Keywords

latter-day saints, cross-cultural attitudes, returned missionaries

Abstract

To examine the effect of the mission experience upon attitudes towards members of different cultures, 273 recently returned LDS missionaries and 493 LDS college students who had not yet served missions were administered measures of racial attitudes. Subsequently, the highest and lowest fifth of missionaries who had served in non-English speaking nations were interviewed. Results indicated that the missionaries did differ from the non-missionary sample in their racial attitudes and that several key qualitative pre-mission and mission experiences distinguished between the two groups interviewed. Prejudice, with its attendant train of evil, is giving way before the force of truth, whose benign rays are penetrating the nations afar off. (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 1976, p. 184)

Original Publication Citation

Smith, T. B., Roberts, R. N., & Kerr, B. T. (1996). On the cross-cultural attitudes and experiences of recently returned LDS missionaries. AMCAP Journal, 22, 119-133.