�鶹��ý

The Latter-day Saint theologian B. H. Roberts, who served as an active-duty US Army chaplain during the First World War, observed that religious liberty is “not only the right to believe but to practice a religion.”[1] One of the distinctive ways Latter-day Saints have practiced our religion since the earliest days of the Restoration is through an active proselytizing program. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints takes seriously the Savior’s admonition that “this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations” (Matthew 24:14). At the same time, Church members are well aware that the Savior prophesied, earlier in that discourse, that there will be “wars and rumours of wars” in the last days (Matthew 24:6). Moroni’s 1823 warning to Joseph Smith that great judgments “were coming upon the earth, with great desolations by famine, sword, and pestilence” continues to be fulfilled.[2]

Wars can be truly horrific and destructive to people, places, and even nations. Wars have influenced who can serve as missionaries, when they can serve, where they can serve, and who can be proselytized. Military conflicts have periodically restricted the Church’s ability to call missionaries and do missionary work. While America’s wars have not overtly challenged the status of the Church in the United States, they have sometimes restricted religious liberty. Those restrictions are sometimes imposed by government directives and at other times have been self-imposed by the Church as a necessary means of adapting to current circumstances. This essay considers the varied effects that military conflicts have had on the Church’s ability to share the gospel throughout the world.

This statue in Yuma, Arizona, is dedicated to the Mormon Battalion, which remains the only unit in American military history to be given an official religious designation. Wikimedia.

This monument in downtown Los Angeles memorializes the contributions of the Mormon Battalion during the Mexican-American War. Wikimedia.

Because most missionaries have been called from the United States, the focus here is on wars in which the United States was a combatant, beginning with the Mexican-American War in 1846 and ending with America’s withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. This essay will demonstrate that while wars have sometimes had a temporary slowing effect on missionary work, that effect has not been long-lasting.

The number of missionaries called by the Church during each conflict, especially when compared to the number of mission calls issued shortly before the war began and how quickly those numbers recovered after peace was restored, does not tell the entire story of that war’s impact upon the Church, especially upon local Church members and congregations. But those numbers can be compared across time and will be referenced in the discussions below.

Mexican-American War (1846–48)

The Mexican-American War began after the United States annexed the Republic of Texas in 1845. America’s first international war after the Church’s founding arrived at an especially challenging time. In 1844, two years before the Mexican-American War, the Church called 586 men (over 2 percent of the Church’s total membership) to missionary service, but many of those missionaries were called to campaign and support Joseph Smith’s candidacy for president of the United States. The year after Joseph and Hyrum Smith were martyred in Carthage Jail, the number of missionaries dropped by 86 percent to eighty-four missionaries. That number fell another 60 percent in 1846, to thirty-two missionaries, when the war began. The Church called only forty missionaries in 1847, fifty-five in 1848, and fifty-eight in 1849 after the war ended.[3]

The reduction in missionaries had more to do with the displacement of the Church from Nauvoo to Winter Quarters, the enlistment of the Mormon Battalion (which recruited men who, under normal conditions, could have served as full-time missionaries), and the beginning of the western exodus than it did with the war.

Utah War (1857–58)

Calls for military intervention in Utah Territory became increasingly shrill after the nation elected James Buchanan as president of the United States in November 1856. After his inauguration, Buchanan became convinced that Utah was indeed in rebellion, and in May 1857 he ordered the army to march on Utah. The military force bound for Utah is often popularly called “Johnston’s army” after Colonel (later Brevet Brigadier) Albert Sidney Johnston—who, as the senior general killed during the Civil War, would die during the Battle of Shiloh in April 1862.

After receiving unofficial news that the army was approaching Utah, Brigham Young, who was serving as both Church president and Utah’s territorial governor, called all missionaries home and declared martial law.[4] The effect on missionary work was rapid and significant with missionaries returning from Hawaii and other distant lands. The Church called 130 missionaries in 1856 and 88 in 1857, but not a single missionary was called to serve in 1858. This is the only time in Church history when war completely stopped missionary work.

The Utah War ended on June 26, 1858, when the army marched through an empty Great Salt Lake City, which approached ghost town status after Brigham Young encouraged Latter-day Saints to “move south” in March of that year. Missionary work was slow to recover from the Utah War; only eighteen missionaries received calls in 1859.[5]

General Albert Sidney Johnston led the US Army's Utah Expedition through Salt Lake City on June 26, 1858, bringing the Utah War to a peaceful end. The only year in Church history that no full-time missionaries were called to serve is 1858. Engraving from T.B.H. Stenhouse's book Rocky Mountain Saints, 1873.

American Civil War (1861–65)

As illustrated in this April 1861 Harper's Weekly woodcut, the bombardment of Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor is generally considered as the formal beginning of the American Civil War. Library of Congress.

The national schism over slavery, states’ rights, and popular sovereignty that led to the American Civil War had been steadily building since the founding of the nation. Abraham Lincoln’s election as the nation’s sixteenth president in November 1860 was the catalyst that led the southern states, beginning with South Carolina, to formally declare their secession from the national union.

