Mormon Missionaries In Mexico Lure Children With Promises Of Food, Attempt To Baptize Them Without Parental Consent


Four Mormon missionaries in Anáhuac, Chihuahua, Mexico were detained last Thursday night after they attempted to baptize three local children without parental knowledge or consent. According to a report by The Salt Lake Tribune, the Mormon missionaries in Mexico were all from other states in Mexico, and they apparently had plans to baptize three minor brothers, two 11-year-olds and a 9-year-old, without consulting the children’s parent(s).

According to the boy’s father, the Mormon missionaries lured the children to a local church with promises of food. Once they were there, the four Mexican Mormon missionaries then urged the boys to take off their clothing and put on baptismal garments. It was at that point that the young children became frightened by the intentions of the Mormon missionaries and ran away from the church to tell their parents what happened.

There have been no reports regarding whether or not the Mormon missionaries fed the young children as they’d promised to do.

According to Commander César Estrada Ruiz with the Policía Seccional de Anáhuac, local residents were absolutely appalled and outraged when they heard about the actions of the Mormon missionaries in Mexico. The local anger was so great that police opted to attend Sunday Mormon services at the church in question to prevent outraged local residents from potentially harming church members in retaliation for the unconscionable actions of the Mormon missionaries.

After the boys escaped the unauthorized baptism attempt and ran home to tell their parents about the incident, the children’s father reported the disturbing details to local law enforcement. At that point, police in Mexico took the Mormon missionaries involved in the attempted forcible baptism of the children into custody.

The Mormon missionaries were released from Mexican police custody within a few hours because they had committed no crime, despite their disturbing attempt to baptize children into the Mormon religion without the knowledge or consent of their parents.

According to Commander César Estrada Ruiz, local Mormon church leaders were unaware of the missionaries’ planned unethical baptism attempt. According to Mormon church leaders, all baptisms require not just parental knowledge but express parental consent. The commander of the local police in Mexico also reported to the media that a representative of the Mormon church in Mexico assured the police that the offending Mormon missionaries will be removed from the area in Mexico.

The news of the Mormon missionary’s attempts to baptize the young boys into the Mormon church without the knowledge or permission of their parents spread among locals relatively quickly, and according to reports, community members were “bothered” by the event to such an extent that local police opted to attend Sunday church service to protect the local Mormons from “harassment.”

mormon missionaries
[Photo by George Frey/Getty Images]
A spokesman for the Mormon church, Eric Hawkins, did not comment on the actions of the local missionaries as of Saturday night. According to Hawkins, he needed time to contact local church leaders in Mexico to “hear their side of the matter.”

The news of the Mormon missionaries in Mexico attempting to baptize small children without their parents’ knowledge and/or consent came just days after news broke that the Mormon Church is facing a fourth child sex abuse lawsuit. The Mormon Church was hit with the fourth lawsuit is only the latest in a series to be filed against the Mormon Church in relation to the church’s “Lamenite Placement Program.” That program, which was utilized by the Mormon Church decades ago, was designed to match Native American (known as Lamenites in the Mormon religion) children with “wholesome Mormon families” to be brought up in the Mormon faith.

To date, four people who were once child members of the Mormon Church’s former Lamenite Placement Program have filed lawsuits against the Mormon Church alleging that they were repeatedly molested by members of their Mormon host families as part of the program. In addition, the alleged Mormon Church sex abuse victims allege that they reported their abuse to leaders in the Mormon Church who did nothing to protect them, nothing to stop the abuse, and never reported their abuse claims to law enforcement or other authorities.

What do you think? Were the Mexican authorities correct to arrest the Mormon missionaries in Mexico for attempting to baptize children without their parents’ knowledge and/or consent?

[Photo by George Frey/Getty Images]

Share this article: Mormon Missionaries In Mexico Lure Children With Promises Of Food, Attempt To Baptize Them Without Parental Consent
More from Inquisitr