Posted by:
King Brigham I
(
)
Date: April 18, 2013 05:11PM
Among the topics discussed on this site are at least three that are significant to missionary work:
1) The impact of the internet.
2) The extent to which missionaries become convinced
members as opposed to converting nonmembers to Mormonism.
3) Changing the minimum age to 18 and 19.
Simon Southerton* prepared a convincing graphic showing that as the internet has grown in Australia, the number of church units has leveled off. He and others have postulated that in the internet-savvy countries (generally the developed nations), church growth will suffer because people can so readily obtain the truth about Mormonism.
It’s also postulated that in developing countries (particularly African and Latin America), church growth will continue to increase partly because there is less access to the internet and hence less access to both sides of the Mormon story.
But elsewhere on this site, nickerickson** writes that he’s talked to missionaries in Brazil (a developing country) who say that investigators there are learning about the church from the internet and losing interest in baptism. In addition, I personally have looked at several exmormon-type sites located in Brazil, two of them maintained by former church leaders (at least one a bishop).
So, even though one could surmise that internet access is limited in a country like Brazil, it nonetheless appears that some people are becoming informed and consequently losing interest in the church.
Thus, the internet clearly can have a direct impact on investigators. Of course, the church is trying to avoid direct effects on the missionaries themselves by prohibiting internet use except for limited applications such as exchanging emails via the church’s own, no doubt carefully monitored links.
But what about the indirect impact on the missionaries? The church can’t control the questions that are asked by investigators. The church can’t keep people from asking about Joseph Smith’s marriages/affairs, Masonry and the Temple rituals, the Book of Abraham, etc.
We know from several postings on this site that at least some of the missionary guides at the Beehive House are fudging the truth about polygamy. Basically, it seems they don’t want to acknowledge that Brigham Young was a polygamist and that several of his wives lived in the house.
Are the Beehive House missionaries being specifically taught to lie about polygamy? If so, what is the impact on them (or at least on some of them) who know the truth, or eventually discover the truth for themselves? What about the other controversial topics? Are the missionaries specifically being taught to lie about them?
Back in the day, missionaries (at least where I was at) rarely encountered people who asked about controversial issues, and the church very effectively kept most of its members from ever pursuing or learning anything negative. In retrospect, we lied a lot; we just didn’t know it. Also, our training largely centered on dealing with scriptural challenges we might encounter.
But it would appear that many missionaries today are going to hear plenty about things the church would rather keep hidden.
So what happens when an 18-year-old male or a 19-year-old female is asked about Joseph Smith’s involvement with 14-year-old girls?
Even if the church has come up with canned answers, for the missionary, the “cat is out of the bag,” so to speak.
Come to think about it, a lot of 18-year-olds are in for a double whammy. They are awfully young for the shock of the temple ceremony, potentially followed by something that will contradict a great deal of their upbringing: Lying for the Lord.
Oh, and one other thing. Some say the purpose of the new age limits is to “snag” the young people before they have very much experience with life beyond high school. Well, they’re going to get lots of experience beyond high school, just not the kind the church wants them to have. And if they have any doubts when they return home, the internet and rfm will be waiting for them.
It seems possible to me that the missionary experience might just have the possibility of generating as many ex-Mormons as it does Mormons of conviction.
*
http://simonsoutherton.blogspot.com.au/2012/02/google-apostasy-in-australia-and-new.html**
http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,853134,853960#msg-853960