ISIS and our church members and missionaries.

[carlimac]

There has been some indication in a letter written by ISIS that there are some specific targets they plan to hit- The White House, the Eiffel Tower and Big Ben.

 

After the attack in Tunisia at a museum yesterday- a fairly public place where LDS members or missionaries might visit ( and yes I know there is no LDS church presence in Tunisia. This is just for example.) I'm wondering if the Missionary Dept. has made recommendations to missionaries for avoiding certain landmarks or taking any special precautions in England, France, other parts of Europe or even the US. (My family is moving to DC in a few months so this gets a bit personal.)

 

Other questions to ponder: Would any of our temples ever potentially be targets for ISIS? How soon do you think we will we see screenings of temples bags at temple entrances?  

 

The thing that made me wonder about this was an article about the poor sister missionary who died from e-coli in Argentina.  In the comments, someone was indicating that perhaps the Church could do a better job of protecting missionaries. It made me think of all the dangers out there for missionaries. And with ISIS in the news so much, I wonder if they will become a threat in the near future for missionaries. What could the church really do to protect them?

 

My daughter who is getting married had a mission call to Portugal but decided to get married instead. Now I've seen that Portugal, being so near Spain is more vulnerable to potential ISIS attacks than say...Iowa. I regret a little that she isn't on her mission right now but at least an ISIS attack on her isn't something I have to worry about.  (I only have to worry about who to dash off the temple ceremony list.   )

[Crypto]

The church statistically does pretty well keeping missionaries safe. I don't know exactly what the church could do to protect them from this though.

[carlimac]

The church statistically does pretty well keeping missionaries safe. I don't know exactly what the church could do to protect them from this though.

 

I don't either. I wonder if we'll need to wait till something bad happens before some really concrete precautions are put in place. 

Edited March 19, 2015 by carlimac

[carlimac]

Which brings up another point. Does the church have anyone from the FBI working for them? Informants of threats or anything like that? 

 

( I just love spy stuff. Wish I had been one when I had the chance. It was Harriet the Spy in my childhood that got me started.)

[Crypto]

They probably keep track of embassy warnings and relay that to the missionaries. 

Spy stuff is cool :-) but I don't think they have the FBI or any other country specifically working with them for this stuff.

[Just_A_Guy]

The Church does have a security division that monitors global threats--an ex-ward member of mine used to work for them.  But I think it's more of an analyze-publicly-available-news type of thing; no cloak and dagger stuff.  And I don't think it's the Church's style to put out major threat alerts--more likely, they just quietly tell the mission presidents "hey--make sure your missionaries don't go to this spot".

Edited March 20, 2015 by Just_A_Guy

[Blackmarch]

The church statistically does pretty well keeping missionaries safe. I don't know exactly what the church could do to protect them from this though.

if something is felt important enough to do so they'll pull missionaries from an area. If it's not quite that important they'll advise the mission president and it will be his responsibility to figure out how they should operate in an area that's deemed risky. Otherwise its up to the mission president to watch and be receptive to inspiration. But also too its up to the missionary to also be watchful and receptive.

I think tho that a lot is just that God knows how to work his church and knows when and where people will be and that affects when and where people get called too.

I've tracted areas in Detroit where people said i was crazy stupid to be there (and also said that even the police don't get out of their cars there and don't come around once it gets dark). been near a few shootings and even a store robbery (slight chance that I might have even been on TV even)…. but always it wasn't an issue because we were somewhere else right when the dangerous stuff happened.

Ya the church has members that have been with FBI, CIA, or even criminal organizations before they converted.

[EarlJibbs]

I have a close family member that worked in church security for decades. I can tell you that the church monitors temple security and missionary security very closely. Everything from chapel break-ins are reported pretty far up the chain. My family member would meet with the FBI when needed.

 

I cannot guarantee, but would imagine that items like terrorists and other threats of the like have already been discussed. The church is all about preparedness. 

[Palerider]

I left for England on my mission in 1979. My Dad was concerned about my going to England due to terrorism.

Back when Iran held some Americans hostage in the embassy in 1979, the way my companion and I found out about it was while we were tracting. We knocked on the door of a Iranian and he invited us in. While in his home he related to us the events of the day. We were very happy when we left that house. That was a weird feeling