Quinn Reference check – 1979 Church News anyone?

That is interesting. I think the note that a committee and some leaders still provide oversight and make some changes occasionally is still acceptable to many that revelation is used. However, this isn’t the way it is explained, which could lead to some missionaries feeling “lied to” about revelation.

That is interesting. I think the note that a committee and some leaders still provide oversight and make some changes occasionally is still acceptable to many that revelation is used. However, this isn’t the way it is explained, which could lead to some missionaries feeling “lied to” about revelation.

In thinking about it, it makes a lot of sense to use a computer. With so many mission calls to make and over 300 missions to make sure are continuously staffed with missionaries who are also constantly leaving every 4-6 weeks, etc., it would probably be a nearly impossible job without a computer. It is also consistent with the church’s change in rhetoric, stating that a person is “called to be a missionary of Jesus Christ, and assigned to a mission.” I think people would think about mission calls differently, however, if they knew they were assigned to their missions by a computer. Finding out their mission was assigned by a computer is like finding out that your new name in the temple is simply the assigned name of the day, rather than some inspired name pronounced with great personal meaning (such as your name in the pre-existence), and that all your friends and family that came with you that day, to whom you are commanded to never reveal your new name, already know it.

I was reading The Mormon Hierarchy:Extensions of Power and came across a reference I would like to check in the Church News. However, the church news archives online don’t go back to 1979. Does anyone have access to the 1979 church news? Quinn references an article in the 2 June edition of Church News titled “Computers Aid Church” and refers to use of computers by the Missionary Department. According to Quinn (pg 872):

Due to massive increase of missionaries, computers have assigned Mormons to their full-time missions since church-wide computerization in 1970. First Presidency has neither oversight nor review of mission calls. Special Committee (LDS bureaucrats and one or two general authorities) reviews computer print-outs of proposed missionary calls and occasionally changes some mission assignments. Signature machine signs church president’s name to letter informing LDS missionaries of their assignments.

I’m just wondering how much of the Church News article states this and how much is additional information added by Quinn. I’d appreciate it if any one has access to this article and can post its comments. Additionally, if you know of other sources that support this process of calling missionaries, I’d love to know about it. This is certainly a different process than we are typically lead to believe leads to our missionaries’ Divine callings.

. . . not that God can’t work through computers. I have to hope that He works through computers when I get assigned my medical residency through the match system .

http://www.mormonwiki.org/June_2

Not that this answers the actual question…

I’ll be spending some time downtown this week and weekend — I think I’ll drop by the Church History Library on Thursday. Maybe they’ll have something.

HiJolly

I was reading The Mormon Hierarchy:Extensions of Power and came across a reference I would like to check in the Church News. However, the church news archives online don’t go back to 1979. Does anyone have access to the 1979 church news? Quinn references an article in the 2 June edition of Church News titled “Computers Aid Church” and refers to use of computers by the Missionary Department. According to Quinn (pg 872):

Due to massive increase of missionaries, computers have assigned Mormons to their full-time missions since church-wide computerization in 1970. First Presidency has neither oversight nor review of mission calls. Special Committee (LDS bureaucrats and one or two general authorities) reviews computer print-outs of proposed missionary calls and occasionally changes some mission assignments. Signature machine signs church president’s name to letter informing LDS missionaries of their assignments.

I’m just wondering how much of the Church News article states this and how much is additional information added by Quinn. I’d appreciate it if any one has access to this article and can post its comments. Additionally, if you know of other sources that support this process of calling missionaries, I’d love to know about it. This is certainly a different process than we are typically lead to believe leads to our missionaries’ Divine callings.

. . . not that God can’t work through computers. I have to hope that He works through computers when I get assigned my medical residency through the match system .

None of it is in the article.

I will scan the 3 pages in & upload to photobucket when I get a chance (tomorrow, probably) but the text is very small. I may try to figure out how to ‘blow it up’. I dunno. Anyway the article is on pages 8, 9 and 14. P. 8 is just 3 pictures w/ captions. The article is by Golden A. Buchmiller.

HiJolly

Thanks a ton for posting that! I really appreciate it!

So the article itself does not support Quinn’s statement (not that I really expected the church to print that missionaries are assigned by computer in the Church News if it were really true). Quinn may still be correct, and it would make a lot of sense, given the complexity of coordinating 300 missions and 50,000+ missionaries. However, the process is probably a little more involved than just a computer spitting out assignments. I noticed that Quinn’s reference said the 1st presidency was not involved, but that does not exclude members of the 12 being involved.

Either way, it isn’t a testimony breaker. When I’m most optimistic, I trust that God can use computer algorithms to carry out his will (and hope he does when it comes to my medical match coming up). When I’m most pessimistic, having a computer assign mission calls is probably actually better than having “random” old men dictate where people will be assigned.

Thanks HiJolly! That’s very interesting, and it appears that Quinn does seem to take some liberties with footnotes.

I know from a reliable source that they do indeed use computer technology for mission assignments. In order to keep it a revelation, but also process the massive number of assignments, Church IT personnel connected one of Joseph Smith’s old seer stones to an overhead projector, using it as a lens. The names and assignments are projected on a screen, and then optical character recognition software is used to turn it back into a SQL table of characters for data processing. That is what makes the print out, and member of the First Presidency then holds the print out and *feels* if it is correct. It is. Assignment letters go out the next week.

[sorry, I am in a silly mood today]

That’s as valid as anything Quinn wrote… 😆 😆

HiJolly