most of the missionary apartments did not have landline phones (1979 - 81). My Dad called the Mission Home to notify them of my Grandma's death. He asked them when I could call him back and they responded that phone calls are not allowed, for any reason. My Dad later wrote me a letter and he was very upset and asked them, "What kind of a chicken-shit operation do you run there?" and he hung up. Looking back, my family and I were treated so awful and uncaring.

who has had her youngest 3 children going on missions (the youngest is out right now) said that her experience is that she never gets them back. There is an emotional distance that wasn't there before.

She adores her children and this has been extremely difficult on her.

I think its purpose is not to isolate the missionary from the family. I think it done to separate the boy from the adoring mother. Mormon boys are entwined with cement apron strings. If a mother heard shaking in her sons voice, pain first theyre going to want their son or daughter home and secondly the relief boxes might include plane tickets.

And for some, pleasing the TBM Mom is the VERY reason why the son goes away to serve the Lord. TBM Moms love to brag about their children serving the church. Secretly, I think most Dads wouldn't be bothered if their children would choose not to serve a mission (Bishops and Stake Presidents would feel otherwise).

After dropping me off at the MTC, my parents drove the loneliest highway back to Ely to spend the night. My Dad missed me and actually wanted to go back to pick me up from the MTC. He then quarreled with my TBM Mom over the idea. She was not about to be cheated out of her glory.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/06/2018 10:11AM by messygoop.

Sitting in the MTC front lobby waiting for the chartered bus to get there in the wee hours of the day of our departure my MTC companion confessed to me that he went on his mission for this parents.

Later after our missions he was the most zealous Mormon when I met him at BYU.

Missions can change people and much of the time not for the better.

It was shit like this that was the reason I never gave a mission much thought. Since turning 18, I've always felt that no other adult - unless they are signing my paycheck or my parents - has the right to tell me what to do (some exceptions apply, of course).

*shrug* I think this is totally dependant on the mission president. I was able to call home quite often as it turns out. But I had quite a few unusual situations. I was a visa waiter stateside for several months and had a health issue crop up in Brazil and had to go home for a few months to have surgery. I served under three different MPs and oddly enough, I was never really restricted about calls home. This was in the mid-1990s and we still dealt with pagers and pay phones. All three basically had the attitude of, "You sisters are adults. Do what you need to do and don't abuse the trust I have in you." Maybe I got lucky... but I never felt like we had super strict rules that we HAD to keep. It was more guidelines and suggestions. The Elders? Oh! A totally different story. They were far more restricted. This was obviously before the age change and when the number of Sisters was far lower. I'd say my companions and I probably called home an average every other month or so for immediate needs that couldn't be handled via postal mail. And I'd say all of us were "rule breakers" on some level. I think I only had one who was a super 'letter of the law' type. She was annoying.

I thought the family was exceptionally IMPORTANT in the Mormon culture. Sure doesn't seem that way when they don't allow their young mishies to call home when they want to.

Why not MormonCult? Could it be that the whole system of indoctrinating your youth to serve while they are still teens is crazy and is child abuse?

Serving a mission needs to be by older people when and if they decide this is what they want to do. Wouldn't have to babysit them. Sound appealing, MormonCult?

If an investigator goes to normal LDS meetings and activities, he might not find them THAT cultish.

But missions and temples are clearly cultish, in my opinion.