Report: Are Mormon Missionaries Safe While Serving The Church? [10 deaths]

MidUtahRadio.com ^ | Oct. 2, 2013 | Kathy Farnsworth

[Colofornian]

(Salt Lake City, UT) — With ten deaths involving missionaries with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, some are questioning the safety of the church’s youth. The “Salt Lake Tribune” asked the question of church officials, who said missionaries are safe and will continue to serve the church. The church noted three of the deaths were from natural causes, while four died from an illness. There are currently 75-thousand men and women serving the church on a mission worldwide, which is up 28-percent, primarily due to the church lowering the missionary age from 19 to 18.

[Colofornian]

A internet search of "Boy Scouts" "Died" and "Accidents" reveal a long list of scouts dying in a list of various ways in various states and countries.

Of course.

Now name me any state or country that has had even close to 6 incidents involving 7 Boy Scout deaths in a 50-month period.

If we were insurance agents discussing traffic accidents that occur in the U.S., we could both "high-five" each other in agreement that such accidents occur in EVERY county of the U.S...and whereever cars run worldwide for that matter.

But don't try to con us in claiming that just because such accidents happen "everywhere" that insurance rates are equal across the board in every county of this country.

I've seen online lists of worst cities for accidents. Some areas of the country feature excellent "asphalt neighbors"; others, just the opposite.

To hear you tell it, if we applied your logic to auto accidents, those who assess auto insurance rates should simply ignore that accidents are MULTIPLIED in certain cities of this country and they should simply dish out a one-size fits all rate.

[Colofornian]

Well, it's probably safer to be a missionary than to be a college student in America. I read recently where 4000 or so college students die every year.

That's probably accurate...I found one source that seemed to say that the death rate per college student was about 22.4 per 100,000. And the Mormons have had 10 this year (more than one per month avg) among about 75,000. So the Mormons would need to have 16-17 deaths -- 6 or 7 more in the remaining three months of 2013 -- to equal a rate equivalent.

But these Lds missionaries are your more "valiant" Mormons ... the BYU types. So a fair comparison would be to compare the death rate among BYU students vs. Lds missionaries. I presently don't have those stats...but could easily conclude that it would have been safer for Lds missionaries to be BYU students in 2013.

Your 4,000 deaths per year among college students could be accurate...there's almost (at least) 17.5 million students.

******

Btw...for more on these missionary deaths, See: With 10 deaths this year: Are Mormon missionaries safe?

[Nifster]

No I am not anti-first amendment. No where does ANYTHING I have said suggest that.

You need to get your knickers untwisted and breathe a little bit.

[Colofornian]

No I am not anti-first amendment. No where does ANYTHING I have said suggest that.

If you were opposing Obama on FR, and I told you to "give it a rest," what might one conclude? (Besides political lunacy, that is)

[Morgana]

Oh please! When was it ever easy to be a missionary? All but one of the 12 disciples of Christ were martyred.

[Colofornian]

When was it ever easy to be a missionary? All but one of the 12 disciples of Christ were martyred.

Sorry...but your comparison doesn't "compute" -- even from a simple mathematical comparison.

Question: What would have been the "martyr" rate among those disciples had they done what the Mormon missionaries do -- and thereby limited their travels to just two years.

Obviously we don't have an exact answer for that. But I don't believe too many if any of them died within a few years after Jesus' death.

ALSO: What this article shows is that Mormons are now averaging more than one missionary death per month -- and NONE of them are from your injection of PERSECUTION.

[donozark]

Several years ago 2 missionaries were murdered up in Springfield,MO. Tragic loss. Very fine, dedicated people. The French recently lost a medical team in Africa. Nuns among them. Murdered by the adherents of Islam. Life anywhere is dangerous...

[Nifster]

You managed to avoid dealing with the WHOLE post which put my comment in context. I asked you to give it a rest because we are fighting far larger battles than whether you hate the mormons or not.

Right now the communists are working very very hard to destroy this country along with their muslim buddies. During WWII we didn’t fight the Russians because we were too busy fighting the PRIMARY threat of the hour...the Axis powers.

Pick your battles and you might actually find success.

[Nifster]

By the way the folks who spend their time spewing Alex Jones’ paranoia on this sight (and there are some) get the same comment from me.

At least if this is the battle you are going to fight try and make some rational arguments instead of sighting an article which is about boy scouts. Logic is crucial in all cases. If you are perceived as foaming at the mouth (like so many on the liberal left seem to do) then one tends to lose the ability to convince anyone.

Yelling louder or posting more does not win the day

[Colofornian]

Pick your battles and you might actually find success.

You actually defeat your own purpose here.

If the content of this thread isn't worth discussing (at least in comparison to "other more important subject matters" on other threads)...
If people's efforts (toward whatever other "causes" or "campaigns" you would like to redirect them to) are better spent elsewhere...
...what are YOU doing here -- diluting your own efforts to fight such battles?

