Mormons Make Great FBI Recruits

I worked with an ex-Mormon guy for about a year or so who was an ex-CIA contractor. He said there are a lot Mormons in the CIA as well and they called it the "Mormon Mafia" (mostly in a joking manner). So when he'd meet new people within the CIA who were Mormon they would sometimes ask him, "Mormon Mafia?", if they suspected he was Mormon.

This guy did his mission in Russia and speaks Russian... so there you go. He had some crazy stories about doing mission work in Russia. He was almost killed several times.

Note that “mission” in the parent comment likely refers the practice of certain Christian sects that send out evangelists to proselytize in another geographic area. It probably is not referring to CIA operations.

(Posting this because there is a dead peer comment that seems to have misunderstood).

The LDS church specifically has a practice where many young LDS members go on a "mission" for two years. In fact it is so common that almost every LDS member would understand the phrase "[a specific person]'s mission" to refer to that two year mission for proselytizing.

This is how I interpreted the OP as well. Just replying to supply the word "missionary" in case it helps anyone make the connection.

Yeah but this site probably isn't composed of mostly Mormons

Thanks for the clarification. I'm not an American, so when I read that he was working for CIA and had been on missions in Russia (nearly got killed) without any context, and I assumed the worst.

This completely changes the meaning and makes more sense

As a member of the church that also served a mission in Russia, this all checks out. Putin's government and the Russian Orthodox church were incredibly brutal towards outside religions.

I would guess that they are 'brutal' (your word) towards evangelical religions, which does make sense if they want to protect their culture that is linked to the Russian Orthodox church. I don't imagine they are 'brutal' towards Buddhism, for example, which isn't evangelical (i.e. doesn't send out missionaries and only teaches its religion to those who express an interest by themselves).

I lived in Ulan Ude, a predominantly Buddhist town and province of Russia near Lake Baikal. Lots of people, when asked their faith, would say "shamanism". But that was a cultural hint and misnomer. People would practice their religion out in the woods or travel to the large Buddhist temple outside of town because most public officials and the Russian Orthodox church did not allow for Buddhism practices in town.

When I was in Omsk I listened to a man testify that the Russian Orthodox church was good because Father Oleg the local priest had a man killed because he was trying to collect a debt on a member of the church.

> because most public officials and the Russian Orthodox church did not allow for Buddhism practices in town

This is total bs. For one, it is always super fun to see how slavic-supremacist types get butthurt over being unable to do anything about religious holidays of other ethnicities.

And look, you've even ad-hoc'ed a dark unrelated anecdote. Pushing agenda much?

In what way? I regularly get to enjoy pipe organ at a local Catholic Christian church.

I've only heard about controversies regarding Jehovah's Witnesses, but that's the problem nonspecific to Russia.

They are brutal towards proselytizing ones, certainly.