Regarding the recent conflict about LDS mission assignments being announced at Bountiful High School graduation ceremonies: If my child were going off on a mission, I wouldn’t want anyone to know about it. However, if my child were starting college, getting a job, starting a business, enjoying dating and generally getting on with life, I’d probably want to shout it from the rooftop.
Having a child who may be sent to a poor Third World country where she/he could come down with an incurable disease while suffering continuous rejection and being forced to deny all normal sexual feelings is not something many parents would want to encourage, let alone have announced publicly.
Having a child being taught practically from birth the value of family in both this world and the one that supposedly follows and then being forced away from this family is incongruous. Sure, everyone eventually has to cut apron strings, but to not be allowed to attend funerals or weddings of loved ones or to even be at the bedside of a dying relative is nothing less than cruel.
All of this for the possibility of converting one or two people into a religion which is based on the “teachings” of a young, womanizing polygamist.
If my child should be going off on a mission, I think I would make up some excuse to share with my neighbors. I think I would make up some story about she/he running off with the circus, being abducted by aliens or on a secret military assignment in a far-off country.
TED OTTINGER
Taylorsville
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