In fact, unless you are being some kind of FR instigator/activist, what are you even doing on FR at all??? (Versus being on actual socio-political "frontlines")

Where do you flesh out your contentions?

You've obviously chosen this thread as one of your "battles of the day."

IOW, your actions belie your words.

Furthermore, IF what you say is "so"...you would ensure that the "proper battles" for FREEPERS to fight -- whatever they might be -- at least get "proper" thread attention...
...and YOU, Nifster, as the "frontline" control person you're seeking to be...
...Can't do that by failure to post ANY THREAD at all over these past 13 months...
...And you Can't do that by posting ONLY two threads at all in the near 48 months that you've been a FREEPER.

Put your threads where your claims are.

And if this thread is diluting attention from where it needs to be, then be consistent and stop letting it divert your attention from where you claim it needs to be.

[Colofornian]

Pick your battles and you might actually find success.

I take it then, Nifty, that if we're to follow your glorious thread leadership: That we should really be focusing on...
(a) Chick-Fil-A
and (b) moving company recommendations...

Because THOSE encompass the entirety of the "key battles" that you've actually taken the time to post threads about...

(Be sure to let us know when you've moved on to other fast food & transportation companies so that we can rush to those threads of vital import)

[Mr. Lucky]

You’re making a fool of yourself. You might want to take a deep breath and re-think you’re strategy of witnessing for Christ by insulting virtually everyone with whom you communicate.

[Colofornian]

(And calling people "fools" isn't "insulting"??? Apparently some "insulters" on FR have special elite status, eh?)

Mr. Lucky's sermon-of-the-day "takeaway": "Fools, thou shalt not insult others"

[Mr. Lucky]

I think you’ve made my point quire adequately.

[RedMonqey]

In contrast, let's take the Boy Scout comparison I made in my initial post: Lds churches treat the Boy Scouts like a church youth group

And this is a surprise to you?

It's not secret that Boys Scouts are frequently sponsered by MANY faiths, not just Mormons. While I never reach Boy scout level I was a cub scout and reached Webelo before I bailed.

And we had our church(Methodist) sponser us and we had our Methodist Den mother led us in the pledge of alliance and a prayer at the start of and before we ended every meeting.

And we had some Baptists, Southern Cumberland Presbyteriana, and Methodists among us and nobody raised a stink about it.

And noone should be surprised that in an area with lots of Mormons)(or Catholics, Baptists, etc which ever applies) should be surprised that their religion might have some enflunece into their associatuion.

And besides the headline article of this post which is dreadfully short on details, and long on pointed questions, and the Rhiddlehoover story, the religion of those other accidents isn't mention... Maybe because it's a non factor. Utah and the west in general has numerous wilderness areas that are popular attractions to both tourists and scouts alike and, accidents happen in these areas.

To imply Mormoms(and theBoys Scouts as well) are callously indifferent to the safty of their members is silly and and counterintuitive to any organization that wants expand it's membership.

Not everthing can be pegged down to religion...

[Colofornian]

And you showed — by example — your blatant inconsistent hypocrisy better than any accusation could ever register. Thank you.

[Colofornian]

To imply Mormoms(and theBoys Scouts as well) are callously indifferent to the safty of their members is silly and and counterintuitive to any organization that wants expand it's membership.

(1) I never said they were indifferent to these deaths.

(2) Incompetence at the outing/camp level among some doesn't = out and out incompetence across the board.

[RedMonqey]

Btw...for more on these missionary deaths, See: With 10 deaths this year: Are Mormon missionaries safe?
I know you are impressed with the flashy hewadlines but do you ever care to read the WHOLE article? From the article you cite:

The church does not share its statistics on missionary deaths, but independent counts since the 1980s indicate the rate hovers between three and six a year.

That is substantially below death rates for those same age groups across U.S. and world populations — as tracked by the World Health Organization and several prominent academic journals. Liked-aged rates of death for non-missionaries are six to 20 times higher, depending on the measures used.

According to the source you cited it's safer to be Mormon missionaries than a non missionaries

[Tammy8]

My nephew just made Eagle Scout and he is a...drum roll please...Byzantine Catholic. Nothing to do with LDS, I doubt my sister-in-law even knows what LDS is. Boy Scouts are guided by many leaders of many religions.

I have many LDS neighbors, they support their children joining Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, 4H, and FFA in my area. My kids were in those organizations with the LDS children and the Catholic Church is pretty well represented here as well. The LDS nor any other religious group took over any of the kid’s organizations, nor did they try to. The adults became leaders, in about the same numbers as non-LDS; and their kids served as officers but not in any greater number than other groups around here. There was no take-over or religion interjected by LDS.

LDS also encourages military service, I haven’t heard whether they have managed to take over the military yet but in my opinion they would do a far better job than the current Commander in Chief.

[RedMonqey]

I never said they were indifferent to these deaths.

Oh Please, stop being so obtuse!

Then please tell what was the purpose of your post other than to rag on the purported dangers of an faith you have shown repeatedly to everyone on FR you vehemently opposed?