Safely ensconced from the growing conflict in the Rocky Mountains, Utah Territory experienced fewer direct effects of the Civil War than the eastern states, but the Civil War had a marked negative influence on missionary calls. Throughout the Civil War, there was little formal missionary work done on the North American continent. Most mission calls extended were for Europe, Hawaii, or Polynesia.[6]

After a slow recovery from the Utah War, in 1860 there was more than a fourfold increase in the number of missionaries called. There were just nineteen missionaries called in 1861 as the war began. The remaining four years of the war saw twenty-seven, fifty, fifty-two, and seventy-one missionary calls accepted, respectively—numbers that certainly would have been higher without the Civil War. Some missionaries, such as Chauncey W. West, received a military escort across the western territories to ensure their safe passage during the war.[7] Missionary calls in the years immediately following the Civil War followed the same pattern seen after the Utah War, with only 32 missionaries called in 1866 but 133 called in 1867.[8]

Spanish-American War (1898)

The thirty-three years from the end of the American Civil War until the Spanish-American War in 1898 is the longest period of peace for American armed forces since the founding of the Church. The Spanish American War was not a surprise to the nation. America’s major newspapers had been beating the drums of war for months with sensational news reporting. It was the first American war after Utah had obtained statehood, and the Church was anxious to demonstrate its patriotism and loyalty. Elias S. Kimball, president of the Southern States Mission, for example, informed the First Presidency that even though “the war spirit is abroad and there is much enthusiasm and patriotism manifested by the people, yet the people are calm and sober-minded.”[9]

Addressing a stake conference in Brigham City, President Lorenzo Snow—while serving as a counselor in the First Presidency—spoke of the nation’s call “for 125,000 volunteers and said some of the young [Latter-day Saint] men would be called upon to go in defense of this nation, as well as to go on missions. Twenty to thirty-five names have been selected to go as missionaries from this stake.” President Snow expressed his hope that the young men would be prepared for serving either on a mission or in the military “so that they could expect the protection of the Almighty.”[10]

The Spanish-American War did not affect the number of missionaries serving worldwide. In 1897, the year before the war, 922 missionaries were called, and that number increased slightly to 943 in 1898.[11] The war was short—from April 21 to August 13, 1898. It ended before it could have an impact on missionary work.

A few weeks before the Spanish-American War began, the first sister missionaries (often called “lady missionaries” at that time) were officially called to serve as full-time missionaries by the Church.[12] It is unknown if that policy change was influenced by the coming war or was just coincidental. While small numbers of women had earlier served in various missionary capacities, Jennie Brimhall and Inez Knight from Provo, Utah, were officially called and set apart on April 1, 1898, to serve as full-time missionaries in Great Britain and began their journey the following day.[13] They reported, “We first began to feel keenly the responsibility of being sent as missionaries, when three days after our arrival in Liverpool, it was announced in street meetings at Oldham, that ‘real live Mormon women’ would speak at conference next day.”[14]

The Millennial Star explained, “The duties of a lady missionary are essentially identical with those of a Traveling Elder, as regards tracting, preaching upon the streets and addressing audiences within halls, introducing the Gospel at the fireside, and endeavoring to allay prejudice on all sides.” The Star further noted, “The labors of the first two lady missionaries in the European mission have been watched with interest. That the appearance of two young Mormon ladies upon the rostrum . . . has awakened interest amongst the congregation, goes without saying; one has only to note the incident of people leaving the seats in the rear of the hall and crowding down to the front, in order to drink in every word in breathless silence.”[15]

World War I (1914–18)

Francis Ferdinand, archduke of the Hapsburg imperial dynasty, was assassinated in Sarajevo, Serbia, on June 28, 1914. The Austro-Hungarian Empire soon declared war on Serbia. Due to a complex network of treaty obligations, European nations quickly aligned against each other. What began as a limited regional conflict quickly became a world at war during which tens of millions of soldiers and civilians died.[16]

While the United States did not enter the First World War until April 1917, the war affected missionary work in Europe beginning in 1914. There were 858 missionaries called in 1913. That number declined by 20 percent in 1914 and stayed at that approximate level until the United States entered the war. In 1917 there were 543 missionaries called—a disproportionate number of them were called before the United States entered the war. In 1918 only 245 missionaries were called.[17]

In August 1914 several missionaries were arrested in Europe as suspected spies. Police incarcerated missionaries serving in France because they considered them possible German spies, and police in Germany arrested and questioned missionaries as likely British spies. In one instance, police placed a Latter-day Saint American missionary “in an inclosure with a large number of war prisoners, fed on bread and water and given a straw pallet to sleep on.” A mob stoned missionaries in Vienna, and then they were jailed by police as suspected Serbian spies.[18] As the war ignited, there were 150 missionaries serving in the Swiss-German Mission and another 50 missionaries serving in France.[19]

The Church announced on August 8, 1914, “Until the war in Europe is over the Mormon church will send no more missionaries to the old world.” The First Presidency directed the withdrawal of all missionaries from France, Germany, and other European countries on August 31. Apostle Hyrum M. Smith, President Joseph F. Smith’s son (who would die in 1918 of an appendicitis), was the European Mission president who organized the evacuation. Mission leaders released all French and German nationals who were serving as missionaries. After leaving the continent, American missionaries gathered in England before returning to North America. Many returning missionaries, one hundred of whom sailed together from Liverpool to Quebec, received new mission assignments within the United States.

An American gun crew from the 23rd Infantry fires a 37mm gun during an advance against German entrenched positions in France during 1918. Wikimedia.

