I know I don't have a large audience, but that doesn't matter. I'm chronicling the events here for my own sake. Thus, I hate to disappoint my small audience in not posting a long tale about today's church events. Needless to say, they are hardly bland or boring. I just can't get into details at this time.
Hence, this Sunday's blog is delayed indefinitely due to me being confronted directly by leadership at church today. They are reading my blog. They know who I am--were, apparently, "inspired" somehow to learn my name. I don't want to jeopardize my MT position or others at MT by discussing any other details. We are being watched. I got a letter from them with my name and numbering my days, unless I stop writing for MT and blogging.
OK I have a question for the priesthood leaders reading this Blog. Don’t you think it’s more important to clean the inner vessel before persecuting the little sheep in your fold? On July 13, 2011 I had a man who is a Facebook friend of mine tell me via Facebook messaging about an experience he had when he was a priesthood leader in charge of a young adult unit. To protect the identity of the victims I'll call him BP as there are many of those in church history. Well a young adult male (we'll call him YM) came in to see BP and told about an experience that happened to him several years earlier. His Bishop in his family ward had gotten a few secret revelations on some new order of holy matrimony and began to do secret marriage ceremonies for certain youth in the ward where he was doing hands-on consummation. In a nutshell the Bishop who was middle-aged was having sex with kids in his Ward who were younger than 16. Well someone quietly told the church authorities above him and the GAs in SLC covered it up bigtime. They ex'ed the Bishop but nothing ever happened in the criminal justice system and some of the parents didn't even know what was going on including the parents of YM. Now YM comes to BP seeking real help and real counseling as he’s been struggling for a few years of all the silence, lack of justice, and lack of counseling. YM wants BP to arrange a phone call for YM with his parents to get it all out in the open and get real help. BP calls YM’s mom and YM’s dad; and dad isn’t home but says he’ll head home right away as BP tells them it’s important for both to be together. In the meantime BP calls the church headquarters hotline for helping priesthood leaders with situations like this and repeats to the General Authority he’s put on the phone with the whole story as YM told BP. About 10 minutes later the 1st Counselor in the First Presidency Thomas S. Monson calls BP and tells him to make sure YM doesn’t talk to his parents. BP disobeys, YM talks to parents, parents call cops, a real investigation ensues, and the Bishop who was ex’ed is now indicted and convicted. In follow up Monson is furious and attends a meeting of the Quorum of the Twelve and instructs them to excommunicate BP. The acting quorum president Boyd K. Packer immediately puts it on the agenda and in order of seniority they express their thoughts and support until one Apostle stands and tells them that years earlier he warned them they had mishandled that situation and that he agreed with what BP had done and that if they excommunicate BP then they might as well excommunicate this Apostle too. As a result the Quorum ended up not pursuing excommunication of BP but he was soon released thereafter. The following men still living were members of the Quorum and participants in that day’s business – Thomas S. Monson, Boyd K. Packer, L. Tom Perry, Russell M. Nelson, Dallin H. Oaks, M. Russell Ballard, Richard G. Scott, Robert D. Hales, Jeffrey R. Holland, and Henry B. Eyring. We all know exactly how the honest people in the world feel about child molesting coverups. Look what happened to Graham Spanier and Joe Paterno at Penn State University.
ReplyDeleteAll this from a FB "friend"? That's quite a story.
DeleteDon't get me wrong, people are people before they are anything else, and many people in general are screwed up, but this seems a little fantastical.
I have my own abuse story involving a Mormon Priesthood leader and my experience when I talked with my Bishop. It isn't as dramatic as this one, but certainly follow suit. I have read a couple of books that shed light on the church covering up very serious sexual abuse situations.
Delete"Leaving the Saints" Martha Beck (Hugh Nibley's daughter)
"The Sins of Brother Curtis" Lisa Davis
Enlightening and disturbing to say the least.
Alex Degaston: The thing I would most like to know from that story is the identity of the Apostle who stood up to be counted and put his own membership on the line to defend that Bishop. I realise you probably can't say, but I'd love to know. Nice to think there's one half-decent person amongst the twelve of them.
ReplyDeleteMormon church is a fraud anyways so really, in the grand scheme of things, it really doesn't matter. Keep fighting the good fight!
ReplyDeleteThank you for posting what you have, explaining as much as you have.
ReplyDeleteTo an outsider, a lot of it seems strange and cultish. But what is a religion other than a successful cult?
I hope you do okay personally. The church will probably kick you out soon enough, for embarrassing them this badly. Good luck!
Poor Brother Dave. If you get ex'd and need a place to go next, might I suggest joining a chess club in order to expose the seedy and bloody historical background of the game? You could also blog about your experiences at the chess club, how checkers rock more, and how everyone freaked out when they found out you were actually anti-chess, but have a lot of chess lovers in your family, so you wanna stay in the club.
ReplyDelete