I had a friend recently claim that due to the high rate of returned missionaries in Mormon Valley, it is actually a much more open minded place than people think. As a region it does have a higher rate of people who have traveled to foreign countries and who speak a second language. She claims that closeminded-ness can return to open-minded RMs when they return to the Utah world of sheltered mothers and girlfriends who have never traveled – and RMs abandon their open-mindedness because they want to meet the expectations of the women in their lives. Because, SEX, duh. She’s looking forward to even more open-mindedness as our culture shifts with the massive new influx of returned sister missionaries.
This made me pause – I believe she has some good points. I do know that many missionaries, especially foreign serving, that have been humbled by their experiences. Many of them leave as teenagers and return as legit adults. I started to think this through:
- many RMs return more open minded and stay that way
- many RMs return more open minded and change back into what they were before
- many RMs return with even more cultural superiority than when they left
I’ve been thinking a few days about what are the influences that help determine which category they fit in and I have a few ideas:
- The amount of American/Mormon exceptionalism one has before their mission. I believe all missions from all religions experience a bit of colonialism (“Hello, I’m here to teach you” whereas most other travelers don’t travel with the goal of teaching locals the right way to believe/do things).
- Mission rules: I believe these can limit the kind of interaction you have with the culture. As a result it’s hard for missionaries to get a full-immersion experience; I also believe most RMs don’t believe this – they think they’ve heard and seen it all
- Type of experiences on their mission: did they serve stateside, english speaking, developing country, etc.?
- Open mindedness of closest friends/family
- Could there be links to politics?
- Personality type
Personally I’ve ran into my fair share of RMs who are dude bros, but I don’t think there are as many of those as I think. I may be stereotyping based on a few bad apples. I also refute the assertion that sheltered Mormon women drag our men back to close-mindedness. I used to *be* one of the sheltered non-RM women, but I think my working and living in Las Vegas, Iowa, and Virginia shook that right out of me. Traveling did make me more open minded: I befriended gays, millionaires, atheists, Catholics, Baptists, etc. and found many of their perspectives and even their Christianity superior to mine in many ways. My Mormon exceptionalism was destroyed after 10 years of living outside the valley.
So I believe my friends argument has merit. Could our bubble be sheltering, but could the influx of RMs also be making us more open minded? I’d like RMs to weigh in with your own observations. Were you more open minded to different ways of doing things or were you more self assured than ever? What effect did sheltered mothers and women your age have on you when you returned? Do you think Utah is more open minded culturally than they get credit for? I definitely think the influx of returned sister missionaries will shift our culture – but I think most of those ways remain unseen.
Wheat & Tares 
I disagree; I think the actual experience of the mission can make RMs close-minded. There are exceptions, but what I have observed anecdotally in recent RMs I know are an enhanced level of American exceptionalist attitudes, combined with a retrenching of the conservative attitudes of their parents. The whole experience of teaching the gospel full-time, especially outside the US, is usually framed in a colonialist/civilize-the-savages/white-man’s-burden sort of way. They are essentially trying to export a very American belief system (along with its American historical and cultural baggage) to people who either embrace it because they love the idea of being associated with American prosperity, or (more often) reject the American cultural imperialism it represents.
I’ve seen more than one homecoming talk wherein the RM disparages the developing country he just returned from, even suggesting that their widespread poverty was tied to their lack of righteousness. These are the kind of ideas that mission culture encourages, either explicitly (coming from leadership) or implicitly (as a way of rationalizing frustration at the low baptism numbers, or because we haven’t really divested ourselves from the Prosperity Gospel).
Another RM I knew who served in a well-developed, but famously low-baptizing European nation blasted its people as “godless socialists”, also using scriptural terms such as “wicked” and “hard-hearted” to refer to them, and thus felt religiously empowered in his attitudes. Afterwards, he expressed profound relief that he was back in his upper-middle-class lifestyle of Utah county, then talked about his plans to go to dental school.
Another problem is that missionaries are too isolated from the cultures they work in. They live in an artificial, monastic lifestyle that is neither fully American nor that of their host nation. They know nothing of the history or culture of the people they are trying to teach, because reading non-church literature is forbidden, and they have almost no time to visit cultural or historical sites. P-days are usually on Mondays when most museums are closed. Rather than try to understand their target audience, they learn to loathe them, and view themselves as superior. Then they return home with that air of superiority and become right-wingers for the rest of their lives. Again, there are plenty of exceptions, but there is too much evidence to deny the trend.