In a September 11, 1914, letter to the First Presidency, President Hyrum M. Smith noted, “We are facing a great crisis on our European missionary work, and I am prayerfully anxious that no mistakes shall be made. It will be far better for the elders to go and come again than to remain and lose their lives in consequence.” In a postscript, President Smith noted that Senator (and apostle) Reed Smoot had recommended “that there would be no immediate danger for our missionaries if they could be transferred to England, Sweden and Norway.” President Smith countered by replying, “No one can tell what a day may bring forth. In Germany one day was clear, tranquil and peaceful, the next day the whole heavens were black with threatening war clouds; . . . the terrible storm had broken and seven nations, amid the lightning flash of rifle fire and the thunder of heavy artillery, were pouring upon each other a deadly hail of lead and iron, thereby drenching the ground in blood.” By October 1, Church president Joseph F. Smith could report, “Practically all of the Mormon missionaries are now out of the European war zone and those remaining are safe.” During the October general conference, President Smith announced, “Every precaution has been taken that could be taken for the protection of our elders in those foreign missions where war exists.”[20] A small number of American full-time missionaries continued to serve in Great Britain after the war began.[21]

In July 1917, after the United States declared war on Germany, the federal government announced, “Missionaries of the Mormon church are not exempt from the draft.” To be exempt from the draft, someone “must be an ordained minister and follow the ministry as his regular vocation or profession. Casual or periodical callings to the ministry or to labor for a church, sect or denomination are not sufficient to secure exemptions.”[22] Some American missionaries were charged as draft dodgers because they did not register at their local draft board—an action that would have proven difficult because they were serving missions outside their home states.

Recognizing that the draft age was twenty-one, in spring 1917 the Church began calling eighteen- to twenty-year-old young men to serve as missionaries outside of Europe. By summer 1917, the War Department ruled that full-time Latter-day Saint missionaries would be “exempt under the selective draft law if proof is made that they are regularly engaged in ministerial duties.”[23] By 1918, as America was fully involved in the war, Church President Joseph F. Smith—who had several sons serving in the military—announced that no mission calls would be extended to draft-aged men.

Perhaps the most unusual World War I missionary-related story was a news report claiming that thousands of German “secret service workers have operated in India and Egypt in the guise of [Latter-day Saint] missionaries, and wrought so much trouble with the people that all the ports of the British possessions, including the Pacific Islands, exclude religious workers for the duration of the war.” The lockdown also prohibited bona fide Latter-day Saint missionaries from entering countries in the Pacific.[24]

Less than two months after the war ended, the First Presidency sent a letter to all stake presidents. In part, it read, “The war appears to be over, and our young men are being mustered out of service. It is a good time to replenish our forces in the mission field. You will appreciate the great need of Elders in all of our missions, knowing that we have only been able to send a few brethren into the field since the United States entered the war, and most of those who left before have returned home. Brethren, we need missionaries.” Church members responded positively. The number of missionaries called rebounded dramatically in 1919, with 1,211 missionaries called (despite an world battling the influenza pandemic).[25]

World War II (1939–45)

Hostilities in the Second World War began on September 1, 1939, when Nazi Germany invaded Poland. The United States entered the war twenty-seven months later in December 1941 after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and the Philippines. More than one thousand missionaries received mission calls annually from 1937 to 1941. After the United States entered the war, the number of mission calls dropped significantly to 629 (in 1942), 261 (in 1943), 427 (in 1944), and 400 (in 1945).

As tensions rose in Europe during 1938, the First Presidency ordered the evacuation of missionaries from Germany and Czechoslovakia in September.[26] After the Munich Conference, tensions subsided when France and Great Britain agreed to Hitler’s demand to annex the Czech Sudetenland, and the missionaries returned. On August 24, 1939, the First Presidency again ordered the evacuation of all missionaries from Czechoslovakia and Germany, one week before Hitler attacked Poland.[27] Five days after Poland was invaded, the Church transferred twenty-one missionaries from France to neutral Switzerland.[28] Five weeks before Pearl Harbor, the National Selective Service announced that all full-time missionaries would be categorized with a 4-D draft deferment (making them temporarily ineligible for the draft).[29]

The USS Arizona is shown burning after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on Sunday, December 7, 1941. The Second World War forced many adjustments and accommodations to the Church's worldwide missionary program. Wikimedia.

When the war began, there were fifty-seven Latter-day Saint missionaries serving in Japan—fifty-six Americans (thirty-seven from Utah) and one Canadian.[30] They were presumably quickly evacuated. Five days after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, missionaries serving in France were transferred to neutral Switzerland. The First Presidency released a policy circular on December 23, 1941, announcing that “missionary work was now being confined to the continental Americas and the Hawaiian Islands.”[31] Throughout 1939 and 1940, missionaries were removed from Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Great Britain, Holland, France, Switzerland, the Middle East, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Tonga, Samoa, and Tahiti. By December 1940, 95 percent of the missionaries in those areas had returned to North America. The Church called no new missionaries to serve in South America after the war began, and “by 1943 the entire missionary force in South America was eliminated through attrition.”[32]

