Today, I went through some of the journals I wrote as a missionary in Japan. There were many cringe-worthy entries, but one particular entry stood out.

My companion and I had given a baptismal interview to a 35-year-old woman to determine her worthiness. To my shock as a young missionary, at some point in her life, she had an abortion. For those returned missionaries out there, you know what this means. She had to have a second interview performed by the mission president or some other priesthood authority above that of us Elders.

I cannot tell you how horrified I felt as I read this entry today. It seemed to hit me really hard just how backwards the church really is! The sinner will always relive their sin over and over again for the rest of their lives! Get the investigators guilt tripping before they are even members of the church!

I had a similar experience with the first baptismal interview I conducted. I knew the abortion question could trigger a second interview, but felt it was a ridiculous bureaucratic rule.

As young and naive as I was, I could tell she was distraught having to recall that moment in her life. I told her that the point of baptism was to "wash away" everything prior and that she should move ahead with things.

At the time I was wracked with guilt for not following the interview protocol, but in hindsight, I'm really happy she was spared having someone pry her for details.

So sue me.

My turbo TMB dad wanted so bad to convert people to the church. He converted near the end of WW2 and didn't serve a mission.

His mother, my grandmother, took the lessons at one point, probably to satisfy my dad.

She had all the lessons and committed to baptism. At the worthiness interview, she was asked the standard questions....when they got to abortion, she was so insulted, that she got up and left, and never joined the church.

I don't think my dad ever got one person to convert.

The fact that the church is so concerned about your sex and morality and tries so hard to control it, and that you have to discuss it with men of the church, it is a sure sign of a cult.

'65 to '67 Mexican Mission

As both a junior and senior companion, I never heard of 'baptismal interviews', much less participated in them.

When I was promoted to senior companion, and given a brand new greenie, I got exactly ZERO instructions. I just kept doing what I'd seen and done: find them, teach them, dunk them, dump them.

Of course I've now read lots of stories on exmo sites about these pre-baptismal interviews, such as the Japan mission stories where they had a hot line to zone leaders ready to go do an interview so that they could get their one hour baptisms done...

What a zealous organization, when it comes to creating new Is (eyes) and Ts (tees) to dot and cross.

I spent a summer in Guadalajara as an exchange student back in 65 or 66. My Spanish still has a Jaliscan twang to it when I really start chattering in it. I loved Jalisco.

April to July, 1966, I was in Guadalajara!

ALL these abuses Started the instant that Honesty & Kindness were written Out Of The Script (except, of course, in do-gooder, forgotten-upon-exit flowery lip-service GA "talks")...

just sayin', by one who knows.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/20/2017 12:27AM by GNPE.

I was a sister missionary in Switzerland so I didn't have the "authority" to do the worthiness interviews. The sisters had to defer to the Elders who had the priesthood.

We had been teaching a man who had been taught for years prior to us and had attended church many times. We challenged him to baptism, and to our surprise he said yes. The super self-righteous zone leader who conducted the worthiness baptismal interview and thought us sister missionaries were just silly women, decided he was not worthy for baptism. He didn't tell us why but had a smirk on his face and felt oh so powerful that he denied that man baptism. I thought he was a real a-hole. Looking back, I guess he did the investigator a huge favor!

I married a never Mo many years ago and he started going to church with me.

He was love bombed from day one and reveled in the attention - I didn't understand what being "love bombed" was at the time, I thought they just really liked him.

Local leadership set him up for missionary lessons then it came time for the missionary interview. I was not in the room while then-husband was being interviewed but caught the tail end of it when I heard the missionary say he had to be interviewed by so-and-so to get the all clear for baptism. I was thinking "What did he do?"...my mind was racing. The missionary turned to me and said he would have to be interviewed because of the homosexual relationships he had before we met.

I had no clue, nothing, and this kid is telling me my husband had sex with men. As a very naive TBM.

He was later cleared for baptism but then I started to see my husband in a different way, discovered he was hiding things from me and lying to me and found men's underwear in the laundry that were not his with a bizarre explanation that I accepted because I was afraid to know the truth.

We eventually divorced and he spent time in prison for sexually abusing a child - something the "discerning" p-hood holder never picked up on.

I was angry for years that some damn kid told me something he believed I knew or he was just ignorant and immature - but TSCC should never put these kids in any position of "authority".

Damn, we were self-righteous asshats.

The young couple I baptized in France was a good case in point.
They were near-newlyweds (about 1 year), well-off, intelligent, and "prime" mormon material. The ZLs and mission president were so excited when they heard we'd gotten them to commit to baptism, as they weren't the usual convert fare.

My comp and I did the baptism interview. During it, they said (with no shame, as it was entirely normal to them) that they'd lived together and had sex before getting married. They didn't know why that would be a problem. We, of course, were shocked -- and had to refer them to "higher ups" for a second interview.

That second interview (for which I was not present) lasted all of 5 minutes. Afterwards, the mission PAs that conducted it told me they were fine to go ahead, that he just let them know that in mormonism, people weren't supposed to live together and have sex before getting married, and that "next time" they shouldn't do that. As if there would be a "next time."

So we dunked 'em. Less than three years later, they were out. Good for them. Us telling them that we had to go to "higher ups" to get the OK for them to wash away the horrible sin of getting to know each other before getting married should have been a red flag for them...they just figured out later on why it was so silly.

I just can't understand why certain past sins should be an issue since Jesus said he came to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance.

A friend of mine who was BIC started the process of going on a mission. His past girlfriend had an abortion - he thought it was probably his and he paid his half for the procedure - all legal, she was about 3 weeks preg. He was denied a mission call and in fact went up for a excommunication - court of love-. He was able to get disfellowshipped for a year. Later he found out that his girlfriend actually got drunk and slept with another guy exactly at the time she got preg. Ya...do what Jesus would do...