The Naughty American has an interesting post about Chad Hardy’s spoof site (well it started as a spoof and gag) and ex-missionary calendar featuring, well of course, buff Missionaries! Chad’s site is mormonsexposed.com, and features photos of the buff former missionaries posing for his calendar, meant to donate portions of the proceeds to charity . . .umm.
It sounds like a pretty clever and kind of funny thing. The site is rather complete, including an FAQ page, shopping cart, and a meat meet the missionaries section. Hey, it even has a page for auditions. I’m thinking maybe some in the bloggernacle ought to apply. Steve Evans, Kaimi, or maybe Nate Oman, or Kevin Barney, or hey . . . how bout that Adam Greenwood character? Better yet, I think we should have a bloggernacle calendar. Maybe the gals over at fMh could head that up. Though I have to say, the Missionary Calendar Chad is putting out is quite sexist. I saw no Sister Missionaries. Maybe the fMh’ers could help us with that as well? 
September 13, 2007 at 2:31 pm
I’m so glad to hear this is a spoof! Call me gullible, but I’ve seen enough LDS kitch to have thought this was a real project, put together by some very disturbing member of the LDS church who thought it was a good idea.
September 13, 2007 at 2:49 pm
Nick, I think it actually started as a spoof and a gag; but, now I think it’s going full throttle. It may be exactly what you describe.
September 14, 2007 at 6:34 am
Oh, pretty (really, that’s the best adjective for this calendar). Seriously though, it would be awesome if you bloggernacle people auditioned or did something similar.
September 14, 2007 at 6:55 am
Sherpa, Are you volunteering as the first Sister Missionary? That pink panty thing just might get some traction for this sort of thing eh?
September 14, 2007 at 11:11 am
Who knew missionaries were so diligent about waxing their chests?
September 16, 2007 at 1:35 am
There are two things about this that I find disturbing. First, the association of two symbols–the one, the work of the Lord in proclaiming the gospel, the other, sex–in such a way as to tarnish LDS missionary work. Missionary work is something sacred, and ought to be respected as such. “Sacred” means that something is set apart from other things, such as set apart from the world and the sins of the world. By putting up pictures of these guys as missionaries next to pictures of these guys as sex objects, it brings down missionary work to the level of sexual gratification.
The second thing that disturbs me, and disturbs me even more, is that this is done in the name of “charity” and breaking down stereotypes. C$me $n. Wh$’s f$$ling anyb$dy? This really is reminiscent of those mormonunderwear dot com ads that keep popping up on google adsense. It’s a quick eye grabber and has enough shock value and sex appeal to get people to buy it. After all, what with the title “Mormons Exposed,” I don’t think your target audience is interested in building bridges across cultures. Spare me the garbage and talk honest, you evil manipulative business creeps.
If they really wanted to break down stereotypes, they could have taken pictures of these guys in full clothing doing things that normal people do. It might not be calendar material, but if that was your real goal with the project, you wouldn’t mind changing the medium. Breaking down stereotypes, what load of اذبلي.
September 16, 2007 at 1:26 pm
I just saw a discussion of this calendar on LOGO (a gay-oriented cable television channel). Now, those who are familiar with my posts are probably going to be surprised at my reaction, but yes—I find this calendar VERY disturbing. I’m actually kind of repulsed by the whole idea. If I was still active LDS, I’d be saying each person involved with this calendar (not just the models, but beyond that) should be sitting in front of their respective stake presidents. To me, this calendar is an open repudiation of everything these young men claimed to stand for on their missions.
Maybe it’s just the residual RM in me, but yeah, I think this thing is completely inappropriate.
September 19, 2007 at 10:55 pm
From a inactive member of the LDS church I think this is a good thing. People who go to church that arent perfect are looked down on in church like people who smoke that still go to church. But at least they are going to church. The church should be proud of that person for trying to do whats right. That is the problem with the mormom church is that if your not so called “perfect” your looked down on and are “judged” by members of the LDS chuch that arent supposed to judge others.
July 11, 2008 at 1:46 pm
Wow! I know your beliefs don’t necessarily condone this (I am non LDS) but you are so good looking and at age 60 I do still appreciate this. From all the fuss I thought it was a nude calendar! Times are changing, this is funny!!! I am ordering 10 of these for the ladies in our library! Thanks!!! Keep up the good work.
July 11, 2008 at 4:48 pm
I LOVE IT.
There hot.
i would take lessons from them :]
July 11, 2008 at 10:29 pm
No, this is really sad to me. I grew up in a “Christian” home being sexually abused by “church going” brother and step-father.