Returning American missionaries were subject to fines up to ten thousand dollars if they failed to register for the draft within five days after returning from their missions.[33] Mission calls for sister missionaries were suspended in December 1941. By March 1942 the Church restricted mission calls to seventies and high priests because most draft-aged men were elders. Just as the Church had creatively approached mission calls during the First World War, in 1943 the Church recognized that “with the draft taking its toll on missionaries[,] ‘Mom’ and ‘Dad’ are taking up missionary labors where sons have [left] off.” By the end of January 1944, there were about eighty “older missionary couples” serving full-time missions.[34] Before the war, over 80 percent of all missionaries were young men—elders or seventies. By the war’s end, “most new missionaries were women or high priests.”[35] After the war, there was almost a five-fold increase to 2,297 missionaries in 1946, and over 60 percent of those new missionaries were military veterans.[36]

Korean War (1950–53)

The Korean peninsula was divided roughly in half along the 38th parallel during the closing weeks of World War II, but the separation left both sides disgruntled. With support from China and the Soviet Union, North Korean armed forces invaded South Korea on June 25, 1950. Formally designated as a “police action” instead of a war, the United States led a Union Nations military response. Battlelines seesawed back and forth for three years, leaving the original 38th parallel border in place when an armistice, not a peace treaty, was signed on July 27, 1953.

The Korean War had a distinct effect on mission calls. The Church called over three thousand missionaries in 1950, the year the war began. Two months later in August, Church officials announced that the number of missionaries was decreasing because of reserve and national guard reactivations. Of approximately five thousand full-time missionaries then serving, eight hundred were women. No missionary training occurred that summer. In October the military announced that missionaries serving outside the country would not be called to active duty as long as they remained in full-time missionary service.[37]

American Latter-day Saint missionaries serving in the Paraguayan District in July 1951 during the Korean War. Left to right, front row: Kenneth W. Taylor, John T. Homer. Back row: Rulon D. Skinner, G. Sterling Nixon, C. Wayne Smith, and Kenneth J. Alford, the author's father. Courtesy of Kenneth J. Alford.

Later that month, the Church’s First Presidency released a series of regulations about calling draft-age missionaries. The new guidelines, which were first coordinated with officials of the Selective Service, clarified several draft-related issues: (1) commissioned officers in either reserve or national guard units should not be recommended for missionary service, (2) young men “who are members of the enlisted reserves should first discuss with their commanding officers the possibility of being released and secure permission to be released before they are recommended for missionary service,” (3) young men who have received a Notice of Pre-Induction Physical Examination should not be recommended for missionary service unless they have waited more than five months without being drafted, (4) missionaries who were currently serving would be deferred from military service for the duration of their mission, but they must “report to their reserve units within five days after their return home,” and (5) “young men who have reached their twenty-first birthday and are desirous of being recommended for missionary service should first discuss the matter of their being called for military service with their Selective Service Draft Boards and secure assurance in writing that they will not be called for military service before they are recommended for missionary service.” The First Presidency also announced that the age missionaries could depart for their mission would be lowered from twenty to nineteen for young men and temporarily lowered from twenty-three to twenty-one for young women.[38]

A war-weary Korean girl with her brother on her back trudges by a stalled American M-46 tank, at Haengju, Korea in June 1951. Wikimedia.

In 1951 the number of missionaries called dropped 40 percent from the previous year to 1,801 missionaries. Church leaders clarified on January 13 that draft-aged men who receive a mission call must obtain written clearance from their local draft board. That policy was superseded at the end of the month when the Church announced that due to the present military emergency, “only young men exempt from military service will be eligible for calls to missionary duty”; in other words, only “young men who are veterans of World War II, those disqualified for military service, and those over 25 years of age” could serve a mission.[39] As a result of that policy adjustment, 347 prospective missionaries were released from the Salt Lake Mission home and sent home. Newly ordained Church president David O. McKay reported in April, “Our missions have been flourishing, including the near east mission, which recently was closed because of the grave international situation.”[40] President Milton R. Hunter, of the First Council of the Seventy, noted, “Under wartime conditions when men of military age are not called on missions, it will be difficult to maintain the mission program. If the program is to continue successfully through the present emergency, it will be necessary for older men to accept the responsibility for missionary work.”[41]

In 1952 the number of missionaries called dropped an additional 50 percent to 872. Shortly before the end of the war, the Church announced a major change regarding the issuance of mission calls. Under the new policy, “one young man in each ward and independent branch of the organized stakes of the church is to be selected for serving a mission. Upon clearance of local draft board officials, that young man will be called to serve.” Mission calls could be issued to men with any draft classification as long as they receive approval from their local draft board.[42] Mission calls doubled to 1,750 in 1953, aided by the signing of the armistice.[43] In August 1953 the Church raised the missionary-eligible age for young men back to twenty, but missionaries had to receive permission from their local draft board even though the war had ended. Church officials noted that the “long-standing policy of calling young men to serve in the mission field is now being reinstated to a limited degree.” The Church also acknowledged that “due to a former ruling wherein only those rejected for military service could be called as missionaries, the long-maintained missionary organization [of the Church] has been badly handicapped.” The calling of only one young man per ward remained in place during 1953 but increased to two young men per ward during 1954.[44]

Vietnam War (1955–75)

After World War II, France tried with difficulty to reassert colonial control over Indochina. After ten years of fighting and the withdrawal of French forces after a military defeat at Dien Bien Phu, the First Indochina War ended with the Geneva Accords of 1954, which created three countries: Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. In 1956 Vietnam was divided at the 17th parallel into North and South Vietnam—a division announced as being a temporary measure. The United States became increasingly involved in the conflict until the Gulf of Tonkin incident in August 1964, which led to significant American military involvement for the next decade. America withdrew from Vietnam in 1973. South Vietnam fell to communist forces in 1975, at which time North and South Vietnam reunited.

