I've read the term Temple Industrial Complex on this forum and it always makes me laugh. I'm trying to figure out how to add the whole Mission Industrial Complex into the mix without compromising the original phrase.

I was visiting family the other day and almost gagged on the amount of missionary kitsch that was all over their house. It was everywhere! Plaques and photos and shadow box displays of name tags etc. I swear it felt like I was in a Deseret Bookstore or something.

If the church did away with missions I think the whole thing would collapse in short order. Missions may be more important than the temple but since they go hand in hand how would we really know? The temple is held up as the only place a “Real Marriage” can take place and that is a powerful tithing generator. But, in terms of brainwashing leverage missions are all over the place.

Every Mormon family with male children start planning for missions as soon as the child is born. Every baby blessing is all but required to include the phrase “serve an honorable mission”. Mission farewells, homecomings, Sr. Missionaries are treated like celebrities, the Ensign always has at least 6 pictures of missionaries in every edition. Do a Youtube search for mission call and be amazed at how Mormon families absolutely worship the mission call. For some it's a bigger celebration than Christmas.

I don't think new converts matter to the cult. I think the missionary program exists only to perpetuate the missionary program and thus further indoctrinate the sheep.

The Mormon missionary program is the test of manhood in the Mormon culture.

It is analogous to the old custom that a young man must kill a lion before he is eligible to marry.

It is a coming-of-age test ritual, which if failed, will result in social death. This is why it is so important.

The elder males force the younger males into submission and force them to prove themselves as strong by depriving them of sleep, pleasure, sex, entertainment, free time and social support. They take away their family support and reduce their access to medical attention.

Like a wilderness drop off. Everyone that cares about the missionary is gone and all power is in the elder males. They take away the missionary' passport so he cannot escape.

There is nothing godlike or Christian about this. It is pure cult "breaking." If Mormon parents were not so brainwashed themselves, they would be terrified for their young man.

And now that people in other countries who hate America will know where the missionaries are during the day, they are in even more danger.

Hopefully, this barbaric test of manhood will vanish since it is obviously churning with chaos considering these latest ill-advised changes.

Just imagine the new sister missionaries hanging out with the elders at the ward building, waiting for investigators to drop by for a tour.

Inspired, all right, I think Jesus Smith filed this one in the COB suggestion box.


Anagrammy

"There is nothing godlike or Christian about this. It is pure cult "breaking.""

Very well said. I guess every step on the Mormon church social and power ladder is one more step to becoming church broke, from mission, to bishop, to stake president, to GA, to apostle.

The chief qualification to being apostle is being a complete robot.

http://mormonthink.com/grant9.htm
"He said that each new member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles is given one million dollars to take care of any financial obligations they have. This money gift allows them to fully focus on the ministry. He said that the overriding consideration of who is chosen is whether they are “church broke,” meaning, will they do whatever they are told. "

Tithing is the glue that holds the church together.

This is probably an inappropriate question, but why do women serve missions? Men are almost guaranteed to get married within a year of returning from a mission, but for women a mission is more like a ticket to life long spinstership. At least that is how it looks through my old TBM goggles.

I think they want women to serve missions, at an earlier age, so that they will serve before getting an education, marry instead of getting an education and find themselves economically trapped. This one change could reduce the divorce rate for a few years. Eventually it will lead to a financial burden for TSCC and the state of Utah when those unprepared women just can't take it anymore and jump ship.

Those of us who live in Utah should be worried. If those women leave both the husband and TSCC the state will get the bill.

Green Potato Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> This is probably an inappropriate question, but
> why do women serve missions? Men are almost
> guaranteed to get married within a year of
> returning from a mission, but for women a mission
> is more like a ticket to life long spinstership.
> At least that is how it looks through my old TBM
> goggles.

Nevermo looking in, but from what I understand women on missions used to be an indicator that they were tired of waiting for / had given up on landing a man. You might be inferring causation backwards.

Missions mentally bind the men and temples mentally bind the women.

Close to genius...I really have to hand it to them.

I don't get it. Even as a TBM I had a hard time celebrating missions. Mine sucked and it was probably one of the better ones. I pretended to love it because I was expected to love it. I understood my "worthiness" in the kingdom depended on me at at least claiming to have loved my mission. Even then I always choked on the lie that it was the "best two years", that was going to far.

