Category: Ecclesiastical Sexual Abuse in LDS Church

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LDS Church Must Acknowledge Sex Abuse Problem for Change to Happen

For the LDS Church to change its policies regarding sex abuse, it must first admit there is a systemic problem in the institutional organization. Since some victims are silenced with non-disclosure agreements and others are afraid to speak up because they fear retribution from their perpetrators or from the Church, we will never know the extent of the abuse. However, physicians and therapists in heavily Mormon populated areas state that a number of their patients or clients are victims of ecclesiastical sexual or physical abuse.

The following is a brief list of a few LDS bishops and leaders who have been convicted of sexually abusing members. Since only one-third of those who are sexually abused report abuse to police and only 6 out of 1000 are convicted, there are many LDS leaders who do not have a criminal record but who abuse members or spouses without being held accountable.

♦“In September 2008, LDS Church BishopTimothy McCleve pleaded guilty to sexually molesting children from his ward. He was sentenced in December 2008 to one-to-15 year prison terms for the abuse.

♦“In March 2010, former LDS Church bishop Lon Kennard, Sr. was charged with 43 felony counts of sex abuse and sexual exploitation of children, and was imprisoned in Wasatch County, Utah”. In November 2011, Kennard was sentenced to three terms of five-years-to-life in prison to be served consecutively, after pleading guilty to three first-degree felony counts of aggravated sex abuse of a child for sexually abusing his daughters.

♦“In December 2013, LDS Church bishop Todd Michael Edwards was sentenced to three years in prison for molesting two teenage girls who attended his congregation in Menifee, California”. Edwards received two concurrent sentences of three years in prison for two felony counts of sexual battery and sexual penetration with a foreign object. A felony charge of witness intimidation was dismissed as part of a plea bargain with prosecutors after Edwards pleaded guilty.

♦“On August 15, 2017, MormonLeaks published a three-hundred and sixteen-page document which contained confirmed and alleged instances of child sexual abuse between 1959 and 2017.

♦“On October 30, 2017, an Australian court sentenced Darran Scott to 10 years in prison for sexually abusing boys, some of whom he met as a Mormon leader.”[1]

Many more accounts of LDS abuse regarding LDS members, including women and children have been compiled. Most victims suffer in silence because they have been ignored by Church leaders, been threatened by excommunication for disclosing their abuse, or have signed non-disclosure agreements after reporting abuse.

When members are required to obey and sustain their bishops and are told that each of one of them is called by the Lord under revelation, they become easy targets of perpetrators and are often disbelieved or blamed if they report abuse, especially is an ecclesiastical leader is a perpetrator. Some bishops were violent and malevolent offenders before they were called. Although many are kind and caring individuals, it is unhelpful and even dangerous to suggest that all of them are called of God. Surely, God would not call a rapist, child molester, thief, or murderer, and yet many have been convicted of these crimes and more.

Until LDS Church leaders acknowledge that there is a problem regarding ecclesiastical sexual abuse in the Church, they will not take measures to solve it.  Current LDS Church policies continue to silence victims and empower perpetrators.  This is unacceptable. The Church must enact effectual policies and programs that protect members and not perpetrators. Until that happens, we will continue to see an epidemic of abuse that is not only permitted but encouraged by the practices that it employs.

 

 

 But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.—Matthew 18:6

 

1.See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mormon_abuse_cases.

RESOURCES:

Joe E. Trull & James E. Carter, Ministerial Ethics: Being a Good Minister In A Not-So-Good World (Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 1993), 81.

Dr. Kris Helge and Bradley T. B. Toben, “Sexual Misconduct of Clergypersons with Congregants or Parishioners,” Clergy Sexual Misconduct and Prevention, Baylor University.

“Grooming Dynamic,” National Center for Prevention of Crime. http://victimsofcrime.org/media/reporting-on-child-sexual-abuse/grooming-dynamic-of-csa

Rosemary Webb and Jennifer Mitchell, “A Profile of a Child Molester,” Child Lures Prevention, 2018. https://childluresprevention.com/resources/molester-profile/

Tim Challis, “Six Reasons Why Sexual Predators Target Churches,” 9 March 2015. https://www.challies.com/articles/6-reasons-why-sexual-predators-target-churches/

 

 

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Are We a Corporation or a Church?