UH-1D ("Huey") helicopters played a key role during America's involvement in the Vietnam War. Wikimedia.

The Vietnam War did not significantly affect the number of missionaries called each year. With only two exceptions (1967, which had an almost 8 percent decrease from the previous year, and 1972, which had a 5.6 percent reduction), the number of missionaries increased or remained stable throughout the war.[45] In September 1965, the Church announced that “each ward or branch would be limited to calling two draftable missionaries” each year. Wards “in the same geographic region” could also share their quotas. Missionaries could not be called more than thirty days in advance of their nineteenth birthday.[46] Selective Service rules also required some missionaries who were serving full-time missions to return home early from their missions to begin military service.[47] In March 1971 the length of missions for sister and couple missionaries was generally standardized to eighteen months.[48]

As antiwar activism grew during the war, a class action lawsuit filed in Utah claimed that Latter-day Saint men should not receive draft deferments because of missionary service. Before the case was adjudicated, the plaintiff, a University of Utah student, filed a motion to dismiss because the question became moot after he was recategorized as “4-F” by his draft board.[49] But US district judge Willis W. Ritter failed to rule on the student’s motion to dismiss, and the class action suit was reopened two years later by other litigants who claimed there was “an unconstitutional agreement between the Mormon Church and the Utah State Selective Service System whereby missionaries receive preferential treatment in the draft.”[50] In April 1970 the U.S. attorney for Utah, Elder Gordon B. Hinckley representing the Church, and the director of Utah’s Selective Service office filed joint motions to have the case dismissed. Elder Hinckley noted, “The self-imposed restrictions [on mission calls] limit the number of missionaries to be called. . . . The overall ministry was diminished in that the church denied the opportunity of missionary service to worthy and qualified men who feel a personal responsibility to do this work.”[51] The government’s position regarding religious deferments remained unchanged throughout the war.

As a sidenote, the Church sent missionaries to South Vietnam following the withdrawal of American forces in 1973. The month before South Vietnam fell to North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces in April 1975, Viet Cong forces shelled Saigon, in an area where nine Latter-day Saint missionaries were serving. The president of the Saigon Mission assured parents, friends, and relatives that “the nine missionaries were safe.” The missionaries left the country before Saigon fell.[52]

The Gulf War (1990–91)

The Gulf War was the military response of thirty-five nations, led by the United States, following Iraq’s invasion and attempted annexation of the neighboring tiny desert emirate of Kuwait. The war was short—from August 1990 to January 1991—and had no influence on the Church’s missionary program. It was the first time that service members were not authorized to proselytize or share religious information with the local nationals. There was brief discussion on Capitol Hill about reinstituting a national military draft, but Congress took no direct action.[53]

The War on Terror: Afghanistan and Iraq (2001–21)

Lasting just 100 hours, Operation Desert Storm—the Gulf War's combat phase—was America's shortest war. This April 1992 photo of American soldiers from the 11th Air Defense Artillery Brigade—taken during Operation Desert Shield, the buildup to combat phase—shows a Stinger portable missile launcher team. Wikimedia.

The War on Terror, also called the Global War on Terror, began in Afghanistan in October 2001 following the September 11 terrorist attacks on New York City and the Pentagon. A coalition of nations led by the United States attacked Iraq on March 20, 2003. Combat operations ended in Iraq in 2011. America’s Afghan War ended with a chaotic American withdrawal in 2021.

As he stood to give his closing remarks at the end of the Sunday morning session during the October 2001 general conference, President Hinckley was handed a note announcing that “American and British troops had launched retaliatory attacks against terrorists in Afghanistan.” President Hinckley continued, “Now we are at war. Great forces have been mobilized and will continue to be. Political alliances are being forged. We do not know how long this conflict will last. We do not know what it will cost in lives and treasure. We do not know the manner in which it will be carried out. It could impact the work of the Church in various ways. . . . It could affect our missionary program.” He continued, “No one knows how long it will last. No one knows precisely where it will be fought. No one knows what it may entail before it is over. We have launched an undertaking the size and nature of which we cannot see at this time.”[54]

Soon after the World Trade Centers in New York City were attacked on September 11, 2001, President George W. Bush announced America's Global War on Terror. In general conference the following month, Church president Gordon B. Hinckley stated, "The terrible forces of evil must be confronted and held accountable for their actions." Wikimedia.

In March 2003, as the United States prepared to invade Iraq, the Church announced, “If war with Iraq begins this week as expected, missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will not be reassigned, delayed or sent home. . . . It’s business as usual. Nothing has changed.”[55] American military intervention in Afghanistan and Iraq did not affect the Church’s missionary program, other than the fact that, like the Gulf War, military service members and civilians deployed into those two theaters of war were prohibited from proselytizing or discussing religion with local inhabitants due to federal guidelines and restrictions.

Two events during the twenty-first century that have had a greater effect on missionary work than the War on Terror are the lowering in missionary ages in October 2012, which significantly increased the number of missionaries called, and the coronavirus pandemic that began in 2020, which significantly decreased the number of missionaries.

