Teen Trolls Mormons then Converts

[tropaka]

The LDS has now sanctioned missions via social media/net. Maybe they'll stop knocking on my door?

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/0 ... mg00000067

 

 

Quote

Until three years ago, Aubert L’Espérance had no idea who Mormons were or what they believed. All he knew was that he liked messing with them.

 

To be fair, L’Espérance, then 15, was clueless about most religions. The preppy-chic Québécois had never been to church, grew up agnostic verging on atheist and assumed "Mormon" was just another name for the Amish when he first stumbled on the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints online. He'd been browsing his favorite timewaster -- the Art of Trolling, a website less holy, more holy shit. And there, between funny snapshots of misspelled signs, he discovered a new religion and an addictive pastime: pranking the missionaries manning the official "Chat with a Mormon" homepage.

 

Hoping to attract converts, the church invites people to come online and message anonymously with missionaries who can answer "whatever questions you may have about any Christian topic." L’Espérance, like thousands of other Internet trolls, abused it spectacularly, logging on with a fake persona and bombarding the Mormons for hours with nonsense questions.

 

But then,L’Espérance's hoaxing gave way to something that surprised even him: a genuine curiosity in a group he says he'd assumed was "just some sort of tribe" living in "really remote parts of the universe." Less than a year after first fooling around with Mormon missionaries, L’Espérance was baptized. Ryan Tucker, a missionary who helped convert him in the church's chatroom, hailed it as a journey "from troll to testimony."

 

"Those chats were so amazing," says L’Espérance. "Before I even knew much about the church, I really felt its power immediately."

 

The teenager's unlikely route to baptism helps explain why the white-haired patriarchs of the Mormon church stunned their followers last summer by lifting a ban barring missionaries from social media.

 

During a worldwide broadcast in June, the church leaders heralded a new era of redemption through screens. All 84,000 of the church's missionaries would eventually be able to proselytize over the web using a previously forbidden arsenal of media, including blogs, email, text messages, Skype and even Facebook. Along with their in-person preaching, missionaries can now use social networks to check in on potential converts, or woo new ones with status updates about the Heavenly Father.

 

"The principles missionaries have always been taught actually just work better online," says Gideon Burton, a professor at Brigham Young University who has advised the church on its Internet missionary work. "It's going to be a lot more efficient."

 

For Mormons, this about-face on social media was nearly as radical as ending the ban on beer. Until the June announcement, the Internet had been off-limits to missionaries to shield them from "worldly entertainment," like the Times and Twitter, that could distract them from their religious calling. The missionaries, who can serve from age 18, could go online just once a week, and then only to blog about their faith or email their family. Phone calls home were permitted just twice a year.

 

The same tools recently eschewed as slippery slopes to temptation have now been sanctioned by the church to convey the most sacred of messages and fulfill one of the holiest of Mormon duties.

 

In what marks a new phase in the evolution of one of the fastest-growing religions in the world, which has doubled in size since the 90s, the Mormon church is doing for religion what Amazon did for stuff: embracing the web to make shopping for a new faith easy, convenient and accessible 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Despite its conservative reputation, the church has actually been an early adopter of any tech that might deliver baptisms. Just as it did nearly 200 years ago, when the church pioneered mass-market distribution of its Bibles by printing a half-million texts, and a century ago, when it released a feature film on the Book of Mormon, now it is pinning its hopes on the marketing muscle of a technology with even broader reach: the web.

 

In an age of Internet-enabled instant gratification, the church is betting the demand for instant salvation can't be far behind.

 

 

[lilwriter85]

It will be interesting to see how the use of the Internet and social media will effect other mission activities. I think we will see missionaries knocking on doors once in awhile and I know missionaries also have to do community service type work liking helping LDS ward members who are in need.

[Hane]

The way that piece is written, it makes it sound as if the Mormons have ended their ban on beer--which they haven't.

[ViolaSebastian]

I will admit that as a teenager, I used to put the name's of the people I hated on the list to request a Book of Mormon and a visit by the missionaries. Sorry LDS :/

[DGayle]

Today I was listening to "Two by Two" from the Book of Mormon soundtrack, and had it playing really loud with the windows of my car down. I pulled up to a stop sign and looked left and right, and saw a couple Mormon boys standing there looking horrified. I was amused.

[Jana814]

Today I was listening to "Two by Two" from the Book of Mormon soundtrack, and had it playing really loud with the windows of my car down. I pulled up to a stop sign and looked left and right, and saw a couple Mormon boys standing there looking horrified. I was amused.

I think that's funny!

[VenusDaisy]

I will admit that as a teenager, I used to put the name's of the people I hated on the list to request a Book of Mormon and a visit by the missionaries. Sorry LDS :/

Omg! My sister and I used to do the same thing! Good times!!

[ADoyle90815]

Omg! My sister and I used to do the same thing! Good times!!

I have to admit I did the same thing, one of the people I did that to was an ex-boyfriend.

[elsabee]

I have to admit I did the same thing, one of the people I did that to was an ex-boyfriend.

I admire you guys so much.

[SPHASH]

I will admit that as a teenager, I used to put the name's of the people I hated on the list to request a Book of Mormon and a visit by the missionaries. Sorry LDS :/

Oh hell just a few years ago I went to the Trojan condom website and signed up two of my ex-bosses for free condoms and got them on the e-mail list.

[already hungover]

Oh hell just a few years ago I went to the Trojan condom website and signed up two of my ex-bosses for free condoms and got them on the e-mail list.

When I was in junior high, I signed up my very best, very gay friend for free formula samples and monthly pregnancy progress reports from Carnation. His mom flipped out.

[Trynn]

Before spam filters were actually good at caching things, I used to threaten people that I would forward their email address to every spam company I knew.

I don't remember if I actually carried this out or not. Most people immediately caved in to my desires at that point.

[Rachel333]

Oh hell just a few years ago I went to the Trojan condom website and signed up two of my ex-bosses for free condoms and got them on the e-mail list.

I feel better now about signing someone up to get free samples of Depends. :lol: