I recently received email correspondence from a family member of a Mormon missionary who was horribly and tragically killed by his companion while serving in the Louisville-Kentucky mission--which, at the time, was headed by my uncle, Reed Benson, as its president. (His assignment there ran from 1975 to 1978).
The family member of the slain missionary contacted me because she had read my previous account of that awful event on this site and reached out to express her appreciation, as well as to share her feelings--including her outrage--along with additional details surrounding the death of her Mormon missionary relative and how, in the aftermath, the killing has continued--all these years later--to impact her and her family.
She gave me permission to share the contents of her correspondence with me here, including her full identity.
She is an ex-Mormon who left the Mormon Church in her teenage years, and who has been a silent reader of this board.
Silent until now.
She is a 30-year-old single mother who lives and works in the Salt Lake City area. Her mother is a cousin of James E. Christensen, the Mormon missionary who was killed by his companion iwhile in my uncle’s mission.
By way of background regarding this appalling event, victim James E. Christensen had been disabled as a youth in, as I recall, some kind of accident. As I remember it, the situation involved a collision with a train. As a result of the accident, James was permanently brain damaged but was determined to serve a mission, nonetheless.
James entered the mission field and was assigned to a senior companion who eventually killed him, having apparently "snapped" from dealing with his impaired companion.
The circumstances of James’ death were shocking. His killer brutally abused and eventually scalded James to death in their apartment bathtub. The killer was ultimately remanded by the courts to the custody of his parents and served no prison time.
(Interestingly enough, a mission assistant to my uncle Reed Benson, named Reed Smith, has in the past posted about this terrible episode on the “Recovery from Mormoisn“ bulletin board. He knew both the murder victim, Elder James Christensen, and James’ killer, and has shared particulars about the case here. Perhaps, if Reed Smith sees this, he can again post and shed pertinent light on what occurred, as he saw and understood it from his unique vantage point. Not nearly so important and interesting is that, coincidentally enough, the killing of James E. Christensen by his companion occurred on my uncle Reed's birthday, January 2nd--he and I share the same birthday, which accounts for my middle name being "Reed").
I initially found out about the tragic death of James E. Christensen when I overheard members of my family privately criticizing this senselessly-slain missionary at a Benson family gathering (one that was held during LDS General Conference, as our wider family get-togethers often are). Benson family members were blaming James for going on a mission in the first place, against the advice of his local Mormon leaders. (Again, James had reportedly been brain-injured in his youth and his local ecclesiastical leaders therefore thought it inadvisable that he attempt to serve a mission).
I was astounded to hear members of my family essentially holding this dead missionary responsible for his own demise, caused--as they perversely saw it--by his failure to follow local LDS priesthood authority. In defense of their own, what members of the Benson family were doing was laying blame for Elder Christensen’s death at his own feet, saying that because he had failed to follow the counsel of his local Mormon Church leaders to forego a mission, he had paid with his own life. They singularly (and defensively, I might add) focused their energies among themselves on how, after James was injured in his pre-mission accident, his local Church leaders advised him not to go on a mission but that he ignored their advice and went anyway. Subsequently, he was killed by his companion--who had a difficult time dealing with the ill-fated missionary's mental impairment, which slowed James down and made him an unbearable challenge to work with, at least as far as his companion was concerned.
I did some research of my own on the killed Mormon missionary, James E. Christensen, and in the process came across a so-called reunion "found list" of missionaries who had served under my uncle Reed Benson in the Louisville KY mission. It contained the name of one "James Christensen" who, under the category of "Home phone," was simply listed as "deceased," with no other information provided.
However, another website, "Mahonri--Finding Light in the Darkness," offered a tribute to Mormon missionaries who have died while serving their Church:
"'In Memoria'
"We want to honor and recognize the work of all missionaries on the Parley P. Pratt Missionary Memorial, but unfortunately we do not have a complete list of those who have given their lives in the service of the Master.
"Nor do we have a complete roster of all missionaries who now face physical, emotional and intellectual challenges as a result of accident or illness suffered on their missions.
"Further, we do not have a complete list of those missionaries whose lives were taken before being able to enter the mission field. Your help in compiling a more complete account of those we would honor will be greatly appreciated."
They did, however, have the following name and brief biographical information:
"James E. Christensen, 24, Kentucky Louisville, Moroni, UT 1977"
At least it was more than the pathetically meager reference offered up by the Louisville KY mission's reunion website--although the list of dead on the "Mahonri" memorial webpage was followed by a bizarre observation from Apostle M. Russell Ballard:
"Since the day of the Prophet Joseph Smith, we've had approximately 447,969 missionaries serve in the world,' Elder M. Russell Ballard said in 1989. 'Of those 447,969, (some) 525 have lost their lives while serving as full-time missionaries,' he added. 'When you contemplate that number, it appears that the safest place in the whole world is to be on a full-time mission,' concluded the member of the Twelve."
Wonderful.
Tell that to mentally-disabled Elder James E. Christensen: dead at age 24, due--according to family members of Ezra Taft Benson defending their own--to his failure to obey priesthood authority.
(By the way, I was later informed that my uncle Reed Benson did not leave the mission field over which he was presiding at the time in order to attend James E. Christensen's Moroni, Utah, funeral. He stayed behind while his wife--my aunt May--went, instead).
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At this point, I’d like to share--with her personal permission--her thoughts, expressed as a relative of James E. Christensen, the Mormon missionary who was slain at the hands of his own companion—and who, in death, was blamed for his death.