Summary

Wars have influenced the Church’s exercise of religious liberty regarding sharing the gospel. Some wars, such as the Mexican-American War and Spanish-American War, placed few constraints on the Church’s ability to do missionary work. The Utah War and the American Civil War created disruptions to missionary work in the United States. World War I and World War II had a significant impact on both the pace and scope of missionary work throughout the world. Military drafts supporting World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War reduced the number of Latter-day Saints who could serve full-time missions. The Gulf War and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were fought in a unique environment where proselytizing could occur within coalition forces but not with citizens of the host nations—a clear but arguably necessary restriction of religious liberty.

Wars have temporarily slowed missionary work, but any negative effects have been short term. This is especially true when considering the role that Latter-day Saint military service members have played in sharing the gospel. During World War II, Elder Ezra Taft Benson was concerned over the fact that the number of missionaries had decreased, but he “was convinced that Latter-day Saint servicemen were responsible for ‘more total missionary work today than we have ever done in the history of the Church. . . .’ One of [the servicemen] said, ‘Brother Benson, it is just like being on another mission. Conditions are different, but we have opportunities to preach the gospel, and we are taking advantage of it.’”[56]

Regional wars such as Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine can significantly affect missionary work in individual nations. This photo shows the advancement of a Russian tank unit in the Kyiv region. Wikimedia.

Latter-day Saints, who have been counseled to “renounce war and proclaim peace” (Doctrine and Covenants 98:16), receive distinct missionary benefits during periods of peace. As political scientists Ray C. Hillam and David M. Andrews concluded, “On the simplest level, the more nations that maintain positive diplomatic and economic ties with the United States, the more nations that are open to the proselyting efforts of American elders and sister missionaries.”[57]

Wars have also created the opportunity for increased missionary work and postwar growth of the Church in several countries, such as Japan, Germany, South Korea, the Philippines, and Vietnam.[58] Speaking in general conference during the height of the Vietnam War, Elder Gordon B. Hinckley made this prophetic statement: “I make no defense of the war from this pulpit. . . . I seek only to call your attention to that silver thread, small but radiant with hope, shining through the dark tapestry of war—namely, the establishment of a bridgehead, small and frail now; but which somehow, under the mysterious ways of God, will be strengthened, and from which someday shall spring forth a great work affecting for good the lives of large numbers of our Father’s children who live in that part of the world. Of that I have a certain faith.” He further envisioned “the day when the clouds of war shall have lifted, when peace shall be in the land, and when there shall be congregations of the Church built upon foundations laid by such of our brethren there now [1968]. That day will come. Of that I am confident.”[59] President Kimball similarly taught that “the Spirit of the Lord is brooding over the nations to prepare the way for the preaching of the gospel . . . Some political events have a bearing upon the spread of the truth. It seems as though the Lord is moving upon the affairs of men and nations.”[60]

The Ukraine Siren Alerts logo. Wikimedia.

During the October 1939 general conference that convened a few weeks after World War II began, Alfred C. Rees, who served as president of the East German Mission until the outbreak of the war, presciently observed, “Many events appear to us as unimportant incidents; yet in them all we see the hand of the Lord guiding, operating, [and] directing.”[61] While it would be difficult to quantify, missionary work adjustments associated with times of war have had a greater positive impact on missionary work than the interruptions caused by regional conflicts and world wars.

The March 1, 1842, issue of Nauvoo’s Times and Seasons published a letter written by Joseph Smith, popularly known as the Wentworth Letter, in which the Prophet made a bold claim that applies to the effect that war has had on latter-day missionary work. Joseph proclaimed, “No unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing.” He then gave several circumstances that may attempt to hinder the work—“persecutions may rage, mobs may combine,” and I would highlight, “armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished and the great Jehovah shall say the work is done.”[62] Armies have and will continue to assemble until the Savior returns to begin his millennial reign, but war has not and will not slow down the ultimate progress and growth of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Notes

[1] Roberts made that observation during an address in the Salt Lake Tabernacle. See Journal History, January 11, 1885, 12, Church History Library, quoted in John Sillito, B. H. Roberts: A Life in the Public Arena (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2021), 128.

[2] “History, circa June 1839–circa 1841 [Draft 2],” p. 6, The Joseph Smith Papers, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-circa-june-1839-circa-1841-draft-2/6.

[3] “Missionary Statistics,” 2011 Church Almanac (Salt Lake City: Deseret News, 2011), 189. Please note that while the number of missionaries called in any given year does not differentiate between missionaries called from within the United States and missionaries that may have been called while living in another country, the effect on the trends shown should not be significant.

[4] William P. MacKinnon, At Sword’s Point, Part 1: A Documentary History of the Utah War to 1858 (Norman, OK: Arthur H. Clark, 2008), 234–94. See also Church History in the Fulness of Times (Salt Lake City: Intellectual Reserve, Inc., 2003), 370. The Church also stopped European emigration to Utah during the Utah War. See, for example, Joseph W. Young, “The Mormons in Europe,” Deseret News, June 9, 1858, 2.

[5] 2011 Church Almanac, 189.