Maybe living in Utah county has a lot to do with it, but I see mission worship surpassing even temple worship and General Conference worship. This new age thing has really got the drones fired up. Everywhere I turn it's mission this and mission that. If missions suddenly dissappered there would be huge void in the Morg Universe.

The churches goal is to have all 18 year old males endowed. They then need to put them in isolation to drill mormonism into them so they stay endowed.

There aren't enough mormon men to go around. There are YSA branches and wards that are almost all female. The guys are leaving when they turn 18. That leaves very few men.

I think the new missionary age is all about trapping the males into mormonism before they know what hit them.

They come home at 20 to a ward full of single women. The only way they can have sex is if They pick one and get married.Then they have have babies. This can all be done before they hit the ripe old age of 21. Way too young for marriage and family IMO.

"shadow box displays of name tags"

YOU ARE SHITTING ME.

Missions, BYU, being employed by the tscc or TBM company, marrying very young with lots of kids are the glue that binds these peeps.

TRUTH does not bind them.

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... TRAP and CONTROL! ...


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A mission is the lifeblood of the church,much more than glue. Males are pack animals and a mission introduces the Mormon male to the pack. It is in this role that the Mormon male learns to be either submissive or aggressive in his potential role as a future leader. He learns to be obedient to his leaders and to conform to the faith. He also learns how the church runs and how to run it. It is in essence, an internship program in church leadership. After the mission the young man is rewarded with his virgin bride and almost immediately is groomed into the church service his personality and leadership abilities will allow. He will also raise the next generation of Missionaries and loyal members.

Women, I think are desired in the mission because they are more mature and most probably want to be there. Also,attractive sisters find themselves in assignments like Temple Square where they will provide an attractive alternative for missionary work amongst the business men types than pimply,awkward males will.

"It is in this role that the Mormon male learns to be either submissive or aggressive in his potential role as a future leader."
This must be why it's been so hard for me to get a few Mormon men in our family to stop waffling between passive and arrogant. It's as annoying as heck. I don't want to be treated like a pariah or a ruler, I just want to be treated with respect. So refreshing to meet mature self-assured non-Mormon guys after growing up in my LDS family.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/28/2013 06:22PM by raiku.

Mission is just another word for 'boot camp'...

Ask any military vet who is honest...

Brainwashing
Ridiculous rituals
No time for personal issues
Follow the leader

Yeah, but at least in bootcamp, near the end, you are rewarded with pride. You develop a sense of accomplishment and self-confidence that is amazing. And at least the military will place more trust in you than a mission president ever will.

Lawyers are the glue that holds the church together.

I think missions are the final way to get people, "Church Broke" as another poster said. The BIG 15 know that large numbers of RMs leave the church after the mission. However, the RMs that stay... have learned the game of Mormonism and become the future church. Missions are the "right of passage" into the higher levels of Mormonism.

Temple marriages and family expectations are the glue that hold the church together.

IT is a very clever system of indoctrination that appears to be well thought out.

1) Slow indoctrination through youth programs and families ages 0-18
2) Introduction to corporate culture of TSCC and becoming "Church Broke." Missionary age 18-20, 19-21
3) Temple Marriage- CEMENT THE MEMBER FOR LIFE... more difficult to leave.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/30/2013 05:15PM by gracewarrior.

IMO, the sad thing is that it didn't used to be this way. In my youth the church was a vibrant, locally-directed organization that wanted to engage with the non-LDS world.

Over the years things changed dramatically. One influence was Correlation, which quickly morphed from a well-meant attempt to standardize doctrine (and tone down the more outlandish fringes) into an Inquisition-like control mechanism. This was eventually combined with the Strengthening the Members Committee, which was even more Orwellian in its doublespeak.

The final straw, IMO, was two-pronged. One prong was the invention of the Internet. The other was the paassing of the year 2000 with no Apocalypse. These two have resulted in ever-diminishing motives for a person to be associated with any religion.

We see the results before us. Mormonism has devolved into a sorry institution with no fixed doctrine, no input from its adherents, and in fact no reason to even exist. All that's left is an institution whose only product is self-promotion.