With the Church’s recent threat to excommunicate Sam Young, a former LDS bishop who fasted for twenty-three day to protect LDS children from one-on-one bishop interviews with unacceptably explicit sexual questions, we ask:

Members need to evaluate whether the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is operating as a church or as a corporation. If a church’s decisions are based solely on preserving the church’s wealth, image, or power at the expense of women and children, it is acting as a corporation. If it is serving the least among us, including the sick, poor, displaced, elderly, dying, or the suffering, it is acting as a church.

Our church does much to help those who are suffering, but it can do much more, especially in giving generously of its tithes to help the destitute–in homeless shelters, refugee camps, the starving, malnourished, those who have no access to clean water, health care, and housing. Almost half of the world is living in situations that can be considered as destitute.

Based on current LDS Church income, about .07 percent of its income or $50 million goes to humanitarian projects each year. Although the Church does much to provide food and clothing for its neediest members, The Church can do much more to help those throughout the world who need humanitarian relief.

Consider the wise counsel of Brene Brown, who wrote, ““When the culture of any organization mandates that it is more important protect the reputation of a system and those in power than it is to protect the basic human dignity of the individuals who serve that system or who are served by that system, you can be certain that the shame is systemic, the money is driving ethics, and the accountability is all but dead.”

The LDS Church must make love its driving ethic, not money. It must protect the human dignity of all who serve in the Church or who are served by the Church. It must make its highest priority the protecting its children, not increasing its corporate power.

The leaders of the Church will discover that as they seek to love and protect all of its members, including its children, it will become a greater force for good throughout the world. It will become all that God intended it to be.

We trust and pray that this will happen soon.

“But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 19:14 KJV

“If anyone causes one of these little ones–those who believe in me–to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.” Matthew 18: 6 NIV

“Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven.” Matthew 18:10 KJV

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How LDS Policies Protect Sex Abuse Perpetrators

To better understand the systemic problem of sex abuse in the LDS Church, listen to the interview with Dr. Gina Convin and “Tim Kosnoff, a US attorney who has spent the last two decades representing victims of sexual abuse.   His introduction to the  LDS Church and their lawyers was when he represented Jeremiah Scott who was sexually abused by a serial paedophile Frank Curtis.  His work, in this case, appears in Lisa Davis’ legal thriller,  The Sins of Brother Curtis. 

“This case has lead to a practice in which he has come to represent over 150 Mormon sexual abuse victims bringing him face to face with the Mormon law machine time and time again.”

To summarize some of his concerns:

The LDS Church refuses to adopt policies that protect women and children from ecclesiastical sexual abuse. It also encourages the adoption of laws that protect Church leaders from testifying against perpetrators, using the pretense of privileged communication for everything bishops hear.

The LDS Church attorneys spend millions of dollars to silence victims and to protect perpetrators. Most law firms lack the money and time to take on a client who seek legal help after being sexually abused by a LDS ecclesiastical or member perpetrator.

The Utah legal system which is predominantly LDS tends to rule in behalf of the Church. Judges who rule in favor of plaintiffs are in danger of losing their jobs, so even non-LDS judges are afraid to rule in favor of victims and often send the cases to the Utah Supreme Court, which often rules in favor of the LDS Church.

LDS juries also tend to rule against victims because they cannot believe that their Church could support a perpetrator. Since members are taught that all leaders are called by God, they cannot believe that some trusted leaders are perpetrators.

Utah attorneys hesitate to take on a case for an LDS victim of sexual ecclesiastical abuse because they fear that their practice will be injured. In addition, they also realize that they will likely lose the case or that it will cost them millions of dollars and years of work to fight the LDS Church the legal system.

Lawyers who take on cases involving LDS ecclesiastical sexual abuse must pick their cases carefully and select jurisdictions where the judges and juries are more likely to be fair-minded.

The Mormon Church is consistently covering up sexual abuse that is perpetrated upon its innocent children by men in positions of trust and authority in the Church. Because the Church teaches its members that every bishop is called by God, this practice is unlikely to change unless many members speak up, and most are afraid to do so for fear of Church reprisal.