Men with two conflicting faces.
Our home was full of images very similar to these. It is not the shirtless abs that repulse me. It is the look in the eyes. Seductive beasts.
I was a young girl when I first met the Mormon Missionaries. For the first time in my life it was not my body, but my soul someone cared about. I felt safe.
This is very disturbing and these young men I hope will realize one day what they have done is very wrong.
I too an a return missionary, my mission is sacred to me. I took serious that I was an ambassador of our Lord Jesus Christ. Striving to have His image in my very countenance.
Would you think it “great”, “wow”, “hot”, if these guys faces were the image of what we believe Christ to look like? Would you feel “Hot” if it were Christ with a waxed down chest and his face staring at you with those wanting eyes from you office wall?
Our bodies ARE beautiful. BUT I hardly think this is how He intended us to worship or honor them, …despite our religious preference.
July 12, 2008 at 1:12 am
Go to the website. If his purpose was really to help people get to know mormons than he wouldn’t be selling t-shirts titled “lots of love t-shirts” that have a picture of one guy holding hands with 6 girls. That isn’t to increase awareness about the church, it promotes ignorance. Especially at a time when many people unfamiliar with mormons associate the FLDS sect with the LDS (mormon) church. Mormon’s don’t practice polygamy.
November 2, 2008 at 2:20 pm
I think this is very wrong. These men know better than that, and I hope they change. I’m going to serve a mission soon, and I hope I can give people the right idea of what LDS missionaries are supposed to be like. Not like this though. It makes me sad too.
December 29, 2008 at 1:34 pm
I don’t know why everyone’s referring to this as a “spoof.” It was quite real, and it cost Hardy is diploma from that joke of a college, BYU.
http://www.northjersey.com/news/nation/31488894.html
December 29, 2008 at 1:35 pm
[Edited--Sheldon, or whatever your name is. If you want to comment on this site, stick with something worth reading. I delete all anti Mormon drivel.]
January 19, 2009 at 9:30 am
I read the comments above. ‘Anon’ is reading her own sad life into the calendar. I’m sorry for her, but I looked carefully at each of the men in “meet the missionaries”, and I did NOT see ‘lustful looks’. Some actually didn’t look all that happy; all seemed serious. And yes, ALL were HOT. As a Jew believing in my own faith, I actually felt that this calendar ‘humanises’ the LDS. When I was in SLC, doing genealogical research (And thank you, even if your reasons for storing all the data seem ‘odd’ to me – the Nazis didn’t just burn the Jews, They burnt our records too. The LDS microfilmed all the Polish Jewish records in 1925, and enables us to research our family histories.), I found it just a bit creepy. I’ve met a lot of LDS in Hawaii and here in Jerusalem, Israel, and this reinforces my feelings of mutual respect between me as a Jew and the guys as LDS. And did I mention that they are all really HOT?
JB Silver
March 17, 2009 at 1:33 pm
I’m not LDS, in fact I’m gay. Yes, they’re very hot, but I do think it is disrespectful. I wouldn’t buy this calendar.
March 18, 2009 at 2:44 pm
Well, I’m Gay too, and I plan to buy both calendars. And I don’t think there is anything disrespectful in them. There are no lascivious (spelling?) poses, and no genitalia visible. And in answer to the person who wanted the lads fully dressed, who would buy that calendar ?! Not I.
The problem is, you don’t ship to Israel. I have a summer home in Ireland, and might wait to order them to there. I feel it is all in the interest of showing that these ‘Saints’ are also flesh & blood. I don’t see the harm. Really.
March 19, 2009 at 3:26 pm
What are the designs in the top righthand corner of each message, and could you please change the one on mine to a design without a cross in the middle? I’d appreciate, not being Christian and all. Thank you.
March 19, 2009 at 3:36 pm
By the way, I have no intention of converting from Traditional
G-D fearing Judaism to Mormonism in particular or Christianity in general, but I’d LOVE almost any one or two of these Hotties coming to my door! Of course, not in Israel, as I understand that the LDS respects countries which request no door to door mission work or proselytisation (Although I’ve received 6 or 7 copies of the Book of Mormon, with a picture of the pretty girl who gave it to me on the inside cover, and who has arrived at my home in Jerusalem with the young Mormon hunk I’d first invited and another girl, for all the world as if we were ‘double-dating’; even when I’ve met a guy on the street and specifically asked that the guy come alone or with another guy… Is this because the young men & women are at BYU Jerusalem?).
August 18, 2010 at 10:42 am
wow. where do I get one?