Will the parents PLEASE WAKE UP!

[Red Ryder]

In response to the recent Bishop arrested for child porn and child abuse, we need to be extremely aware that this isn’t an isolated event where one bad apple sneaks under the radar of discernment. This is a complete breakdown and catastrophic failure in everything the church claims to do to protect children. It’s not a matter of providing training or having two deep leadership. It needs to stop by first understanding that the church itself is part of the problem and is set up to make the members too trusting of the leaders. This creates an open invitation for pedophiles to thrive under the disguise of righteous leadership.

I think while seemingly intricate, it’s as simple as understanding where these religious grooming practice begin. Grooming that instills conversion and indoctrination, develops undying devotion, and brainwashes the membership from an early age through youth and into adulthood. This grooming practice is disguised as “a judge in isreal”, “a caring leader”, “a beloved home teacher”, “a mission president”, “a temple worker”, or even “a beloved Prophet of God”. I agree they need to stop placing children under any type of “Bishop Care” whether it be worthiness interviews for baptism at age 8 or singing happy birthday to a 4 year old primary child and giving them a “Bishop Buck” to go down to his office and get a piece of candy.

It’s the reason:

Children don’t see the bishop as dangerous.
Children are interviewed a few weeks shy of their 8th birthday.
The youth are encouraged to confess sexual impunity in graphic detail.
The youth developed guilt, shame, sexual repression, or learn to lie.
The young women learn what it means to be a chewed piece of gum, a nail hole in a board, a licked cupcake.
The young men are taught that women are future mothers which means sexual objects to be impregnated.
The young women are taught that they are responsible for the inappropriate thoughts of the young men.
The young women are taught extreme modesty and morality are their greatest attributes.
The young women are taught their place is in the home bearing and raising children at the expense of their self.
The young men are taught to prepare to be servants of God who will if they work hard be blessed with an attractive wife.
The young single adults are taught their eternal progression is stalled until they marry in the Temple.
Once married, the newly wed young adults are clothed in church sponsored underwear and taught to wear it night and day.
Once married, the newly wed young adults are reminded of God Ordained Marrital Intimacy and to forsake sexual desire.

I’m still not sure how any young newly married Mormon couple manages to get pregnant considering the visual intimacy killing effect of the garment but since they do the cycle continues as children are born in the covenant, blessed as babies, and enter primary at 18 months.
Children don’t see the bishop as dangerous.
The youth don’t see the bishop as dangerous.
The young single adults don’t see the bishop as dangerous.

And most importantly and utterly frustrating is that the majority of ADULT MEMBERS in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints today don’t read articles like this about the MONSTERS in their neighborhoods and congregations and CARE ENOUGH to stand up against the leaders of the church to demand change. Why? BECAUSE WE WERE ALL GROOMED TOO!

How many more bishops need to be caught and arrested for change to happen?

Shouldn’t this guy be the one that finally breaks the cycle and forces the church to change? Of course not because the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints turns a blind eye and doesn’t care about protecting children, youth, or adults.

IT CONTINUES TO GROOM YOU TO BE SUBSERVIENT TO THE CHURCH AND ITS LEADERS AND TO TURN A BLIND EYE FROM SCUMBAG BISHOPS WHO MAY BE ABUSING YOUR CHILDREN RIGHT NOW WITHOUT YOU EVEN KNOWING IT!

WAKE UP AND LOOK AROUND AT THE PATTERNS, THE POLICIES, AND THE PRACTICES THAT ALLOW THIS PREVENTABLE ABUSE BY RELIGIOUS LEADERS TO EVEN HAPPEN IN THE FIRST PLACE. IT STARTS WITH YOU THE PARENTS WHO ALLOW YOUR CHILDREN TO WALK IN BEHIND A CLOSED BISHOP’S DOOR!!

THE CHURCH ISNT GOING TO CHANGE BUT YOU CAN!

PLEASE WAKE UP!

[Palerider]

You're truly fighting an uphill battle here. But it can be won.

Just thinking about the manipulative tools installed in the culture by Joseph Smith in the early evolution of the church is helpful. Probably the biggest is what we used to call "peer pressure" which now goes by the moniker of "group think".

Think about Joseph's tool to get young women to accept polygamy. He did a little persuading himself but many times he would have an older "wife" take a younger woman into her confidence among a group of older "wives" and they would all intimate to that young woman, that plural marriage was very acceptable. "Look, we're all doing it, it must be okay". So Joseph used the leverage of the group to coerce the innocent into doing something that their heart had already told them was wrong.

