NOM

Emower wrote: ↑

Wed Nov 28, 2018 10:32 pm

https://www.athoughtfulfaith.org/270-se ... -juliette/

Yikes. The actions by the Church, in this case, are so horrific... members should listen to this.

I'm reading about some of this case and the stuff that came up during it.

The Jensen family (parents of the molester and defendants in this case) has a history of asking for collection money from members as investments in to business ventures that they were doing. These businesses either quickly fail or never even get off the ground, and the investment money is gone. A number of LDS families in the area were victims of the fraud. So the family has a history of being con men. How Mormon on them.

The stake president, Steven Grow (another defendant) was involved somehow, but I can't tell if he was in on the scam or if he was another victim.

I wanted to put a link in this thread to the Vice News Tonight does program about this case.

Link to the thread on it: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=4278&p=58685#p58685

I want to watch the full program but even just that 11 minute preview was excruciating. Some TBMs were commenting that this is not the church’s responsibility but rather the parents fault. They were not the majority of the comments and were called out but they were infuriating to read...

May 5, 2019 testimony meeting in Martinsburg WV. The congregation's response when someone tries to talk about the abuse the local leadership covered up.

Denial
Try to shut them up.
Drown them out.
Assault & attempted theft.

https://www.reddit.com/r/exmormon/comme ... um=ios_app

I can't watch it. It just gets me mad.

One additional note, the woman who was assaulted was Mekenna Denson.

The old man that tried to take the lady's cell phone was way out of line. It's a sad situation.

For the what-the-f***? moment, another video shows a woman pacing around and speaking in tongues.

https://www.facebook.com/10000949064507 ... 038911628/

I’m not sure I like this tactic of doing this in church. There are other methods of getting the message out including using media, google add, newspaper articles, etc.

Just This Guy wrote: ↑

Sat May 11, 2019 4:46 pm

I can't watch it. It just gets me mad.

Oh it was horrible!!! Very, very triggering. I am seething right now.

Couple things:

-Those women are very brave. They are total bada$$es!!!

-I cannot get over the fact that the congregation started signing a song about Christ in order to drown out the women who were trying to protect children from evil people. Talk about taking the Lord's name in vain. I'm not a Christian; but I do love Jesus of Nazareth. That congregation mocked Christ and his teachings in the most f--ked up way...I can't even wrap my mind around it.

-Every child present that day learned that if they speak up about abuse, everyone in their community will ignore them. Or sing church hymns really loud until they shut up.

-I hope this goes viral. I saw McKenna's testimony on a bunch of non-church related pages. Maybe this will have the same visibility.

And I just want to send a very heartfelt F--CK YOU! to that ward!!!!

2bizE wrote: ↑

Sat May 11, 2019 9:02 pm

I’m not sure I like this tactic of doing this in church. There are other methods of getting the message out including using media, google add, newspaper articles, etc.

It's more sensational this way. So it has a better chance of going viral. The church's rotting, decaying underbelly is exposed for the whole world wide web to see.

Just saw the video of the F&T mtg-made me ill.

My understanding is that the ward and stake leadership that convinced members to take the pedophile in are still in positions of leadership.

Pretty sure the ward bursting into song was the equivalent of putting fingers in their ears and babbling la, la, la, la, la.

MoPag wrote: ↑

Sat May 11, 2019 10:04 pm

2bizE wrote: ↑

Sat May 11, 2019 9:02 pm

I’m not sure I like this tactic of doing this in church. There are other methods of getting the message out including using media, google add, newspaper articles, etc.

It's more sensational this way. So it has a better chance of going viral. The church's rotting, decaying underbelly is exposed for the whole world wide web to see.

To be fair, this was defiantly a setup. MeKenna Denson (who lives in Colorado) attending a random ward in West Virginia? Multiple people (3+) recording the event. And I am told that the people on stage were wearing hidden microphones so make sure their audio was fully recorded. Also Sam Young was in town for a event that afternoon.

I don't think that the ward members were the target audience for this. For better or worse, they are unwitting accomplices in the transitivity. The target it the non member community to publicly show how the church reacts to protect themselves. It's like any number of videos you see of how groups react poorly to having their positions challenged. The church only makes changes when they are faced with outside pressure. They never change on their own.

moksha wrote: ↑

Sun May 12, 2019 4:32 am

Pretty sure the ward bursting into song was the equivalent of putting fingers in their ears and babbling la, la, la, la, la.

