#ChurchToo 2.0
Posted: Sat Jun 18, 2022 3:26 am
Among the many sad and terrible headlines related to this recent, second surge of #ChurchToo, I will add one that is not in the headlines.
Today I spent time with a good man, from Utah, with several family members who serve senior church roles. He claims that through those family members, he recently learned that the church has paid out roughly $4 billion in hush money to settle cases or to simply make accusations of sexual abuse go away.
If true, if even remotely true, this much money is too large to have been paid out of the annual operating budgets. It would have to have been quietly drawn from investment funds. And if that’s true, then this would mean that the so-called widows mite, the scores of billions saved ostensibly to build thousands of temples or to provide for some un-prophesied 7 years of famine, has actually been used principally to quietly pay off victims of sex abuse within the church. What!?
Does anyone know anything about such large sums paid out in presumably small increments to victims, covered by confidentiality agreements? I imagine it’s like, someone comes forward to a bishop or SP or higher church leader, accuses someone in the ward or stake who’s in a position of authority of some heinous sexual abuse. Initially, it’s he-said, she-said. And rather than put the case out there for other silent victims to come forward, the whole thing is settled for money. And other victims get no justice. Maybe even the perp isn’t prosecuted, who knows?
I know there was the $250 million last year for the boy scouts settlement. But geez. If, just speculating, the church paid out $500k each to settle accusations and cases, such as illustrated above, then $4 billion would cover some 8,000 cases. That’s like 1 for every 3 wards. Not crazy but then again, catastrophically terrible. Anyway, that’s what I heard and the source is someone I believe to be credible.
Today I spent time with a good man, from Utah, with several family members who serve senior church roles. He claims that through those family members, he recently learned that the church has paid out roughly $4 billion in hush money to settle cases or to simply make accusations of sexual abuse go away.
If true, if even remotely true, this much money is too large to have been paid out of the annual operating budgets. It would have to have been quietly drawn from investment funds. And if that’s true, then this would mean that the so-called widows mite, the scores of billions saved ostensibly to build thousands of temples or to provide for some un-prophesied 7 years of famine, has actually been used principally to quietly pay off victims of sex abuse within the church. What!?
Does anyone know anything about such large sums paid out in presumably small increments to victims, covered by confidentiality agreements? I imagine it’s like, someone comes forward to a bishop or SP or higher church leader, accuses someone in the ward or stake who’s in a position of authority of some heinous sexual abuse. Initially, it’s he-said, she-said. And rather than put the case out there for other silent victims to come forward, the whole thing is settled for money. And other victims get no justice. Maybe even the perp isn’t prosecuted, who knows?
I know there was the $250 million last year for the boy scouts settlement. But geez. If, just speculating, the church paid out $500k each to settle accusations and cases, such as illustrated above, then $4 billion would cover some 8,000 cases. That’s like 1 for every 3 wards. Not crazy but then again, catastrophically terrible. Anyway, that’s what I heard and the source is someone I believe to be credible.