The LDS Church has knowingly adopted practices that destroy or attempt to destroy victims of sexual abuse.

This must stop.

Now.

For a full discussion on this topic, listen to this fascinating A Thoughtful Faith podcast:

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The LDS Church Must Adopt a Zero-Tolerance Program for Abuse

In an official statement, the church claims to have a “long-standing policy of no tolerance for abuse.”  However, it routinely pays millions of dollars to victims of sexual abuse and has required victims to sign non-disclosure agreements. Too often it shames and blames many who report abuse. Some abuse survivors were grooming and abused in one-on-one bishop interviews. Others were physically or sexually abused by bishops or by their husbands who served as ecclesiastical leaders. Unless the church adopts policies and procedures that provide recourse and resources for abuse survivors, the abuse will continue and perpetrators will be drawn to the church, which allows them to easily target victims.

Critical changes must include:

• Eliminating regular one-on-one morality interviews with children and youth
• Removing from church curricula and talks anything that blames victims and removes responsibility from perpetrators
• Creating an independent, empowered agency with a helpline where victims can report abuse that has been ignored or committed by ecclesiastical leaders
• Implementing policies and procedures that help abuse victims and hold perpetrators accountable
• Stopping the blaming and shaming of victims by silencing them or marginalizing them.

These procedures not only help abuse survivors but church leaders as well. Both will be better safeguarded from situations that encourage abuse. The LDS church will be a safer place for people to worship and join. Sacred tithing monies will be better spent helping survivors heal from abuse rather than defending the church from lawsuits by victims who were ignored and shamed. From a corporate standpoint, it will improve the church’s image and increase its marketability and credibility.

The church has a moral and spiritual obligation to better protect its members from predators, including those who hold or have held positions of responsibility in the church, and to better assist and help those who have been abused.

If the church refuses to implement critical changes, it will continue to foster a rape culture, where perpetrators are allowed to serve in callings that give them access to victims, where victims are blamed, shamed and marginalized, and where members and survivors are sometimes wrongly taught that victims are somehow responsible for being abused.

The church needs to show the same courage and compassion that it expects of its members. It will have to admit that although most leaders are kind, caring men, some are rapists and abusers. It will have to eliminate systemic procedures where ecclesiastical leaders are empowered to shield their friends and colleagues from accountability for abusive behavior.

We call on church leaders to adopt a zero-tolerance program for abuse. We ask them to listen to abuse survivors and stop silencing them. We ask them to end their policies and procedures that protect and attract perpetrators and wound and silence abuse survivors. As they do so, the church will “shine forth fair as the moon, clear as the sun” [1] and become more like God intends it to be.

[1]Song of Solomon 1: 6, D&C 105:31

 

“Continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.” –Hebrews 13:3 NIV

 

 

RESOURCES:

Angela C, “Holding an Abuser Accountable,” By Common Consent, 23 March 2018.

Podcast hosted by Doug Fabrizio, “Authority, Sexual Abuse, and the Mormon/LDS Church,” guests Lee Hale, Lindsay Hansen Park, Angela Clayton,  and Natasha Helfer Parker, KUER Mormon Trust Interviews, 31 March 2018.

Podcast hosted by April Bennett Young, “Stopping Sexual Abuse by Ecclesiastical Leaders with Mary Dispenza and Judy Larson,” Exponent II, 19 April 2018.

Podcast hosted by Dr. Gina Colvin, “A Feminist Response to Church Sexual ABuse: Staheli-Hanks & Brown Edmunds, ” A Thoughtful Faith, 27 March 2018.

 

 

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Reducing Ecclesiastical Sexual Abuse in the LDS Church

Most men who are called to positions of authority in the Church are kind, caring individuals. I have seen miracles performed by Church leaders who served members with love and compassion. Many bishops and branch presidents serve faithfully and tirelessly. They reach out to the elderly, sick, widowed, poor, and needy.   Faith-filled Church leaders—and members—become instruments in God’s hands when they serve others.

