Our Call to Serve.

I grew up Mormon. It wasn't until I had left the Mormons however that I discovered that there are different degrees of Mormon. Progressive Mormon, Orthodox Mormon and so on must have seemed hypocrite to my family because they were just Mormon. To them, you either were or you weren't and let me tell you... they were. They still are for that matter. My mother came to visit me in sinful, socialist France (where I live with my very own Frenchman,) and had to take a day off from seeing the sites as it would not be respectful to the Mormon Sabbath day. Paying homage to Gustave Eiffel instead of Yahweh is the kind of thing that could land you in Eternal Darkness. (This is what the Mormons call Hell FYI. Prepare yourselves any homosexuals or drinkers of Coca-Cola because if the Mormons get their way, this is where you'll go. So get ready.)

There are ten children in my family of which I am the oldest. There are seven boys and three girls. The boys that have come of age have all gone on missions and the ones that have not come of age are all being brainwashed to maximize chances that they do. A mission is the equivalent of Mormon military service. As a young man, when you turn 19, you are expected to give two years of your life to the Mormon church with the goal of converting new members. These young men start saving from a young age to pay for the two year experience in which their church usually sends them abroad, or at least cross country to live with a full time companion taking part in the same experience as him. Oh yeah, women can also serve a mission once they've virtually exhausted their opportunity to get married at the ripe old age of twenty one. They serve for a more modest eighteen months however as the child baring years are ticking on whilst they spread God's word. These missionaries leave their home and put their educations on hold to donate two years of their life to try and convince people to join the Mormon faith. They do also participate in humanitarian projects and volunteer efforts while they are there, but with the goal of boosting numbers and getting fresh blood coursing through the LDS corps all the while in their minds. (LDS is short for Latter Day Saints, aka Mormons.) These young people sacrifice two of the best years of their lives to cross the world and live as soldier-clergy hybrids at their own expense, but why? Are they of noble intentions? Are they trying to serve some greater good? Or are their motivations more self-serving than anything?

Every child in the Mormon childrens' education program sings songs like "I Hope They Call Me on a Mission," and "Called to Serve" Women are raised and prepared to only marry and bare children to a Return Missionary. (Affectionately known as RM's amongst adolescent women throughout the Mormon community.) Missionaries who aren't deemed worthy to leave on their missions straight after turning nineteen, or at all, are gossiped about and a shameful burden for a family to bear. Others wonder what could have been the egregious sin that could have tarnished this young person's purity enough to prevent them from being part of God's Army. Could it have been masturbation? Doing activities on Sunday that are considered unacceptable? (FYI outside of going to church, reading one's Book of Mormon or visiting the sick, there are not a lot of things that are tolerated...) Or could it have been that he/she didn't give one tenth of their entire income to the church? Whatever the shameful action that caused a volunteer clergy member to deem them "unworthy," you can be sure that they will feel the consequences of it in chagrin, especially in places where the Mormons are concentrated enough that Mormons only associate with Mormons and these young people's entire entourage is only those of LDS persuasion.

On the other side of the coin however, if you do get approved to serve a mission, go on it and convert a butt load of people, you're in for a treat. You'll be welcomed back with a special church ceremony dedicated just for you to report back your experiences and say the benediction of the religious meeting in the language that you learned whilst sharing the light with those abroad. You'll have your pick of the virgins that have been saving themselves for an RM, and if you had a high conversion rate while you were out in the field, you might even get a fancy position in the church. Priesthood president or Young mens' leader. NICE!

These motivations, among many other things, were some of the reasons that I left the Mormons. That I left religion in fact. Any service that they did to their fellow man was in the name of their god. I did think that it was important to do it, but not in an effort to boost conversion rates or secure one's place in the next life. As soon as I stopped believing in God ironically enough, everything took on so much more meaning, serving my fellow man included. If a Mormon or any other believer gives of his/her time and effort, it's in the name of the commandment of charity and loving one's neighbour. If an atheist does it, it's in the name of goodness. Making the world better and alleviating suffering with no ulterior motive. It is purely selfless. (Unless she is going to blog about it later hoping to elicit comments and followers...) This is why my husband and I decided to become missionaries. Atheist missionaries. We too are going to leave everything at our own expense, our jobs, our home, our lives in fact to go abroad and give of our time and resources. We don't have the aim of converting although if our example leads people to question their belief in God, we'd be thrilled. We want to go because the world is a shitty place, and if even in molecular proportions, we can, we hope, render it less shitty. Also, deluded as I may be, I hope that our effort and my reports on our effort will also hope to abolish or at least curb the silly belief that atheists are people with out morals as morality comes from religion. I'm sure I'll elaborate more on this as this blog carries on, but it boils my blood to hear religious mouths on telly, radio, discussion boards or whatever say that atheists are nasty people because with out God in our lives, we would all lie, cheat, kill, rape and steal. On the contrary! When you only have one life and so does everyone else, it becomes so much more sacred! Respect for life goes up exponentially as you realise that it's the only one that you've got. At least it did for me. Suffering in this life is to be rewarded in the next is a way of living that is total bollocks and we want to do good now to help others now. That's why we're going to Bolivia. An orphanage there has accepted us as volunteers to work with the children, in the garden, in the kitchens and in the schools for the period of six months and we're going! Our flights are booked, the budgeting and the planning is under way and we're off the 19th of October 2010. There is no God and all we have is each other. We should therefore be a lot nicer and this blog is about that. Musings on living life like it's the only one we've got, reports documenting our adventures, posting pictures, videos and links and whatever else I may need to evacuate from my brain as this adventure unfolds. Please comment and subscribe to the feed!