If the OP argument were valid, Utah County would be diverse, multicultural, and have one of the bluest, most democratic-leaning voting blocs in the nation. In fact, the opposite true.
But I’m optimistic about the 2nd and 3rd order cultural effects of an increase in female RMs. It will completely shift the dating/marriage culture by empowering young ladies to act rather than be acted upon, and perhaps there will be upheavals in Church leadership culture (patriarchy) in the years to come.
I still wish they would give sisters a 2-year service option. And put them under the same cultural obligation to serve as men (or, take the pressure off men and have a mission be totally optional for both sexes).
It also sounds weird to me that girlfriends would have anything to do with close mindedness.
Mormons carry the bubble everywhere they go, and the bubble is even thicker in wards in Europe. It’s easy to come back even more close minded because you’ve see and rejected Babylon, and been thoroughly an outsider wherever you’ve gone.
*Missionaries have more exposure to people and culture than Mission Presidents or GAs. They are on the front lines, in the trenches, working (hopefully) with the people around them. GAs live in much more of a bubble- rarely interacting with the general public (lds or not).
*Missionaries receive more exposure to the culture and people than study-abroad students or families assigned to foreign military posts. Both of these groups can remain much more sheltered on campuses or on posts, but missionaries can’t help but “going native” to a larger extent.
*We are culturally egocentrical, but I think the service component and the “love for the people” (accompanied by a celebration of the culture) grows in so many missionary hearts acts as an antidote of sorts against that. When I see missionaries keep up their language skills for the rest of their life, stay in contact with the people they served, and grow into professions which allow them to move back to the area, I can’t accuse them of living in a bubble.
*But like anything, it depends on the individual. Some step out of the bubble, some retreat back into one, and some never leave. The environment can be extremely transformative, but the individual is the one that actually makes the change.
Hmmm. From my experience living in Utah, I don’t know that the RM factor made much of a difference. Those that had lived/worked/studied outside the Mormon Corridor seemed to be more open minded. I think part of it is how long you live there–the longer you’re there, the easier it is to become insular. I’m a life-long east coaster; after my 3 or 4 years in Utah, even I encountered some culture shock when I moved back east.
I’m not sure Utah is all that different in terms of provincial attitudes than was rural PA where I went to HS. Cultural exposure from a mission can either dispel or solidify those ethnocentric attitudes, depending on the person.
When I went through culture training as an expat in Singapore, they talked about different stages of cultural immersion from the shallow end (disliking what was different about the new culture) to the full immersion end (adopting the values of the new culture instead of one’s native culture). There’s a lot of room in between, and most people never do full immersion. The majority become more of a third-culture person, seeing their own culture with an external perspective and no longer being unable to hold the same unquestioned assumptions, preferring some aspects, beliefs or values of their new culture, and some of their original culture. The awareness, once you have it, does erode provincialism. Provincialism only flourishes when there is a lack of cultural awareness, what the cultural values and assumptions are.
Interesting. I used to agree totally with you Jack, but we lived in Appalachia for a few years and I do have to admit they were in some ways more close minded than Mormons …. They just barely stopped allowing the kkk parade about 15 years ago – and that’s with a university nearby. I have to admit a lot of RMs do experience some amount of humility and developing a love for the people.
It’s probably a lot what Hawk describes, partial immersion — but I think most missionaries consider themselves fully immersed. Which probably also leads to more superiority that they’ve earned.
Nate out of all people I’m glad to hear you not get the “sheltered Mormon woman influence” line. I was baffled.
Sheltered Mormon women create their own batches of problems….but let’s not blame them for everything, eh? Mormon men can shoulder their own responsibility for being jackasses.
Where is “Mormon Valley”?
I could see some RM’s wanting to shelter ignorant mothers and wives of the realities of the big bad world. Becoming more closeminded to submit to the expectations of their womenfolk seems a bit of a stretch. People who are closeminded tend to be attracted to others who are similarly closeminded. It’s self-reinforcing.
Naismith in general http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mormon_Corridor
Although my friend was referring to Utah specifically being especially open minded because of the RMs. I’ve just been around enough dude bro RMs to know its a pretty even mix between the humble open minded ones and the “I’ve got everything figured out and know all there is to know.” But she made a convincing enough argument that I’ll bet it’s more nuanced than I thought.
