Sunday, March 3, 2019

Were 19th Century Mormon Miissionaries “Sex Traffickers”?

19th century Mormon missionaries targeted European girls with promises of perfect lives in America. They were poor, uneducated and desperate get away from the misery.  Once they were trapped in Utah, they were bartered for like cattle to serve men with sex and hard 
labor.  


sex traf·fick·ing

Dictionary result for sex trafficking

noun
noun: sex trafficking; plural noun: sex traffickings
  1. the action or practice of illegally transporting people from one country or area to another for the purpose of sexual exploitation.

    By the 21st century definition this ISN’T sex trafficking because they did not “ illegally “ transport the women. .... UNLESS they lied to them about what they would get when they arrived.  Polygamy was publicly announced in 1852 and the story spread quickly through Europe.  So literate European women might have known that they were heading into polygamy, but since the missionaries targetted the uneducated, they likely did not know.  

    It is a common theme even in LDS Sunday School classes today to praise young teenage girls from Denmark or Germany that were willing to leave their families to join the church, “embrace the gospel”. And follow the missionaries to America and Utah.  I now realize that all it was, was a sexual recruiting tool for Brigham Young and the other men of The Mormon Church to exploit the poor conditions of women in Europe.  

    So, were 19th Century Mormon Missionaries “Sex Traffickers”?

    YES.


3 comments:

  1. How absurd!
    Don't be so gullible!

    1) HARD WORK - Virtually all pioneers, LDS or not, male or female, worked hard. In fact, the promise of the American dream has always been that there is opportunity for those who come and work hard to get ahead and make a real future for their family. That's why so many people STILL come to America.

    2) SEXUAL EXPLOITATION - You really have to stretch the definitions of 'sexual exploitation' and'sex trafficking' to believe this one.

    (A) Sex traffickers do so for their own benefit (either for money or sex for themselves). Missionaries, then and now-a-days, sought and seek converts to convert them to a gospel they believe in.

    (B) They also do it in a targeted manner focused on only the young female, meaning they don't try to target the old, and the young; the men, women, and children; the beautiful, the plain-looking, and the ugly; etc. as the missionaries did. Missionaries also have and had success with wealthy and educated men and women. They wouldn't do this if their aim were sex trafficking of ignorant, poor young women and girls.

    If missionaries who 'recruited' sex slaves to exploit for their sex and their hard force labor were there to engage in sex trafficking, why did they, by and large, never actually have sex with the girls and young ladies they were 'targeting', receive financial windfalls, or actually get the 'hard work' from those immigrants for their recruiting efforts?!? No. Their focus, then as now, was and is to convert souls to Christ.

    Yes, then, as now, on very rare occasion, a missionary might marry someone they convert (recruit, in the language of this con artist). But even then, how, then as now, does the voluntary, consensual commitment to marry, take care of the woman's financial needs (and those of their children), engage in loving, consensual intimacy, and make a life-long and eternal commitment to each other constitute sex trafficking?

    Like I said, this claim is absurd!

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    Replies
    1. It's true, no kidnapping took place, and they weren't sold for sex to multiple men. What's also true is these women were assigned to men as sexual partners without any say on arrival. It's also true that there was an enormous power embalance by those entrusted with their care. What happened was deeply wrong, and I applaud the US government for stepping in.

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    2. Don't be delusional:

      https://missedinsunday.com/memes/polygamy/fair-shake/

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