Member of local Bishopric jailed on sex abuse charges

[_mentalgymnast]

Oh you heathens are all the same, What you are failing to take in to account is that his Bishop received a spiritual witness from God to have this man called as his counselor.

He may have. He may not have. If he did, then it goes to show...and not for the first time in history...that God calls upon the weak things of the world in order to accomplish His purposes. If, as the first article seems to be saying, the fellow may not have been in the Bishopric at the time of his misbehavior then it might be that the calling brought him to a position/place of being 'outed'. That's a good thing. As long, of course, as he hasn't been misbehaving in the meantime. It's hard to know all of the variables/factors involved. The fact is, it's good that he was caught and that he now has a chance to repent of his past misbehaviors.

God had obviously already taken this man's pedophilia history into account prior to sending that special witness to the Bishop.

That's a possibility, if indeed the counselor was called through direct inspiration/revelation. That doesn't always happen, I would guess. But again, if he was called through inspiration, it might be that God...knowing the end from the beginning...knew how things were going to pan out. And the fact is, this man now has been brought to justice and also has an opportunity to repent. Not to say that there hasn't been damage done along the way.

Back off this special man...he was called by the Mormon God through revelation and inspiration...

I know I'm repeating myself here, but the fact is...he may have been...or he may not have been.

...and we all know that you can trust a spiritual witness to only confirm what God wants us to know is true...

That makes sense. But the question remains...how MUCH does God "want us to know"? I don't think that God is under any obligation to fully disclose anything to us.

That would take all the fun out of living. I think we need to struggle a bit.

...cuz God does not lie.

I think we can agree on this.

Regards,
MG

[_cwald]

OMG.

[_Lemmie]

OMG.

omg is right. Did he just argue that, out of compassion for the pedophile, the Mormon god inspired an lds leader to call him to a leadership position so that he could sexually assault a child and get caught, thereby giving the pedophile an opportunity to repent? Couldn't he have just planted a picture on the guy's computer and tipped off the authorities?

This is where this bizarre need to believe leads, to the explanation that god purposefully calls pedophiles to be Mormon leaders. omg indeed.

[_Shulem]

OMG.

omg is right. Did he just argue that, out of compassion for the pedophile, the Mormon god inspired an lds leader to call him to a leadership position so that he could sexually assault a child and get caught, thereby giving the pedophile an opportunity to repent? Couldn't he have just planted a picture on the guy's computer and tipped off the authorities?

This is where this bizarre need to believe leads, to the explanation that god purposefully calls pedophiles to be Mormon leaders. omg indeed.

Yep, the board troll just advocated for sanctioned child molestation under the guise that Jesus' drippy blood needed something really good to forgive. So, Heavenly Father lined up and blessed a child molester to become one of his leaders so he could do a little number on kids.

Folks, Mormonism is nothing but a rabbit hole wherein you will become lost once you venture therein.

[_Kishkumen]

Absolutely disgusting.

I've said it before, and I will say it again:

I might have raised my kids in the LDS Church. But even before the November Policy happened, I had already decided not to because of incidents like this one.

I cannot condone a system that regularly subjects young people to authoritarian grilling on private sexual matters behind closed doors and without supervision.

Period.

So, my wife and I told the kids they could decide to join the LDS Church if they wanted when they turned 18. We sure as hell weren't going to submit them to this system voluntarily in their childhood years.

I signed the petition to get this practice stopped. I doubt it will do any good, but I don't care. This is the kind of thing people of good conscience should take a stand against.

I get it, most good LDS leaders are not pedophiles. But, unfortunately, anyone can roll the dice and get a bad egg. The Church makes it too easy for that bad egg to hide and do a helluva lot of damage, and then the Church even makes it difficult for law enforcement to pursue legal action against the perpetrator.

So no. Just no. And no.

[_Kishkumen]

OMG.

omg is right. Did he just argue that, out of compassion for the pedophile, the Mormon god inspired an lds leader to call him to a leadership position so that he could sexually assault a child and get caught, thereby giving the pedophile an opportunity to repent? Couldn't he have just planted a picture on the guy's computer and tipped off the authorities?

This is where this bizarre need to believe leads, to the explanation that god purposefully calls pedophiles to be Mormon leaders. omg indeed.

What a fecal stain. OK. He's over for me. Blocked.

[_Kishkumen]

And done. Zero tolerance for that BS.

[_mentalgymnast]

...out of compassion for the pedophile[/i], the Mormon god inspired an LDS leader to call him to a leadership position so that he could sexually assault a child and get caught, thereby giving the pedophile an opportunity to repent?

