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 introduce prospective missionaries to troubling issues related to Church history, without providing any substantive response. The site claims to be run by three returned missionaries, all of whom remain anonymous. The site reads as if it were written by "active" members who naively accept a variety of controversial past teachings by Church leaders. The most prominent and detailed page on the website is "A Letter to a CES Director: Why I Lost My Testimony." This, apparently, is what the site owners feel prospective missionaries need to know in order to prepare for their mission. In reality, it is intended to shake their testimonies.
The specific content of the FutureMissionary.com website is addressed in the articles listed below
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/)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/)