(January 12, 2021 at 3:54 pm)arewethereyet Wrote: Thank you. I have watched some documentaries on LDS and FLDS and figured it was the case that the LDS looked at the FLDS as the crazy cousins or drunk uncles of the family. But as in most cases the crazy is in degrees with none being free of at least some of it.
I didn't realize that the mission trip was optional. But when I look back I know not all the boys I went to school with were altar boys and I have no idea why some were and some weren't. Is going on a mission your choice or are you somehow selected?
Indeed! It is one of those lies by omission. Part of Sunday school and even my college classes at BYU-I taught church history, according to the official church narrative. I had NO IDEA Joseph Smith had any other wives let alone 34. And I knew the church leadership released a Manifesto on the ceasing of polygamy in 1890. But I had no idea that the church leadership had to issue a second Manifesto in 1904 to further discourage members from practicing it. And I of course had no idea that it took almost 5 more decades for the leadership to really stop, while occasionally getting pressured from the U.S. government to "seriously, knock it off." So, it is like a drunk uncle that you don't remember having wild parties with and nobody told you until years later you see yourself in a family member's Facebook Throwback Thursday timeline photo shoot of this amnesiac several nights.
It is optional but it is heavily pressured for young men. Return missionaries are prime Mormon wife-bait. It would have gotten me into BYU Utah no problem if I had gone. From what I understood of the process, it is an indoctrination tool...for the missionaries themselves. The lifestyle of a Mormon missionary is very strict and monitored and sometimes it solidifies the early youth programming the church puts into them. Plus, having to sell your faith for two years and stand up to challenges to it strengthens the doctrine within them. There is a series of worthiness interviews with the Bishop of the local ward and the Stake president to determine if you can go. But I know several young men who should not have been "worthy" by Mormon standards to go but who went anyway. Otherwise it is voluntary and family and leaders will never let you forget that you chose to stay home to write stories and get married than serve the Lord.
