Do Missionaries Do More Harm or More Good?

hawkgrrrl

Jun 21

Bishop Bill's post earlier this week reminded me of this excellent OP written by Wilfried Decoo at Times & Seasons (which was also a book review of my mission memoir): http://archive.timesandseasons.org/2019/04/ethics-and-mormon-missionary-work/

Wilfried makes so many important points about the disruption caused by missionaries, and it's not always good. I strongly encourage you to give his full post a read. It's outstanding. Among his observations of the harms that proselytizing does:

Lack of full disclosure: "most Mormon converts are baptized without realizing what will come next" If you've been a missionary, you know this is true. Hell, I wasn't even a convert, and I for sure did not know at age 8 that I was going to be asked to treat gay people with contempt, police other adults' garment wearing, and censor the use of the word "Mormon." You are joining a membership with rules and norms that shift over time, but your allegiance is supposed to remain to the Church, regardless of these shifts.

Upheaval in family relationships: "Missionaries trigger tensions, conflicts, and sometimes devastating breaches between converts and other members of their family." Breaking off family ties is often seen as a sign of one's righteousness and devotion, but is it really worth it to eliminate your original support network in favor of one that relies completely on your ongoing loyalty to the institution and its rules and leaders? Missionaries are largely taught to be indifferent to these familial ruptures, instead focusing on the importance of switching the convert's allegiance to the local ward as a replacement and giving the convert (false?) hope that they will be the first convert of many among their family members.

Community disruption: "We aspire to much more: change persons thoroughly, untie them from their original milieu, and involve them deeply in church life. In democratic countries with free religious pluralism, this aim is perfectly acceptable and does not cause community conflicts. In other countries, not so." Not all countries see freedom of religion from an American perspective, and the Church's political aims can also cause issues as new converts shift their loyalties from patriotic to their new American religion.

Human rights implications: "proselytism implies criticism of other religions. . . it can also offend believers to such a degree that it injures their religious feelings and their rights to respect are being violated. In many countries and cultures so-called blasphemy laws condemn such irreverence toward one's religion, comparable to the unacceptability of racist utterances." The Church does seek to avoid actual physical harms to potential converts (e.g. won't do missionary work where converts may be killed), but the insults missionaries sling toward other faiths, even in just telling the First Vision story, exist. Plus, there have been incidents like the missionaries mocking the Catholic mass, and we've got idiots like Brad Wilcox claiming other faiths are "pretending" at Church like children.

Low retention rates: "How many converts have been helped and how many have been harmed (by missionary work)? If one considers being inactive as "harmed," as President Hinckley mentioned, then the vast majority is harmed." Wilfried suggests maybe 1 in 100 remain active until death (a Northern European perspective). My results would be a bit higher so far, but those results may not be typical. If you served a mission, what percentage of your converts stuck with it for life? Several of mine were active for decades, quite a few (or their children) served missions, but I can only think of a few who are still active 35 years later. Even for those who left, it was a positive for some (helped them overcome addiction or get out of a bad marriage), but it wasn't for others (caused self-loathing among gay converts, caused family drama that was later regretted).

We've all heard the old chestnut that missions are for converting the missionaries, not the local populace, and this is certainly a byproduct in that it ratchets up sunk costs for those who serve, but let's also consider some of the harms missions cause the missionaries:

Mental health triggers. These seem to be more common than ever now. Missions can trigger scrupulosity, depression, and anxiety. It's an extremely controlled environment in which you are exposed to people who may not be supportive. You face rejection constantly. You talk to people who might be dangerous or mentally ill. You aren't really given a lot of training in the human and psychological aspects of dealing with companions and the public. The relentless experience of rejection can also lead to a deep sense of failure, particularly when combined with a mission culture that blames or praises missionaries directly for their results.
Proliferation of bad ideas. Missionary culture is a hotbed of sharing some of the worst folklore and theories that our religion has to offer: sexism & misogyny, racism, dubious stories about things like the 3 Nephites or resurrections of Native Americans or encounters with Cain, and shaking the dust off your feet because someone slammed a door in your face. A few bad ideas also proliferated by mission culture are things like the prosperity gospel, the idea that one's adherence to the rules can lead to other people's conversions, the imperative to police and report the behavior of others, or the idea that non-members are inferior morally or spiritually than those who join.
Physical dangers & harms. Missionaries often live in areas that are dangerous or unfit. One redditor went so far as to compare mission living conditions to human trafficking, and there were some parallels. Missionaries are also exposed to new diseases or parasites that can have lifelong health consequences, and the physical activity of walking so much can cause other physical ailments; I developed a foot problem in one area due to all the walking in a rocky field. Missionaries may also be targets of criminals; two of my companions were robbed, one of whom required a hospital trip as a result. One's mission president may take such risks seriously or may try to downplay them. One missionary I knew was told "We don't tell our moms everything" after that elder's mom called concerned about the missionary's living conditions (finding a dead drug addict in the hallway). I didn't feel like I was in particular danger until my parents visited the mission and I showed them my working area. As we daintily stepped over discarded heroin needles, past cat-calling miscreants and explicit graffiti, it occurred to me that maybe it was not a safe place.
Hierarchical aspirations. Mission culture can be very focused on things that are specifically antithetical to Jesus' teachings about seeking the praise of men. In fact, most mission culture is more like a sales organization, tracking and rewarding numerical results rather than Christian discipleship. For many, the allure of praise and leadership positions is strong and carries into their post-mission afterlife as they strive for the praise and hierarchical rewards they learned indicate their "success."
Anti-social skills. While missions can teach young people social skills, they may also teach them anti-social skills like judging and confronting others, manipulation, sexist attitudes (viewing women as temptations or distractions rather than people), misdirection, high pressure selling, tattling (on fellow missionaries), and transactional relationships. Some missionaries carry these anti-social skills into their Church life and equate them with personal righteousness. Rather than gaining social skills, some missionaries seem to lose them during these most critical formative years. Missionaries are also often conditioned to see conversion as a cure-all rather than to gain the skills needed to deal with real problems like abuse, mental illness, addiction, or poverty.
Sexual repression. The age at which missionaries serve coincides with peak sexual development into adulthood, which is no coincidence, and the mission requires full chastity and abstinence from masturbation at this same time, linking sexual repression to worthiness. While this doubtless has a positive side (fewer sexual regrets), it also results in downstream feelings of shame and guilt associated with normal sexual development. These issues are obviously exacerbated for queer missionaries, many of whom only begin to discover or question their identity or orientation at this stage of life.
Cognitive dissonance. This is probably also just a part of growing up, but missions can erode the faith of the missionaries as they see the seedy underbelly of the Church up close, the disconnect between rhetoric and actions, the flaws of leaders, hypocrisy, their own shortcomings, the needs of people that go unmet, and encounter investigators (and others) whose spirituality or conversion experience outmatches their own.

Although missions also have positive impacts, teaching life skills, putting a pause on life for young people who might be subject to entirely different dangers if they didn't serve, and exposing them to new cultures and new ideas, introducing them to a life of service, the pressure to serve may increase the negative effects for those who experience them. The other things to consider when evaluating the "good" and "harm" of a life experience is that some harms are temporary or lead to growth and life lessons. Some life lessons would inevitably happen another way if not this way. Some aspects of our personality are reacting to the unique circumstances of our lives, and some are created or influenced by those circumstances; they change who we are, how we think, and future choices.

It's easy to fall into the "counterfactual trap." It's impossible to know for certain what would have happened on the path not taken. It's too easy for an active, committed Church member to say, "If it weren't for the Church, I'd be dead in the gutter," or for an angry Ex-Mo to say, "If it weren't for the Church, I wouldn't have gone through depression / a bad marriage / wasted all that money and time." You really can't know what would have happened if you went the other route. Only in a Marvel movie do you get to see the other multiverses and go back and change events, and even then, there are always ripple effects. Those who state with confidence what would have happened are fooling themselves.

"It's ridiculous to put eternal salvation in the hands of 19-year-olds who view it as a competition of who can baptize more people."

Putting Eternal Salvation in the Hands of 19-Year Old Missionaries, Andrea Bennett & Kim Fu, The Atlantic

Do missionaries do more harm or more good in the lives of converts, themselves, and the populace?
If you served a mission, what harms did you see from your efforts? In what ways were you harmed? How did the impacts of your efforts change over time?
If you served, what good did you see from your efforts and what ways did it improve you? How has this changed over time?
Is the missionary program successful or not at converting the missionaries? Defend your answer.

Discuss.