The LDS church wants journalism to reform

[Marcus]

It makes me wonder if non-lds reporters fully understand the lack of confidentiality in lds interactions. For the lds church to make the argument now, in the face of past policy that specifically goes against keeping confessions confidential seems ludicrous.

[Dr Moore]

It makes me wonder if non-lds reporters fully understand the lack of confidentiality in lds interactions. For the lds church to make the argument now, in the face of past policy that specifically goes against keeping confessions confidential seems ludicrous.

Bet they will as the stories come out and journalists dig further.

Police are the LAST people to find out a ward's dirtiest secrets.

Like the bishop in my ward who texted inappropriately with one of the young women. This was reported to the SP. Everyone knew about it this insanely inappropriate grooming, except authorities. Bishop was never punished - SP reasoned it would traumatize the ward too much. Bishop moved. Girl is now inactive and still tells friends she feels betrayed by church leadership.

[IHAQ]

It’s interesting that, in producing an apologetic for the Bishops lack of action in the Adam’s case, Jacob Hess fails to acknowledge that he believes these Bishops are endowed with a special power of discernment. The question Hess needs to answer is why the Bishops, if indeed they weren’t aware of continuing or multiple occasions of abuse, why they didn’t discern that that was a significant abuse problem in that home. Where was that discernment, where was the promptings of the Holy Spirit during those Bishops confidential confessionals and private moments of reflection and prayer?

Did either of these Bishops witness signs of current abuse happening? In a sworn deposition, John Herrod said the following about his prior knowledge of the perpetrator:

In late 2011, within the privacy of the Bishop’s office, Paul Adams made a confidential confession to me in my role as Bishop. What Paul Adams confessed to me was a one-time incident that had not reoccurred. I never observed Paul Adams abusing or behaving inappropriately in any way toward his children, nor did I see any physical indications or visible signs that he was abusing them.

This was confirmed in the interview conducted by Edwards, who asked him on the bishop’s doorstep, “I just wanted to get the record straight … did you have any belief that Paul was doing anything like this? Did you have any signs? Was there anything weird that stood out to you, maybe while he was in the congregation? In church? Anything anybody spoke to you about?”

Herrod responded: “No”—apart from “what may have passed between him and I confidentially as a Bishop” [referring to the limited confession above]. Herrod then reiterated: “There was nothing. I mean, you know, people would say, ‘He’s kind of weird … I wonder what he’s doing,’ but there were no accusations or anything else.”

Edwards continued to inquire: “Okay. So—so nobody ever—you know, none of the other individuals in the Church came and said they had seen something.”

Herrod: “No. No.”

https://publicsquaremag.org/sexuality-f ... -evidence/

Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles has taught that the gift of discernment can help us (1) “detect hidden error and evil in others,” (2) “detect hidden errors and evil in ourselves,” (3) “find and bring forth the good that may be concealed in others,” and (4) “find and bring forth the good that may be concealed in us” (“Quick to Observe,” Liahona, Dec. 2006, 19).

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/stu ... t?lang=eng

27 And unto the bishop of the church, and unto such as God shall appoint and ordain to watch over the church and to be elders unto the church, are to have it given unto them to discern all those gifts lest there shall be any among you professing and yet be not of God.

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/stu ... 6?lang=eng

[mcjathan]

Like the bishop in my ward who texted inappropriately with one of the young women. This was reported to the SP. Everyone knew about it this insanely inappropriate grooming, except authorities. Bishop was never punished - SP reasoned it would traumatize the ward too much. Bishop moved. Girl is now inactive and still tells friends she feels betrayed by church leadership.

This goes to the heart of one very important dynamic in Mormonism that leads to cover-up after cover-up. What is the SPs reasoning that it would traumatize the ward too much? The unspoken dirty secret here is that to shine a light on this bishop's grooming is to also shine a light on the lack of this SP's discernment in calling this bishop in the first place. Pull on this thread too much and so much of Mormonism unravels.

[Doctor Steuss]

and the guy the ap article is about was excommunicated, which means multiple people also knew then, right?

If it was via a ward council, it would have been the Bishop, the ward clerk, and the two counselors, at the very least, who were also aware of all of the evidence/issues.

Based on what it was for (and if the predator was endowed), it's more likely it was a stake council. So, it would have been (again, at the very least) the Stake President, the SP's two counselors, and most likely the Bishop. Could have possibly also been the stake high council, but I doubt it.

Purely speculative, but I'd be shocked if the full bishopric didn't know prior to any type of disciplinary hearing. There's also a solid chance the Relief Society President was aware of at least generalities.

It's absolutely impossible, especially when a membership council was held, that the Bishop (and the lawyers at the hotline) were the only ones who knew of the abuse, and made the conscious choice to not report it. There were others; and they all chose to do nothing. And none of them can pretend to hide behind a non-existent priest–penitent privilege.

[Dr Moore]

Like the bishop in my ward who texted inappropriately with one of the young women. This was reported to the SP. Everyone knew about it this insanely inappropriate grooming, except authorities. Bishop was never punished - SP reasoned it would traumatize the ward too much. Bishop moved. Girl is now inactive and still tells friends she feels betrayed by church leadership.

This goes to the heart of one very important dynamic in Mormonism that leads to cover-up after cover-up. What is the SPs reasoning that it would traumatize the ward too much? The unspoken dirty secret here is that to shine a light on this bishop's grooming is to also shine a light on the lack of this SP's discernment in calling this bishop in the first place. Pull on this thread too much and so much of Mormonism unravels.

The reasoning was that forgive & forget would be more healing than dragging this bishop's mistake out in the open. Not only for the ward, but for the bishop's family and kids. (who have all gone inactive, by the way)

In the aftermath of this one incident some 5 years ago, doubts regarding the gift of discernment continue to fester in the ward. I had lunch with a counselor in the bishopric just 3 days ago. He freely accepts there's no inspiration in callings or, for that matter, most of what he does. He sees it as administrative service, social caring, nothing more.

So the roles of our bishop and SP (both different people vs 5yr ago) are effectively neutered when it comes to asserting the "inspiration" clause about anything. Aside from maybe 4-5 ultra Mormon families, no one listens to the bishop or SP with deference anymore. I see more people refuse callings or accept callings only with clear time and control boundaries. Callings go unfilled, or more commonly are filled by multiple people who split responsibility. People refuse short-notice invitations to speak in sac meeting or give lessons. Pushback on the bishopric to plan in advance and be clear about expectations, budgets and latitude for lesson material is stronger. Quite a few of our friends have stopped trying to drag their kids to church. Many more skipped tithing settlement in recent years, replacing that family-bishop interaction with a simple email or text message. So much about the mystique of the role of bishop or SP are gone here. They're just guys, no special powers.

The best thing I've seen is that women stand up more firmly to the bishopric. Our ward now has a member of the RS presidency sitting on the stand next to the bishopric every Sunday. That isn't a church thing - far as I'm aware. I see women leaders in the ward going toe to toe with the bishop on all sorts of things. A few months ago, the bishop wanted to discuss the law of chastity with the young women. Our YW leaders flatly said no, not invited, not doing any purity or chastity lessons. And that was that. The lesson didn't happen.