This insidious tactic is pervasive in the church. Joseph even used it in the temple ceremony. Temple Spoiler Alert:

Remember after Eve has partaken of the forbidden fruit? Knowing that he cannot persuade Adam by himself, Satan says to Eve (Adam's only peer), "Now go and get Adam to partake." That's a Joseph tactic!

This verbiage of Satan's isn't Biblical. It means that Joseph came up with this concept from his own heart and wrote it into the endowment. Joseph knew how peer pressure worked to his advantage. He specialized in sending the innocuous to do his dirty work. Remember him sending Oliver Cowdery to give Hiram Page the bad news about using his seer stone?

Parents in the church whose first impulse might be that their children are too young and vulnerable to be going through this grooming process that is just getting started with baptism, are overcome by the unarticulated idea that, "Well, everyone else is doing it. It's always been this way. It must be okay."

How do you break that cycle?

Thank goodness for the Sam Youngs of the world who aren't afraid to stand up. I consider him akin to Martin Luther. Just making this website available is a help that may start small but each "guest" who comes here to read and educate themselves has an influence on those around them. Thanks to NOM and RFM I have a place to send someone who has questions that need serious answers, not the church "brush-off".

Sometimes an illogical, unwise, detrimental practice can lay there for years until someone points out it's ridiculousness with a fresh eye. The group thinkers will fight to maintain it because that's the way it's always been done. Grandpa Prophet said so. But some people are going to wake up and say, "That's right....I reject that stupid practice. It doesn't make sense."

That's what we're here for.

[Hagoth]

If you took away the requirement for absolute trust of leaders the church would be on very shaky ground. Obedience is the first law of heaven. Submitting to men above you in the hierarchy is what the culture is all about.

[alas]

If you took away the requirement for absolute trust of leaders the church would be on very shaky ground. Obedience is the first law of heaven. Submitting to men above you in the hierarchy is what the culture is all about.

Which is why the church is not willing to give up individual interviews. It starts out in primary as bishop worship, and the children are groomed to obey, unquestioningly. That first baptismal interview sets a life long pattern of dependence on leaders for judging worthiness. What would happen if members get the idea they could judge themself worthy to attend the temple?

[2bizE]

We should all share our testimony of this at next open mic Sunday!
Would be a public service announcement

[Not Buying It]

Aren’t you guys paying attention to the “full stop” thread? Quit trying to change the Church!

Just kidding. Tell you what, exploitation of members was baked into the organization from the very beginning by Joseph Smith and Brigham Young. It was fundamentally set up to exploit people. That predators have figured out how to use that structure to do some exploiting of their own shouldn’t be surprising.

But what should be surprising is the callousness with which the Brethren view these crimes when they take place, and their refusal to make the necessary changes to avoid them. This is one of the reasons the Brethren are villains, whatever else some of you say about them - they know children are being exploited by problems in the Church’s structure, but they refuse to address those problems because it will lessen their power and control. They care more about power and control than they do the safety of children. Therefore, in spite of whatever good qualities they possess, on this issue they are villains.

[Not Buying It]

Given the preponderance of its readership is LDS, I’d say the Daily Herald took a pretty bold stand on this:

https://www.heraldextra.com/news/opinio ... 0c328.html

[Palerider]

Given the preponderance of its readership is LDS, I’d say the Daily Herald took a pretty bold stand on this:

https://www.heraldextra.com/news/opinio ... 0c328.html

Yep. Someone stood up for a little bit of truth here. I hope they don't suffer any repercussions for it. They deserve a little gold star.

[blazerb]

But what should be surprising is the callousness with which the Brethren view these crimes when they take place, and their refusal to make the necessary changes to avoid them. This is one of the reasons the Brethren are villains, whatever else some of you say about them - they know children are being exploited by problems in the Church’s structure, but they refuse to address those problems because it will lessen their power and control. They care more about power and control than they do the safety of children. Therefore, in spite of whatever good qualities they possess, on this issue they are villains.

I would not have agreed with this a year ago, but the fact is that the 1P sends that letter of approval to every bishop, many of whom use it to reinforce their authority in their wards. The leadership has to accept responsibility for creating conditions that allowed this bishop and others before him to commit horrific crimes. But they won't. They don't have to meet the children who were abused. They get to maintain their distance while sitting on the comfy red chairs secure in their knowledge that they have no real threat to their power. The church has plenty of money to maintain their salaries for a long time to come. There is no pressure on them to do anything.