FAIR is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing well-documented answers to criticisms of the doctrine, practice, and history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Criticism of Mormonism/Websites/FutureMissionary.com
A FAIR Analysis of: FutureMissionary A work by author: Anonymous
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| High Level Summary | |
|---|---|
| Title | FutureMissionary.com |
| Type | Website |
| Author(s) | Anonymous |
| Affiliation | "Active" members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. |
| Accuracy | The site presents a host of troubling issues to the prospective missionary without any significant context. The site refers the prospective missionary to the anti-Mormon site MormonThink.com for further information. |
| Temple content | None |
A FAIR Analysis of the critical website FutureMissionary.com
If you, as a missionary, are asked a tough question, it’s your duty to answer them. It’s the only way you can ever expect someone to trust you. To be able to answer truthfully, you need to know the truth. That’s why we created FutureMissionary.com.
—FutureMissionary's advice to prospective missionaries, "What if You Were an Investigator"
Overview
The website futuremissionary.com is designed to shake the faith of prospective missionaries by blindsiding them with troubling issues related to Church history. The site's anonymous authors claim to be returned missionaries, and write as though "active" members who naively accept controversial statements and ideas. The most prominent and detailed page on the website is "A Letter to a CES Director: Why I Lost My Testimony." The authors claim that such blatant materials will help to prepare missionaries for questions and challenges they will face. In reality, the letter and other material on the site only introduce attacks on the church without discussing crucial context and explanation that would help readers fully understand the material.
The specific content of the FutureMissionary.com website is addressed in the articles listed below
Letter to a CES Director
Summary: The FutureMissionary site reposts a letter which is popular among ex-Mormons called "A Letter to a CES Director: Why I Lost My Testimony" The letter lists all of the popular criticisms of the Church. It is what is referred to in ex-Mormon circles as an "exit story." The FutureMissionary site owners appear to think that this letter is somehow useful in preparing prospective missionaries to enter the field.A FAIR Analysis of MormonThink page "10 Things every Pre-missionary Should Know"
Summary: ( http://futuremissionary.com/10-things-every-pre-missionary-should-know/) This FutureMissionary article concludes, among other things, that you should not "spread lies, even if they serve a higher purpose," that your girlfriend will probably not wait for you, but not to worry since "you’ll get to come home and marry a girl waiting for her missionary," and that "You’ll probably have a gay companion." This last point is illustrated by a photo of two male missionaries holding hands.A FAIR Analysis of FutureMissionary page "Black Mormons"
Summary: ( http://futuremissionary.com/what-do-mormons-believe/black-mormons) This FutureMissionary article spends a lot of time inferring that the Church opposes interracial marriage by presenting quotes from Church leaders in the late 1800's and 1950's which forbade it. Then, even after briefly noting that interracial marriages are performed in the temple today, only speculates that this prohibition "no longer applies." The website authors also use a 1954 talk by Mark E. Petersen to infer that the Book of Mormon supports segregation.A FAIR Analysis of FutureMissionary page "The Prophet Joseph Smith"
Summary: ( http://futuremissionary.com/what-do-mormons-believe/the-prophet-joseph-smith/) This FutureMissionary article lists several issues related to Joseph Smith. The responses are general correct, although very simplified. The page states that Joseph was a Freemason, that he practiced polygamy, that he used a seer stone to translate the Book of Mormon, and that he didn't kill anyone at Carthage Jail.A FAIR Analysis of FutureMissionary page "The Book of Abraham"
Summary: ( http://futuremissionary.com/what-do-mormons-believe/the-book-of-abraham/) This FutureMissionary page misrepresents the position of LDS Egyptologist John Gee by claiming that he is "the only LDS Egyptologist who confirms Joseph Smith’s translation" of the papyrus. The reality is that Dr. Gee, as well as every other LDS and non-LDS Egyptologist that has examined the surviving fragments of the Joseph Smith papyrus, agrees that they are a funerary document and that they do not contain the text of the Book of Abraham. In fact, the Church acknowledged this in its January 1968 edition of the official Church magazine, the Improvement Era.A FAIR Analysis of FutureMissionary page "Polygamy & Polyandry"
Summary: ( http://futuremissionary.com/what-do-mormons-believe/polygamy-polyandry/) This FutureMissionary page claims that "Heber C. Kimball, Brigham Young, and other prominent LDS leaders shared their wives with other men." There is no evidence to support this claim.A FAIR Analysis of FutureMissionary page "Mormon Beliefs & Science"
Summary: ( http://futuremissionary.com/what-do-mormons-believe/mormon-beliefs-science/) This FutureMissionary page strives to prove that Latter-day saints must hold to fundamentalist beliefs that conflict with science.A FAIR Analysis of FutureMissionary page "What if You Were an Investigator"
Summary: ( http://futuremissionary.com/what-if-you-were-an-investigator/)A FAIR Analysis of FutureMissionary page "No Investigators, No Dinner"
Summary: ( http://futuremissionary.com/no-investigators-no-dinner/) This FutureMissionary page concludes that missionaries should simply "be honest" with their investigators by knowing and answering any question having to do with Church history, even if they do not know the answer.