Just when you think the Church can't possibly make itself look worse...
https://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/ ... march-2018March 23, 2018
We share the anger and distress Church members and others feel to learn of incidents where those entrusted with sacred responsibilities violate God’s commandments and harm others.
Church members are angry and distressed because you've known about a Mission Presidents rape den in the basement of the MTC for 31 years and you did nothing about it. That knowledge was confirmed multiple times and you did, nothing. It was most recently corroborated in December 2017 by the perpetrator himself and your first thought was cover-up. Then, when it was made public, the first response you gave was "If the allegations are true..." once again attempting t throw the victim under the bus, when you knew damn well Bishop had confessed. You also knew at the point you issued that statement that there was a second confirmed victim.
Such behavior is repulsive and sinful.
Yes, the Church's behaviour is sinful and repulsive. The attempt to cast doubt on the victim when you had the confession of the perpetrator in front of you, is so shameful that the Apostle and General Authority responsible for signing it off should be excommunicated.
The Church is looking into all aspects of the assertions on the recording of Joseph Bishop. This includes the work of outside legal counsel, who are interviewing priesthood leaders, family members, law enforcement officials and others with knowledge of these incidents.
Too little, too late. Are you searching all MTC's? Are you stopping the Priesthood one-to-one interviews of minors and women? No. What did you do in December when you knew he was guilty....tried to cover it up. The only thing you’re looking into now, is how to limit the damage and distance the current General Authorities from it.
We are aware of one other woman (who is referenced in the December recording) who informed her local ecclesiastical leaders that she was sexually abused by Joseph Bishop while he served as president of the Missionary Training Center. When she reported the alleged abuse to her local Church leaders in 2010, they provided emotional support as well as professional counseling services. Mr. Bishop’s local ecclesiastical leaders were contacted and they confronted him with her claims, which he denied, and local leaders did not feel they could pursue church discipline for Mr. Bishop.
What did senior Church leaders feel about that?
On Wednesday, the Church, along with media outlets, received the unredacted police report from BYU Police, which included an admission of inappropriate sexual conduct. We are committed to bringing accountability for what has occurred.
You're still lying. You knew about it in December. You were trying to settle the case quietly so it didn't hit the press. You've know Joseph L Bishop had a rape den in the basement of your MTC for 31 years and only when it hits the press now are you suddenly interested in investigating it fully and bringing the perpetrator to justice.
Sexual abuse cannot be tolerated in the Church.
Not only is it tolerated, as has been demonstrated with Bishop, you facilitate it with your prioritising of PR over member safety. You refuse to end the practice of unrelated male adults interviewing minors and women alone and in private, where they ask them intrusive personal questions of a sexual nature. The only think you are committed to is spending millions of dollars covering up and protecting the perpetrating man at the expense of the girl/woman. One only need look at this case and how you're handling it to see the institution has learned nothing from the BYU blame-the-rape-victim scandal.
And here, in the final paragraph, your true intention comes out once again.
We continue to urge our leaders to take reports of abuse very seriously. Leaders should call the Church's abuse helpline, which has been established to assure that victims are cared for and that abuse reporting laws are strictly obeyed.
What about encouraging any other victims of any Church Leader to call an abuse helpline? Why aren't you doing that? What qualifications and training do local leaders have to equip them for this type of thing? What does a victim do when the local leader IS the perpetrator?
You are such an incompetent, disingenuous and morally bankrupt institution that it beggars belief that Jesus has anything to do with you.
Tell us how much you've spent over the last 20 years settling cases of sexual abuse perpatrated by Church Leaders.
Stop the one-one interviews.
Set up a system for victims to be able to bypass the local leadership, and publicise the system and encourage other victims to use it to come forward - that you haven't already taken this step shows your statements to be hollow and meaningless attempts at deflection and damage limitation. Rather than genuine remorse and commitment to change.
Where's the apology to the victims for letting them down?
31 years later, Joseph L Bishop, Mission President with a known rape den, is still a member in good standing.
How many more?
A member with any kind of a moral compass will be unable to vote to sustain this senior leadership in April. They have been protecting and facilitating sexual abusers for decades. And using donated money to do so. They have to go. If they had any moral compass themselves, the leaders involved in this at any point, including those involved right now, all 15 of them, would resign. They are and have presided over the facilitation of sexual abuse of its vulnerable members and protected the men who perpetrated it.
They have to go.