Unfortunately, some leaders misuse the authority they receive. Some bully members into compliance. Others lure members into dishonest financial schemes. Some are physically or sexually abusive. Studies demonstrate that faith communities are even more vulnerable to abuse than secular environments since 93% of sex offenders describe themselves as “religious” and they tend to have more victims and younger victims.[1]

Studies indicate that up to 38% of women and 16% of men were molested before turning 18 years old.[2] In an extensive research study of many religious denominations that included Latter-day Saints, Dr. Diane R. Garland found that 32 members of congregations that average 400 members have experienced clergy sexual misconduct.[3]

Sexual predators often target churches because the church provides them with easy access to victims, because members tend to trust their leaders and to assume that the church is a safe place, and because perpetrators are often supported or quickly forgiven by the Church when victims report abuse.

Current LDS policies create a culture that encourages and protects ecclesiastical abusers. Some include:

  • Teaching members that they should trust their leaders explicitly
  • Dismissing reports of ecclesiastical sexual and physical abuse
  • Assuming that some abuse victims are responsible for being abused
  • Punishing those who report abuse by blaming, silencing or shaming them
  • Presuming that abusers are not guilty unless convicted in a court
  • Failing to adequately train leaders and members on abuse recognition, avoidance, reporting, and treatment.

When an abuser is called as a church leader—or when a church leader becomes an abuser— they can use their position to groom victims. Predators can target people of any age and tend to seek out those who are vulnerable, trusting, and naïve. Child, youth, and adults can be more easily abused since many believe that their leaders and teachers are trustworthy.

Some ways that some ecclesiastical predators groom victims include:

  • Paying special attempt to the victim and making him or her feel special
  • Convincing the victim that the predator can be trusted[4]
  • Asking the victim to share concerns, fears and even details of sexual trauma which should only be revealed in a professional counseling setting
  • Telling the victim that the predator has special insight into their needs and feelings which others lack
  • Isolating the victim by creating situations where they are alone together
  • Breaking down a victim’s natural defenses until he can coerce or manipulate the victim to do his/her bidding
  • Conditioning a child to become used to various degrees of physical touch and intimacy
  • Sharing secrets with the adult victim, ie., saying that they are unhappily married and would have married the victim if they had known them sooner; claiming that God would want them to share a sexual relationship; causing them to believe that the predator has received inspiration regarding them; convincing the victim that he or she is the love of predator’s life
  • Manipulating the victim to tell no one about the abuse, ie., telling the victim that no one would believe what she said or that she could be punished for disclosing what happened
  • Maintaining control by using threats or guilt to force continued participate and silence
  • Grooming friends and family of the victim by convincing them that the perpetrator is a charming, faithful, trustworthy person to make certain that a victim’s report of abuse is discounted or ignored

No organization can prevent all incidents of sexual abuse. However, organizations, especially churches, can and should implement policies and procedures that better protect its members and promote recovery for abuse victims.  The LDS Church can reduce the prevalence of serious abuse by:

  • Providing a help line for victims of ecclesiastical abuse with skilled trauma counselors who are authorized to provide survivors with needed medical and mental health care and to hold perpetrators accountable.
  • Training members on abuse recognition and avoidance.
  • Instructing leaders that perpetrators—not victims– are responsible for abuse.
  • Discontinuing practices or teachings that blame, shame or silence victims.[5]
  • Eliminating one-on-one interviews that discuss sexually explicit questions with children.
  • Teaching members to use discernment and caution in all of their interactions in and out of the Church.
  • Preventing known perpetrators from holding Church positions where they can abuse others.
  • Requiring a leader or parent to attend bishop interviews
  •  Requiring bishops to refer all members who need psychological counseling to skilled professionals.

Most Church members and leaders are compassionate and caring. However, some use their Church positions as a means to abuse others.  We pray that the Church will make essential procedural and policy changes to better protect its members from abuse and to ensure that its leaders help—and do not harm— survivors of ecclesiastical abuse.

 

1. Ann Salter, Ph.D., Predators: Pedophiles, Rapists, And Other Sex Offenders, 2004.

2. Nora Harlow, M.D., and Gene G. Abel, Stop Child Molestation Book, 2001.

3. Diane Garland, Ph.D., “The Prevalence of Clergy Sexual Misconduct with Adults: A Research Study,” Baylor University, 2008. https://www.baylor.edu/clergysexualmisconduct/index.php?id=67406

4. In the LDS Church, this is additional problematic, since members are taught that all local leaders have been called by God. For example, see President Henry B. Eyring’s October 2017, General Conference talk in which he quoted Elder James B. Faust, who said: “We … need to support and sustain our local leaders, because they … have been ‘called and chosen.’ Every member of this Church may receive counsel from a bishop or a branch president, a stake or a mission president, and the President of the Church and his associates.”

