When will the Church acknowledge the harm?

[yellowstone123]

When will the LDS church acknowledge the harm caused by those who believe they have the truth?

Can we talk about post traumatic stress disorder and situations that might lead to that:

I came home from my mission after two months in late 1980. Unkind things were said to me from ward members.

I make a mistake and that night I go to the Bishop. I am called to a disciplinary hearing. I walk into the high council room to be met by the stake President, his two counselors, 12 high council members, and the stake clerk who is running the reel to reel tape recorder with a large microphone to speak into. My Bishop shows up to support me. I tell everything and I was put on formal probation.

Three months later, I make more mistakes. I’m scheduled for an interview with the 2nd counselor of the stake presidency for a probation update. When he hears me, he says that people that did that in the Book of Mormon times were cast out. Immediately another court is set with 16 people, my bishop does not attend, I say what happen and they ask me to leave the room for a couple minutes. I’m called back into the room. The stake presidency says excommunication is the call. I leave and cry for an hour in the bathroom, repeatedly telling god to kill me. I keep saying, I’m tired of being hurt - super bullies. I’m still 19.

During the next year I isolate, unable to study, poor relationships, sit in the back row alone, my world is falling apart. I have times I just sit and cry, other times I pick out a specific place to shoot myself.

I wasn’t married but excommunication can bring divorce and all sorts of problems. A recent film maker doing a story for PBS on Mormons said excommunication is barbaric.

John Larsen said life is hard enough without Mormonism. If my friends from my street, all born in the early 60s, saw me sobbing in the bathroom asking god to kill me, they would have surrounded me, took me home and checked on me multiple times during the day. No such thing from the church.

[BeNotDeceived]

Sounds like there was more going on than simply coming home from a mission if ex-communication was in the offing. You don't get ex'd for simply coming home early from a mission. But to treat a young man or woman like this for coming home early is absolutely disgusting. I guess Christ was an authoritarian and disciplinarian according to the behavior of the SP and HC12 for not following in lockstep with the demands of a fraudulent religion. The FP should have had a disciplinary court for the SP and HC12 over this but I guarantee that would never happen.

[Wonhyo]

I'm sorry, yellowstone123, for what you've gone through with the church. Believers are often more interested in boundary maintenance and in separation from those whom they deem "unworthy" than they are in applying the spirit of compassion, which their religions ostensibly teach. I don't think that the church, which is generally run by strident believers top-to-bottom, is ready to acknowledge the harm that its boundary maintenance has caused over many decades.

[yellowstone123]

Maybe I wasn’t clear. That’s normal. The first “mistake” I made was months after I came home, likely, March 1981, the next was April or June of 1981. The excommunication was July of 1981.

[Tacenda]

When will the LDS church acknowledge the harm caused by those who believe they have the truth?

Can we talk about post traumatic stress disorder and situations that might lead to that:

I came home from my mission after two months in late 1980. Unkind things were said to me from ward members.

I make a mistake and that night I go to the Bishop. I am called to a disciplinary hearing. I walk into the high council room to be met by the stake President, his two counselors, 12 high council members, and the stake clerk who is running the reel to reel tape recorder with a large microphone to speak into. My Bishop shows up to support me. I tell everything and I was put on formal probation.

Three months later, I make more mistakes. I’m scheduled for an interview with the 2nd counselor of the stake presidency for a probation update. When he hears me, he says that people that did that in the Book of Mormon times were cast out. Immediately another court is set with 16 people, my bishop does not attend, I say what happen and they ask me to leave the room for a couple minutes. I’m called back into the room. The stake presidency says excommunication is the call. I leave and cry for an hour in the bathroom, repeatedly telling god to kill me. I keep saying, I’m tired of being hurt - super bullies. I’m still 19.

During the next year I isolate, unable to study, poor relationships, sit in the back row alone, my world is falling apart. I have times I just sit and cry, other times I pick out a specific place to shoot myself.

I wasn’t married but excommunication can bring divorce and all sorts of problems. A recent film maker doing a story for PBS on Mormons said excommunication is barbaric.

John Larsen said life is hard enough without Mormonism. If my friends from my street, all born in the early 60s, saw me sobbing in the bathroom asking god to kill me, they would have surrounded me, took me home and checked on me multiple times during the day. No such thing from the church.

Heartbreaking! I'm so sorry you had this happen. This is something I think could stand in a court of law, possibly, to convict those that did this. Oh wait, religious freedom. The church is immune from apologizing which spells vile hypocrisy.

[yellowstone123]

Thanks Tacenda. I sure my Protestant and Catholic friends on the street would have visited me a couple times a day, if they thought that's what was needed. I'm glad that I didn't take my life the way I planned to. There is still a lot of happiness and joy in this world, especially in literature with some great films in the 90s. And my work was kind of dangerous, but very fulfilling helping people, which brings a lot of fond memories.