[6] As a Hawaiian missionary, Walter Murray Gibson exercised unrighteous dominion during the Civil War. See William P. MacKinnon, At Sword’s Point, Part 2, 177, 182n57, 198n20; John Gary Maxwell, The Civil War Years in Utah: The Kingdom of God and the Territory That Did Not Fight (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 2016); and Church History in the Fulness of Times, 386–89, for a summary of Gibson’s inappropriate antics.

[7] Kenneth L. Alford, “Utah’s Role in protecting the Mormon Trail during the Civil War,” Overland Journal 39, no. 4 (Winter 2021–22): 167.

[8] 2011 Church Almanac, 189.

[9] Elias S. Kimball, “Southern States Mission,” Deseret Weekly, June 4, 1898, 1. Kimball was soon called to serve in the Spanish-American War as the first active-duty Latter-day Saint chaplain. See Vance Theodore, Kenneth L. Alford, et al., Out of Obscurity and into the Light—Latter-day Saint Military Chaplains: Development, History, and Ministry (Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 2019).

[10] “War and Missions. Young Men Should be Ready to Preach or Fight,” Salt Lake Herald-Republican, April 25, 1898, 6.

[11] 2011 Church Almanac, 189.

[12] Saints: The Story of the Church of Jesus Christ in the Latter Days, vol. 3: Boldly, Nobly, and Independent (Salt Lake City: Intellectual Reserve, Inc., 2022), 63–66.

[13] Joseph S. Broadbent, reporting on an April 1898 conference, remarked that Sisters Brimhall and Knight “each spoke at some length on Utah and her people and bore strong testimonies on the restoration of the Gospel and the divine mission of Joseph Smith. There were about 800 people present and a pin could have been heard drop. . . . We believe much good will come to the mission from the presence here of the sisters from Utah.” See “Sisters in the Brisish [sic] Mission,” Deseret Weekly, May 28, 1898, 23.

[14] “A Letter from Bristol,” Millennial Star, July 28, 1898, 476.

[15] “Our First Lady Missionaries,” Millennial Star, July 28, 1898, 472–73.

[16] Military and civilian death tolls from the First World War vary widely. See John Spencer Bassett, A Short History of the United States, 1492–1920 (New York: Macmillan, 1921), 873–78; Martin Gilbert, The First World War: A Complete History, 2nd ed. (New York: Henry Holt, 1994), xxi; and “Source List and Detailed Death Tolls for the Primary Megadeaths of the Twentieth Century,” http://necrometrics.com/20c5m.htm.

[17] 2011 Church Almanac, 189.

[18] “Missionary Seized by French Is held as a Spy,” Uintah Basic Standard, September 1, 1914, 10; “L.D.S. Missionaries Reach London After Trouble in War,” Salt Lake Telegram, September 29, 1914, 1; “Missionaries are Regarded as Spies,” Salt Lake Tribune, November 11, 1914; and “Missionaries Flee Angry Mob; Stoned,” Salt Lake Tribune, September 9, 1914.

[19] “Mormon Missionaries in European War Zone Now,” Salt Lake Telegram, August 4, 1914, 14.

[20] Joseph F. Smith, “Conference Report,” Improvement Era, November 1914, 74–75.

[21] “To Withdraw Missionaries from European Countries,” Mount Pleasant Pyramid, September 11, 1914, 5; “President Hyrum M. Smith Writes Feelingly of European Situation,” Box Elder News Journal, September 24, 1914, 5; “Church Will Send No Missionaries,” Salt Lake Tribune, August 8, 1914, 16; “Hundred Mormon Missionaries Land at Quebec,” Salt Lake Telegram, September 26, 1914, 10; “Many Missionaries Arrive in Quebec,” Salt Lake Tribune, September 27, 1914; “Missionaries Are Out of War Zone,” Salt Lake Tribune, October 2, 1914, 14; and James Perry, “British Latter-day Saints in the Great War, 1914–1918,” Journal of Mormon History 44, no. 3 (July 2018): 71. See also James I. Mangum, “The Influence of the First World War on The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (master’s thesis, Brigham Young University, 1981), 75–95.

[22] “Salt Lake Men Receive Draft Call,” Salt Lake Tribune, July 31, 1917, 1.

[23] “Church Now Names Young Missionaries: Ages of Youths Recently Called Range from 18 to 20 Years,” Salt Lake Tribune, May 22, 1917, 7. “Mormon Missionaries Exempt from Draft,” Beaver County News, August 3, 1917.

[24] “German Spies in India Take Role of Mormon Missionaries,” Salt Lake Telegram, August 1, 1917, 1.

[25] “Call for Missionaries, February 10, 1919,” in James R. Clark, ed., Messages of the First Presidency, vol. 5 (Salt Lake City, Bookcraft, 1971), 118; and 2011 Church Almanac, 189.

[26] See “West German Mission manuscript history and historical reports,” vol. 1 (1939–1944), LR 10045 2, Church History Library, Salt Lake City. For a detailed discussion of missionary evacuations at the beginning of World War II, see David A. Boone, “The Worldwide Evacuation of Latter-day Saint Missionaries at the Beginning of World War II” (master’s thesis, Brigham Young University, 1981).

[27] See Joseph F. Boone, “The Roles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Relation to the United States Military, 1900–1975” (PhD diss., Brigham Young University, 1975), and Church History in the Fulness of Times, 522–34.