5. Examples include excommunicating victims or members who report or document ecclesiastical abuse, stating that victims are somehow responsible for the abuse they suffered, punishing the victim but not the perpetrator, forcing victims to sign non-disclosure agreements in order to receive help, and disclosing confidential Church information about victims.

RESOURCES:

Mark Scheffers, M.S.W.,  Child Trauma Assessment Center, Western Michigan University.

Joe E. Trull & James E. Carter, Ministerial Ethics: Being a Good Minister In A Not-So-Good World (Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 1993), 81.

Dr. Kris Helge and Bradley T. B. Toben, “Sexual Misconduct of Clergypersons with Congregants or Parishioners,” Clergy Sexual Misconduct and Prevention, Baylor University.

“Grooming Dynamic,” National Center for Prevention of Crime.

Rosemary Webb and Jennifer Mitchell, “A Profile of a Child Molester,” Child Lures Prevention, 2018.

Tim Challis, “Six Reasons Why Sexual Predators Target Churches,” 9 March 2015.

 

 

 

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How the LDS Church Can Better Protect Its Children from Sexual Perpetrators

In the book The Sins of Brother Curtis: Story of Betrayal, Conviction, and the Mormon Church, the author shows how the LDS Church lacked essential safeguards to protect children from a serial sexual predator. Because lay leaders are seldom trained about abuse prevention and detection, have access to children and youth in one-on-one interviews, and do not consistently annotate records of abusers, the Church continues to leave children vulnerable to sexual abuse.

The Church must become more proactive in implementing procedures and policies that hold offenders responsible and that exonerate victims of shame and blame. The following solutions can reduce the number of sex offenses in the Church and can make the Church a safer place for all members:

1. Problem: Predators recognize that authority is usually unquestioned in the Church. Church members are told to only speak positively about their leaders and to always obey them.

Solution:  Church must teach members that leaders are fallible. Church members should be taught how to recognize and report abuse–even if trusted leaders are the abusers.

2  Problem: Unhealthy reverence for power and authority of male priesthood leaders.

Solution: Church should teach members to worship God alone and to remember that all members of the Church are imperfect, including Church leaders.

3. Problems: Little oversight of Church leaders and priesthood holders.

Solution:  The Church needs to implement increased supervision of leaders to ensure that they are not abusing children.

4. Problem: Perpetrators have easier access to victims through ministering and church assignments.

Solution: Two -deep service must be implemented for every Church calling where members have access to children, including bishop’s interviews.

5. Problem: Victims are often shamed by Church leaders so survivors seldom report abuse.

Solution: Church leaders must be trained to eliminate any procedure or policy that shames abuse victims.

6. Problem: Perpetrators know that the Church seldom reports abuse to police.

Solution: After the Church determines that the victim is safe, abuse should be reported to police.

7. Problem: Church leaders often rationalize sex abuse or blame the victims.

Solution: Church leaders on every level need extensive training on the dynamics of sexual abuse, including grooming and how perpetrators tend to isolate and shame victims.

8. Problem: The Church does not consistently annotate records of abusers, which allows them to abuse others.

Solution: Abusers’ church records should always be tagged and ward leaders should never call perpetrators to positions where they can abuse others.

9. Problem: Priesthood leaders tend to cover up the offenses of their colleagues and friends.

Solution:  Church leaders should be appropriately monitored to make certain that they hold abusers accountable. The Church must create a hotline for abuse victims, including ecclesiastical abuse victims.

10. Problem: Perpetrators observe that victims are sometimes silenced by the Church. This increases the likelihood that they may be attracted to join the Church or become involved in Church callings that involve children.

Solution: The Church must implement policies and procedures that make certain that survivors are not silenced.

11. Problem: Since the Church does not perform background checks on members who work with children in a Church calling (except in Scouting), serial sex offenders may be baptized and moved into Church positions.