I think it gets a bit more complex than this. Bad things are going to happen because people do stupid things. It's a fact. We live in a fallen world. No one, including me, is condoning a Bishop's counselor engaging and/or choosing to do something stupid and committing and/or acting out in sinful behavior (although I don't think we know that it happened after he'd been called). Neither does God, I would expect. The question in my mind is whether or not we can/should expect God to step in every time something is going awry in the world...or His church. I've mentioned this repeatedly on this board. Of course we would like him to...so that the world would be a happier place without sin/evil/mishap. But people make bad choices. Even after...or before...having been given permission/authorization to function as a servant within God's kingdom/church. It IS unfortunate. But it IS the reality that this is a risk when good people fall prey to temptation/sin.

If I'm reading this news article correctly, it sounds like this man was becoming suicidal at the time he was caught and knew that his past sins had come back to haunt him. It may also be the case that if this man had committed the evil/sin before he was called to be a Bishop's counselor that he had been forgiven by the Lord and had repented...but the the effects/consequences of the sin are coming back to bite him.

We don't know the full story. I'd rather err on the side of God's justice and mercy rather than being the sole arbiter and judge of this man and the dealings and/or past dealings of the Lord with him.

One way or the other the sinner always pays for their sins...on that point I think most of us would agree.

Regards,
MG

[Guest]

Oh you heathens are all the same, What you are failing to take in to account is that his Bishop received a spiritual witness from God to have this man called as his counselor.

He may have. He may not have. If he did, then it goes to show...and not for the first time in history...that God calls upon the weak things of the world in order to accomplish His purposes. If, as the first article seems to be saying, the fellow may not have been in the Bishopric at the time of his misbehavior then it might be that the calling brought him to a position/place of being 'outed'. That's a good thing. As long, of course, as he hasn't been misbehaving in the meantime. It's hard to know all of the variables/factors involved. The fact is, it's good that he was caught and that he now has a chance to repent of his past misbehaviors.

God had obviously already taken this man's pedophilia history into account prior to sending that special witness to the Bishop.

That's a possibility, if indeed the counselor was called through direct inspiration/revelation. That doesn't always happen, I would guess. But again, if he was called through inspiration, it might be that God...knowing the end from the beginning...knew how things were going to pan out. And the fact is, this man now has been brought to justice and also has an opportunity to repent. Not to say that there hasn't been damage done along the way.

Back off this special man...he was called by the Mormon God through revelation and inspiration...

I know I'm repeating myself here, but the fact is...he may have been...or he may not have been.

...and we all know that you can trust a spiritual witness to only confirm what God wants us to know is true...

That makes sense. But the question remains...how MUCH does God "want us to know"? I don't think that God is under any obligation to fully disclose anything to us.

That would take all the fun out of living. I think we need to struggle a bit.

...cuz God does not lie.

I think we can agree on this.

Regards,
MG

TLDR: According to MG "God Loves Pediphiles"

[_Dr Exiled]

Oh you heathens are all the same, What you are failing to take in to account is that his Bishop received a spiritual witness from God to have this man called as his counselor.

He may have. He may not have. If he did, then it goes to show...and not for the first time in history...that God calls upon the weak things of the world in order to accomplish His purposes. If, as the first article seems to be saying, the fellow may not have been in the Bishopric at the time of his misbehavior then it might be that the calling brought him to a position/place of being 'outed'. That's a good thing. As long, of course, as he hasn't been misbehaving in the meantime. It's hard to know all of the variables/factors involved. The fact is, it's good that he was caught and that he now has a chance to repent of his past misbehaviors.

God had obviously already taken this man's pedophilia history into account prior to sending that special witness to the Bishop.

That's a possibility, if indeed the counselor was called through direct inspiration/revelation. That doesn't always happen, I would guess. But again, if he was called through inspiration, it might be that God...knowing the end from the beginning...knew how things were going to pan out. And the fact is, this man now has been brought to justice and also has an opportunity to repent. Not to say that there hasn't been damage done along the way.

Back off this special man...he was called by the Mormon God through revelation and inspiration...

I know I'm repeating myself here, but the fact is...he may have been...or he may not have been.

...and we all know that you can trust a spiritual witness to only confirm what God wants us to know is true...

That makes sense. But the question remains...how MUCH does God "want us to know"? I don't think that God is under any obligation to fully disclose anything to us.

That would take all the fun out of living. I think we need to struggle a bit.

...cuz God does not lie.

I think we can agree on this.

Regards,
MG

The wrong roads story was just plain wrong. The problem is systemic and lies with the church and its faulty practices of using feelings to determine leadership when brains should be used instead. The bishop made a mistake and dealing with these remote possibilities in order to privilege the church just compounds the problem.