Lower Mormon Missionary age worries me espcially for women

[emmiedahl]

What happens if a young Mormon receives a mission call and his/her parents genuinely can't afford to pay for it? Does the kid not get to go? Or are the parents expected to starve to pay for it? Do kids from poor families receive mission calls at all?

I knew about missions (duh), but I'd no idea parents are supposed to pay for it. More advantages for the well-off?

If they cannot go, then they get to be stigmatized by their religion for the rest of their lives and have a significant disadvantage in the marriage market.

:?

[Maul the Koala]

If they cannot go, then they get to be stigmatized by their religion for the rest of their lives and have a significant disadvantage in the marriage market.

:?

Unless you're Donny Osmond.

(Who obviously could afford to go but didn't)

[lilwriter85]

I don't think there is stigmatization in all cases in which Mormons can't do missions. There are three Mormon bloggers that I follow that are sisters and three other sisters in the family. They grew up a bit poor and from what I can tell none of them went on a mission trip and all of them seem pretty tight with other people in their LDS communities. I know one of the sisters' husband did a mission trip to Mexico and I suspect another husband did a mission trip because he is 26 or 27 and is still finishing college.

David Archuleta who was runner up on American Idol is currently doing a mission in Chile. I think he is doing the mission trip partially because his music career never became huge like he and his family expected it to be. I think David's family has always had money so if he had never been on AI and made an album, he would have still been able to go.

[Iokaste]

This sounds really weird to me, as all my LDS friends have at least a Bachelor degree and most also a Master. They have always presented the LDS-church as really valueing education, since knowledge "is the only thing we get to take with us from this earth"-direct quote.

I have spent two summers with friend sin the SLC-area and generally everyone I met seemed so proud of BUY and the general high level of education among the LDS. Then again most of my friends and acquaintances belong to the upper-middle class, so maybe it's another example of the rich telling the poor there really is no need to get an aducation, while doing everything to ensure their own kids get into top schools (think Paul Ryan).

For a different perspective on LDS-women check out this blogger:http://askmormongirl.wordpress.com/

(Sorry if I did anything wrong by posting that link, I'm still confused about linking-rules :? )

[PokaDot]

I think the intent here was to push more women into missions. When the age was 21, that tended to put them between their junior and senior year of school so many didn't want to go on a mission because it would interfere with job prospects and what not.

Now at 18/19, if they go like most of the men do, it'll be after the freshmen year, which is much easier to take 2 years (or for 18 months for the females) off.

I didn't know female Mormons had a lower college graduation rate. All my female LDS friends graduated from school (granted most of them are SAHM, but....whatever).

[emmiedahl]

The stigma only applies to men. I don't know any Mormon women who have done one, but men are given the serious side-eye if they don't. My oldest is a senior in high school and all the LDS boys are not applying to colleges.

[Jessica]

If they cannot go, then they get to be stigmatized by their religion for the rest of their lives and have a significant disadvantage in the marriage market.

:?

True true true. I can't tell you guys how many times we were told in Young Women's that if we were married in the temple to boys who served missions, we would be happily married for eternity. Well, you know what someone told me when I got divorced from my husband who didn't serve a mission (but we were married in the temple)? "Well he didn't grow up in the church* or have a returned missionary father so he didn't learn what a real marriage is like from his parents." O__o (He grew up in Utah around Mormons and his parents were married for almost 30 years--the only reason they aren't married now is because HIS MOTHER DIED, thank you very much! There's a lot of crap I can say about my ex but growing up in a non-LDS home has nothing to do with it!)

ETA - whoa, I went off on a tangent there. Anyway, yes, like I said earlier, it's assumed that there's something wrong with you if you don't go on a mission or wait a couple years before going. Because there's something seriously wrong with someone wanting to really study, pray, and make sure they believe something before going out into the world and proclaiming it is the truth! Sheesh...

[Jana814]

Unless you're Donny Osmond.

(Who obviously could afford to go but didn't)

This is true about Donny Osmond. I read somewhere that he could not go because how popular he was @ the time, but all of his of age did.

[E Street Fan]

This is true about Donny Osmond. I read somewhere that he could not go because how popular he was @ the time, but all of his of age did.

Roy Halladay (Phillies ace, for those who don't follow baseball) was raised Mormon. He didn't do a mission because he could "bring more people to the church through baseball," or some such. Or so I read. I believe he's now nonpracticing.

[gimlet]

And of the Mormon women I knew, a mission after college was something you did if you hadn't caught a husband by the end of college.

[lilwriter85]

A few months back I remember reading about a college football player who is Mormon and he didn't start college until he was 20 because he had done a mission.

[mirele]

Roy Halladay (Phillies ace, for those who don't follow baseball) was raised Mormon. He didn't do a mission because he could "bring more people to the church through baseball," or some such. Or so I read. I believe he's now nonpracticing.

I remember hearing Donny Osmond was set apart as a missionary, but his "mission" was the "Donny and Marie Show," which happened to be during the same period. Obviously, he couldn't leave his TV show to serve a mission. I honestly don't know how that would work.

Brian Keith Dalton (Mr. Deity on YouTube) also was set apart for a mission and went to the Missionary Training Center, but then got contacted by Lex de Azevedo to sing in a group, and he left the MTC. This was (and still would be) considered highly unusual. But it was *Lex de Azevedo* (a son of one of the King Sisters) OF COURSE HE HAD TO DO IT... (just trying to explain late 70s/early 80s Mormon thinking).