[28] “L.D.S. Call 28 Missionaries from France, Transfer 21 to Duty in Switzerland,” Salt Lake Tribune, September 6, 1939, 2.

[29] “LDS Leaders Get Draft Deferment,” Salt Lake Telegram, October 29, 1941, 15.

[30] “LDS Missionaries in Hawaiian Islands Total 129; Presidents and Families Also Residing There,” Salt Lake Telegram, December 8, 1941.

[31] “Circular Letter, December 23, 1941,” in James R. Clark, ed., Messages of the First Presidency, vol. 6 (Salt Lake City, Bookcraft, 1975), 141.

[32] Boone, Worldwide Evacuation, chapters 2–15, 238.

[33] “Missionaries Get Warning,” Salt Lake Telegram, March 6, 1941, 10.

[34] “Older Couples Replace Youths in LDS Missionary Fields,” Salt Lake Telegram, January 7, 1944, 17.

[35] Church History in the Fulness of Times, 522–34. See also Joseph F. Boone dissertation.

[36] 2011 Church Almanac, 189; and “End of War Brings New Drive to LDS Missionary Program,” Salt Lake Telegram, April 4, 1947.

[37] “War Duty Calls Cut Roster of LDS Envoys,” Salt Lake Telegram, August 29, 1950, 15; “Draft Slows LDS Calls,” Salt Lake Telegram, September 2, 1950; and “Services to Exempt LDS Envoys,” Salt Lake Telegram, October 10, 1950, 10.

[38] “Regulations on Calling of Missionaries of Draft Age, October 20, 1950,” in Clark, Messages of the First Presidency, vol. 6.

[39] “Prospective Missionaries of Draft-Age Need ‘Clearance,’” Vernal Express, January 25, 1951, 6; “LDS Church Reveals New Envoy Plan,” Salt Lake Telegram,January 31, 1951, 13.

[40] “347 LDS Missionaries Released from Home,” Salt Lake Tribune, February 1, 1951, 1; “LDS President Concerned Over Red Attitude Toward Christianity,” Salt Lake Telegram, April 26, 1951, 21.

[41] “Mission Problem Is Stressed in Quarterly Conference,” Iron County [Utah] Record, November 1, 1951, 12.

[42] This change affected “men in the following classifications: 1-A, 1-SC and 2-SC (college deferment categories) and 1-D (members of the ROTC, National Guard and Reserve Units). As in the past, young men may be called who are classified 4-F (physically unfit for military service), 1-C (discharged servicemen or reserves), 4-A (veterans), 4-C (aliens) and 5-A (overage).” “New Change in Draft Policy for Missionaries,” San Juan Record, July 23, 1953, 1.

[43] 2011 Church Almanac, 189.

[44] “L.D.S. Church Can Now Call A Few Missionaries,” Manti Messenger, August 7, 1953, 1.

[45] 2011 Church Almanac, 189.

[46] “Selective Service System Restricts Missionary Calls,” Daily Utah Chronicle (University of Utah), September 27, 1965, 2.

[47] “New Regulations Bring Two Back from Missions,” Springville Herald, September 30, 1965, 3.

[48] “Time Line: Missions and Missionaries Research Guide,” https://history.churchofjesuschrist.org/training/library/missions-and-missionaries-research-guide/timeline.

[49] “U Students File Suit for Unfair Draft Classification,” Daily Utah Chronicle,May 6, 1968, 6; “Religion Deferments at Issue,” Daily Utah Chronicle,February 23, 1970, 1.

[50] “Petition Granted to Test Missionaries’ Deferments,” Provo Semi-Weekly Herald, February 15, 1970, 4.

[51] “State Seeks to Dismiss Suit Against Alleged Mormon Missionary Draft Preferential Treatment,” Provo Daily Herald, April 8, 1970, 2.

[52] “Mormon Missionaries in Saigon Reported Safe,” Provo Daily Herald, March 24, 1975, 8; “Missionaries in Saigon Moved Out,” Provo Daily Herald, April 3, 1975, 16.

[53] “Draft Would Not Spare Students or Husbands,” Daily Utah Chronicle, January 11–13, 1991, 1, 3.

[54] Gordon B. Hinckley, “The Times in Which We Live,” Ensign, April 2001, 72–74.

[55] Jessie Hyde, “LDS Missions Unaffected—for Now,” Deseret News, March 19, 2003.

[56] Ezra Taft Benson, in Conference Report, April 1945, 108–9, quoted in Church History in the Fulness of Times.

[57] Ray C. Hillam and David M. Andrews, “Mormons and Foreign Policy,” BYU Studies 25, no. 1 (Winter 1985): 57–73.

[58] See, for example, William B. Allred, “Not Weary in Well-Doing: The Missionary Role of LDS Servicemen in Occupied Japan, 1945–1953,” Journal of Mormon History 46, no. 3 (July 2020): 60–76.

[59] Gordon B. Hinckley, in Conference Report, April 1968, 24.

[60] Address by President Spencer W. Kimball to Regional Representatives of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, September 29, 1978, quoted in Hillam and Andrews.

[61] Alfred C. Rees, in Conference Report, October 1939, 73.

[62] Facsimile 1 from the Book of Abraham was the cover story for that Times and Seasons issue. “Church History,” Times and Seasons, March 1, 1842, 709; emphasis added.