She began:
“Steve,
“My name is Angela Voss and I recently came across one of your contributing posts to exmormon.org. It was the post about James Christensen, the mentally-disabled young man who was killed by his companion while on his mission.
“I'm a 30-year-old single mother and left the [Mormon] Church when I was 17. My parents are TBMs, as are my three brothers. I have not been active on the exmormon boards, but am an active reader.
“It hurts to see my family continually abused by the Church. I had never heard anyone else mention the story of what happened to James before (it seems to me it was kept very quiet, not in the news, etc., but I could be wrong).
“Memorial Day last year, I was with my parents in Moroni [Utah], at a Christensen family reunion (my paternal grandmother is a Christensen). My mother and I walked around numerous relatives’ graves at the Moroni cemetery. I would ask all about the person whose grave we were at and she would tell me stories of all the charming things she remembered or knew about our relatives.
“That is, until we came to one grave, wherein she got a heavy look on her face and refused to tell me about him, other than that they were close and he was her cousin. I noted that he was young when he died. I'm sure it's obvious by now that this grave was James Christensen's grave. My mom was acting so odd about it that I kept bringing it up until she was able to tell me what happened, which was not easy for her to do.
“From the moment I heard the story of what happened to her cousin, I was furious. Obviously, he probably shouldn't have been allowed to go in the first place. Secondly, with him going, he should have gone on a service mission. The whole situation makes me furious--and I sincerely blame the religious leaders for his death. I also blame the LDS religion on the importance they place on young men going on proselyting missions.
“I have seen the harm this creates directly with my younger brother, Brian, who was born with Mosaic Down Syndrome, and who prayed to God every night asking him to be able to go on a mission.
[Mosiac Down Syndrome is a rare condition that afflicts a small percentage of children with Down Syndrome. For information on this genetic disorder, see, “What Do We Know Bbout the Needs of Children with Mosaic Down Syndrome and Their Families?,” at:
http://www.down-syndrome.org/practice/179/; and “What is Mosaic Down Syndrome?,” at;
http://www.mosaicdownsyndrome.com/faqs.htm]
Angela continued:
“I am absolutely sure that every time my mother thought of James, she pictured her own son, also mentally disabled, going on a mission as he had often begged to do. I can't imagine how painful that was for her to continue to tell my brother no, he could not go on a ‘regular mission.’ Turns out she had very good reason for that--she needed to protect her son. He eventually did go on a mission but it was a local service mission. To this day, my younger brother feels guilty and less-worthy than others because he wasn't able to go on a ‘real’ mission.
“I am not really sure what my intention is by sending this e-mail, except to let you know I appreciate you making my mom's cousin James’ story known and to share my personal experience.
“I was not shocked at all when you mentioned the Benson family blamed him. That is a pretty standard defense for the Church when something goes wrong. No one ever seems to take accountability. I am tempted to use this information as ammunition to help my parents see that the Church is harmful, but know that would only fuel the hurt and cause more arguments. Their faith is absolutely unwavering so far. I'm likely as frustrated with them for not ‘seeing the truth’ as they are with me for ‘not seeing THEIR truth.’ It's a futile situation but I hope they are able to find a truth that doesn't harm them someday.
“Again, thank you again for mentioning James’ story.
“Sincerely,
“Angela Voss”
In a follow-up email to me, Angela said this about the “Recovery from Mormonism” site:
“A lot of eyes have been opened and a lot of healing has begun from posts on exmormon. I was so surprised when I found that post. I didn't think anyone else knew about it.”
Angela then proceeded to explain more about the killing of her mother’s cousin, James E. Christensen, and how her mother has not been forthcoming about the particulars of the court proceedings that ensued in the wake of his death:
“What I can't figure out, and what my mother will not tell me, are the details of the criminal proceedings. I don't understand how this missionary was not prosecuted at all. I am wondering who represented Jim's [the killed missionary] family and what exactly the ruling was. It's absolutely baffling that he got off with no jail time. He was clearly an adult at the time of his mission and it was clearly murder. I thought I might look into the court records but was not sure where to start. It seems it would have at least been in the news but I can't find any record of it. The only thing I found was his obituary, a picture of his grave and your post. It seems like the family just wanted to this all to go away quietly. They didn't want to give the Church a bad name, or at least that's my suspicion.
“. . . James was [my grandmother’s] nephew and my mom and grandmother were quite close to him. I only recently found out about all of this because for so many years, it was too painful for my mother to talk about.
“Thank you,
“Angela”
Angela wrote back again, this time to share disturbing details surrounding the death of James E. Christensen at the hands of his missionary companion:
“Steve, I didn't include this in the original e-mail, but before he was scalded/killed, he was indeed beat with a belt on a regular basis, along with other abuses of which weren't specified by mom. So, the abuse started long before the episode that killed him. :-(
“Angela”
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Angela has stepped up to confront and face down the Mormon Church for the deep suffering it has brought to her and her family.
In determining to give personal voice to her story, she admitted the "frustration and anger" she has felt "in collecting my thoughts,"
But she did what she had to do, wrapping it up by firmly declaring, "Please feel free to use my whole name. Thank you,"
Thank you, Angela Voss, for courageously sharing your experience, your pain and your hopes.
Peace, strength and healing to you.
Edited 43 time(s). Last edit at 02/16/2013 09:44AM by steve benson.