One person on facebook reacted that by singing "I Believe in Christ", they were invoking the name of Christ to protect child abusers. That is about the ultimate form of using the lord's name in vane and blasphemy you can do.

Anon70 wrote: ↑

Sat May 11, 2019 10:23 pm

My understanding is that the ward and stake leadership that convinced members to take the pedophile in are still in positions of leadership.

I don't know all the details, but yes, they are. Let me see what I can find out.

One thing to note, the person* who assaulted Mckenna is the same person who was sent by the former stake presidency to to give tracts of prophet quotes** to the family of the abuse children to not go to the police, and later went in person to try to get the families to change their mind about filing the lawsuit. I also worked with that sack of s--- in the stake Sunday School presidency and briefly in the ARP.


*Yes I know the name, but I won't post it without moderator permission.
**The tracts consisted of quotes from various church leaders with the message being, keep church matters in the church and don't let them out into the world.

Just This Guy wrote: ↑

Sun May 12, 2019 6:14 am

I don't think that the ward members were the target audience for this. For better or worse, they are unwitting accomplices in the transitivity.

The Church set the problem in motion by putting this young man in a situation where his tendency toward pedophilia could easily be acted upon and then subsequently providing a legal defense for the young man in order to shield themselves from legal consequences of their poor judgment. If there was such a thing as an institutional borderline personality disorder then this situation might be a prime case.

Just This Guy wrote: ↑

Sun May 12, 2019 6:14 am

To be fair, this was defiantly a setup. MeKenna Denson (who lives in Colorado) attending a random ward in West Virginia? Multiple people (3+) recording the event. And I am told that the people on stage were wearing hidden microphones so make sure their audio was fully recorded. Also Sam Young was in town for a event that afternoon.

Makes sense. I was wondering why I could hear them so well.

MoPag wrote: ↑

Sun May 12, 2019 2:42 pm

Just This Guy wrote: ↑

Sun May 12, 2019 6:14 am

To be fair, this was defiantly a setup. MeKenna Denson (who lives in Colorado) attending a random ward in West Virginia? Multiple people (3+) recording the event. And I am told that the people on stage were wearing hidden microphones so make sure their audio was fully recorded. Also Sam Young was in town for a event that afternoon.

Makes sense. I was wondering why I could hear them so well.

Oh, I don’t know, is it really a setup if someone is going to be an officious jerk even if they aren’t being recorded? If someone gives you a chance to be a jerk and you take the bait, it’s kind of your fault, isn’t it?

Not Buying It wrote: ↑

Mon May 13, 2019 5:13 am

MoPag wrote: ↑

Sun May 12, 2019 2:42 pm

Just This Guy wrote: ↑

Sun May 12, 2019 6:14 am

To be fair, this was defiantly a setup. MeKenna Denson (who lives in Colorado) attending a random ward in West Virginia? Multiple people (3+) recording the event. And I am told that the people on stage were wearing hidden microphones so make sure their audio was fully recorded. Also Sam Young was in town for a event that afternoon.

Makes sense. I was wondering why I could hear them so well.

Oh, I don’t know, is it really a setup if someone is going to be an officious jerk even if they aren’t being recorded? If someone gives you a chance to be a jerk and you take the bait, it’s kind of your fault, isn’t it?

True^
Set up or not. I'm glad they did it.

Just This Guy wrote: ↑

Sun May 12, 2019 6:14 am

I don't think that the ward members were the target audience for this. For better or worse, they are unwitting accomplices in the transitivity. The target it the non member community to publicly show how the church reacts to protect themselves. It's like any number of videos you see of how groups react poorly to having their positions challenged. The church only makes changes when they are faced with outside pressure. They never change on their own.

Maybe it was cathartic for those women to stand up and speak their truth to their ward members. Even though it ended badly, maybe this was something they needed for their healing journey.

I think one of the most disturbing parts is the bishop who keeps standing up and telling the speaker that the claims are not true, only to have the speaker respond that they are true and that they are in the court documents to verify...

That bishop's had kids that were molested by Micheal Jensen. He knows they are true. He was in the courtroom!