Nate I want to hear more about Europeans and their bubble – from most reports I hear outside the states there’s so little bubble factor it’s mostly just the Gospel. Is that not true?
About the European “bubble”–
If you are talking about English-speaking expat wards, then I believe the bubble effect is even more intense there than in the States. Among the natives, though, its practically nonexistent.
When I was stationed in Germany, my wife and I were surprised at the strong bubble mentality among the American members there, so much so that we decided to join the local German ward instead, despite the fact that neither of us had any facility with the language. We struggled with communication, but it was well worth the effort. We observed that many Americans treated their assignments in Germany as an ordeal to be survived, and so they banded closer together in “adversity” but missed out on the rewarding immersive cultural experience we ended up getting.
I’m sure it goes both ways for RMs. You get a lot of exposure to another culture, and that can be mind opening if you let it. But sometimes the things in the culture are working against what you are trying to accomplish (cultural practices that investigators have to give up to get baptized), and you come to resent those aspects of the culture or view them as evil.
I was raised by a non-mormon hard drinking, prize fighter father. A very good man in many ways, but very worldly. I was drafted at 19, on at foreign mission at 22. My travels took me around the world.
I learned that Mormon and American exceptionalism is a reality.That doesn’t take away from the virtues I saw in the cultures in Europe and Asia. Nor does it mean that Mormon and American exceptionalism are perfect either.
Give credit where it is due and develop understanding of the deficiencies wherever found.
I’ve observed that more an individual applies the teachings of Jesus Christ as revealed in Mormon scriptures the more they become like Christ. As such, they are able to move freely, as Christ did, among all kinds of people.
Kristine, how disappointing that you expected something more sexist from me! A real experience with the opposite sex is the antithesis of close-mindedness. Rather, a for a man, being with a woman is a more foreign experience than the most exotic mission could possibly be!
Come on Nate, you’ve talked enough about women excercising their “soft power” through their sexuality to influence men who have “power” I thought this line of thinking lined up with that perspective. And I genuinely don’t consider the friend who shared this sexist, in her perspective it gave power to her argument that women needed equitable mission experiences. I didn’t mean to imply that you’re a sexist pig, you’re not; you just have a stronger belief in those stereotypes than I do.
And there you go with the stereotyping of F/M characteristics. 🙂 I think we’re all so unique we should all be foreign to each other…in my marriage I’m the blunt, candid, type a personality. My husband has much more tact and is submissive to authority more readily once he’s accepted their authority. I constantly question why, he quietly tries not to rock the boat, etc.
Based on my own experience, I would say most American missionaries who served overseas arrived with a boatload of cultural superiority that only worsened in the mission field which included looking down their noses at how the locals they professed to love ran the church.
This question depends entirely on how you define “open minded”.
true – i don’t think being liberal politically necessarily indicates open-mindedness that I was referring to here
I was thinking more along the lines of open to new ideas, knowing their ideas/bias may be wrong
Kristine A wrote: “i don’t think being liberal politically necessarily indicates open-mindedness that I was referring to here”
I respect liberals, feminists, and gay advocates that are intellectually HONEST. This is a primo example. Them I can ‘spar’ with since it becomes an honest exchange of ideas, which is, IMO, what the bloggernacle is all about.
“My Man” D-Fens, even though he went ‘postal’ in “Falling Down”, put it well to a neo-Nazi militaria store owner who managed to be even more psychotic: (about 2:30 into the clip)
Coming from someone who *served* in Mormon Valley (BYU campus, Delta, St. George, Spanish Fork, Orem, Vernal/Jensen) I can say I brought a truck load of my own cultural superiority from the DC suburbs. Of course it didn’t help that people constantly called outside of Utah “the mission field” and wondered often why we were there in the first place, but I digress. I also served around Elders and Sisters from nearly ever corner of the globe, except for Utah, which we all condescendingly congratulated ourselves on – no Utah comps!
All in all it was ultimately a great mission experience for me and that
was in no small part to my day to day evidence that Utah Mormon are
not all what we snicker they are – blind, ungrateful, arrogant. I once spoke with a native Hawaiian missionary serving in Roosevelt (his first area was Duchesne). He told me one of the main reasons God called him to Utah was to help him learn to love white people. WOW. I think we all returned home a little more open minds about our Church and its people.