S. Baptists Child Abusers - beware the smiling eyes

[RubinHighlander]

Heard this on the way to work this morning.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/11/us/south ... index.html

How many more religious institutions will go through this? It's just sad they could not see past their own dogmatic blindness to protect all those victims, especially the children. At least society is now holding them accountable, but under the protection of the law as non-profit institutions they still get away with it, just like the COB is with their big law firm to pay off the victims and protect the predators. All we can hope is that their numbers will keep shrinking and humanity will evolve out of them more and more over time.

[FiveFingerMnemonic]

The former southern states missionary in me just wants gloat in the uppity dogmatic attitudes of the Southern Baptists getting humbled in their own crisis.

More enlightened me just sees the same fundamentalist religious tragedy playing out in all these religions. Sad all the way around.

[Not Buying It]

Interesting choice of title for this thread - is it from Elder Anderson's Conference talk from several years back (https://www.lds.org/general-conference/ ... s?lang=eng)? At the time I thought it was a profound insight, and I still do, although it has since become abundantly clear that Elder Anderson is not a profound person, and he has said many things I find repulsive (the worst was "Give Joseph a break"!, as though I was being too hard on a sexual predator). But I have often had cause to "beware of the evil behind the smiling eyes" - and often I saw those smiling eyes in our buildings of worship.

Like the Southern Baptists, the LDS Church has had plenty of these kinds of cases. I know of a couple personally. While isn't a problem that is endemic to the LDS Church, it is a problem they aren't doing nearly enough about. Listening to Sam Young would have been a good step in the right direction - but they thought it would be a better idea to excommunicate him.

[RubinHighlander]

Interesting choice of title for this thread - is it from Elder Anderson's Conference talk from several years back (https://www.lds.org/general-conference/ ... s?lang=eng)?

Yes! I knew a stalwart NOMie out there would recognize that phrase. It's one that really stuck with me as it swings both ways. They think their stupid analogies and scare tactics only work for them but they also work against them, just like the old rusty dinghy and old decrepit captain.

How many young innocents fell victim to the smiling eyes of a priesthood leader as he led them into a room for an "interview"? I am just full of anger against all those institutions that protected the predators and blamed the victims; they need to be held accountable!

[BriansThoughtMirror]

For what it's worth, I was impressed with the SBC's responses. They didn't try to shift blame, but instead thanked the journalists and demanded reform. I can't say how much will actually change of course, but the words sounded like they were going the right direction. I wonder if the LDS church would respond similarly if mainstream media did a similar story on them? That would be harder to brush off than Sam Young.

[RubinHighlander]

For what it's worth, I was impressed with the SBC's responses. They didn't try to shift blame, but instead thanked the journalists and demanded reform. I can't say how much will actually change of course, but the words sounded like they were going the right direction. I wonder if the LDS church would respond similarly if mainstream media did a similar story on them? That would be harder to brush off than Sam Young.

This is an excellent point! It makes me wonder how much more TSCC would be in the news if they didn't have such a strong legal arm that's been paying off victims all these years.