Mormon missionaries
Today’s Mormon missionaries: Clingy, soft, and immature?
By Jana Riess — February 18, 2019
Some reactions to last week's announcement about Mormon missionaries can be summed up in three words, delivered in your crankiest and most stereotyped elderly male voice: “In MY day. . . .”
LDS missionaries can now call home weekly. Some parents worry new policy is too lax.
By Peggy Fletcher Stack — February 16, 2019
In the past, LDS missionaries were only allowed to call home twice a year, a policy designed to let them focus on their mission, free from distractions. But a new policy will allow them to call or video chat with family once a week.
Mormon missionaries can now phone home once a week
By Bob Smietana — February 15, 2019
New rules allow missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to call weekly. Missionaries are also allowed to text and video chat once a week. Previous rules limited calls between missionaries and their families to a few occasions a year.
Mormon women missionaries can now wear pants! But not to church.
By Jana Riess — December 21, 2018
Mormon female missionaries can now wear pants for much of their work, but not to church -- which is in keeping with a long-standing cultural tradition that women still wear dresses and skirts to church.
Retired Mormon mission president admits he molested a female missionary
By Jana Riess — March 20, 2018
(RNS) A former president of the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah, is accused of sexual misconduct, which he appears to admit in a leaked interview. Meanwhile, his family points to the accuser's own checkered history of alleged fraud and run-ins with the police.
Mormon church to ask its missionaries: How safe do you feel?
By Yonat Shimron — June 5, 2017
SALT LAKE CITY — The survey contains questions about whether missionaries have experienced or observed physical harm, such as being punched, kicked, choked, restrained, bitten by a dog or in any other way injured.
No mission? Then young LDS men are in ‘No-Mormon’s Land’
By Jana Riess — July 11, 2016
Guest blogger Mette Harrison, whose college-age son has decided not to serve a mission at this time, says we are in danger of throwing away a group of young Mormon men who do not go on missions, making them feel like second-class citizens or worse.
Mormon young women and priesthood: ‘Change the rhetoric or change the rules,’ says guest blogger
By Jana Riess — May 25, 2016
In this month's LDS youth magazine, one article tries to include young women in the exercise of priesthood, while the very next article excludes them. Guest blogger EmJen says we need better ways to teach girls about a priesthood they do not hold.
Mormon growth slows to its lowest level since 1937. Here’s why that’s great news.
By Jana Riess — April 19, 2016
Why has Mormon growth slowed so much since the heady gains of the 1980s and 1990s, and why is this numeric stagnation considered a step forward?
Dear Mormon bullies: Haters NOT gonna hate on my watch
By Jana Riess — March 26, 2016
They imagine they help the LDS Church by abusing its teachings and covering their unethical verbal assaults by feigning prayerful affection. They're wrong.
4 Mormon missionaries injured in Brussels attacks
By Jana Riess — March 22, 2016
The hospitalization of three Mormon missionaries in Brussels prods me to remember: *Every* victim of terrorism could be my child, my sister, or my parent.
A letter to my daughter’s Mormon seminary teacher
By Jana Riess — March 10, 2016
Six things that Mette Harrison wishes her child's seminary teacher would do -- or stop doing -- to make the Mormon church a more hospitable place for teens.
More Mormon men are leaving the LDS Church, say researchers — but especially in Utah
By Jana Riess — September 16, 2015
A new study shows that Mormon men are leaving the fold in greater numbers, but it's particularly noticeable in Utah. Why is this happening, and what are the long-term ramifications?
Some Mormon missionaries may now cast aside suit coats
By Peggy Fletcher Stack — July 5, 2015
SALT LAKE CITY – Male Mormon proselytizers, known as "elders," who toil to find converts in scorching, humid regions like Kenya, Indonesia, and Thailand will no longer be required to bring a coat with them on their two-year volunteer service.
Mormon mission failure
By Jana Riess — September 3, 2014
Mormon missionary Craig Harline was sure he'd be able to convert 84 people on his mission to Belgium in the 1970s. The reality was more like zero.