Solution: Church should perform a background check before anyone is called to serve youth or children.

12. Problem: With the Church’s emphasis on missionary work, some members invite others into their homes and lives without due diligence.

Solution: Members should receive regular training on how to protect themselves and their families from sex offenders.

13. Problem: Church leaders often deal with pedophilia as a sin and not as a crime.

Solution: Church members and leaders should be taught that abuse is a crime and that is should be reported to police.

14. Problem: Church literature asks bishops to help pedophiles turn away from their sin, something they are unqualified of doing.

Solution: Bishop should be advised to turn all counseling over to trained professionals.

15. When abuse is reported, the Church does not implement meaningful reforms to protect LDS children. Bishops, for example, can still interview children alone even though there are some bishops perpetrated on children during interviews.

Solution: Church should eliminate all one-of-one bishop interviews with children and youth.

16. LDS Church officials and its lawyers typically attempt to evade responsibility by hiding behind the “free exercise of religion” clause of the Constitution, statute of limitations technicalities and clergy-penitent privilege statutes.

Solution: Church must adhere to high ethical standards and determine than protecting its members from abuse is more important than protecting its reputation.

The Church must use its resources and practices to protect children, not to protect offenders. Over the years, too many abuse survivors were further victimized by Church leaders who refused to listen to victims or who shielded their friends who were perpetrators. Too often, the Church has hired skilled attorneys to attack victims and to defend offenders.  This is unacceptable.

The Church must implement critical safeguards to better protect its children and members.  As it does so, it will better represent the Savior who asked us to love, serve, and defend the “least among us,” who include children, the vulnerable, and the abused.

 

 

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LDS Church Must Stop Silencing Abuse Victims

One of the strengths of the Church is creating a community where people can speak and listen to one another. Our prophet, President Russell M. Nelson said, “Learn to listen, and listen to learn from neighbors. Repeatedly the Lord has said, ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor.’ Opportunities to listen to those of diverse religious or political persuasion can promote tolerance and learning. And a good listener will listen to a person’s sentiments as well.”[1]

Each of us needs to feel validated and affirmed as we speak and listen to one another. Communication is a critical component of healthy relationships, families, organizations, and churches. Whenever people are silenced, they can quickly become lonely, sad, frustrated or even angry.

As we minister to others, one of the most important things we can do is to listen deeply to those who suffer. For the Church to exemplify the principle of ministering, it must demonstrate pure love for all abuse victims, including victims of ecclesiastical abuse. In order to be comforted and to heal, abuse survivors need to speak the truth about their abuse as part of the healing process. And they need to be heard. Abusers often attempt to silence their victims in order to perpetuate the abuse and to protect themselves.

Whenever we attempt to shame or silence a victim, we exacerbate the suffering of the survivor. Yet, when victims share details of abuse to their ecclesiastical leader, too often they are told:

• That couldn’t have happened. I know the perpetrator. He would never do that.
• If you have been a better person, the abuse wouldn’t have happened.
• You must tell no one about what happened to you. You might break up your temple marriage, ruin the perpetrator’s reputation or hurt his standing in the Church if you tell anyone about this.
• If you share details about your so-called abuse with anyone, we will disfellowship or excommunicate you.
• You are guilty of provoking or seducing the abuser. It is your problem, not his.
• You are making up the abuse. You are mentally unstable.
• You must repent. You are responsible for being abused.
• You must forgive and forget.
• You need to stop thinking about the abuse and instead pray and read your scriptures.
• If you tell others about the abuse, we will expose you, discredit you, shame and blame you.

Too often Church leaders shame and silence victims with these statements—and worse. Over several decades, I have counseled with many abuse victims who state they have been victimized as much—if not more—by Church leaders than by the abuser. Our Church must discontinue all practices and policies that silence and abuse survivors. When abuse is disclosed, that can say:

• I believe you.
• I am so sorry to hear that happened to you. How can we help? Can we provide counseling for you? Do you need to go to a safe place? Do you want me to call the police?
• You have shown a lot of courage to talk about abuse. Thank you for reporting the abuse.
• Would you allow me to notify your ministering brothers and sisters and the Relief Society or Elders Quorum President or would you prefer that I do not do so?
• Remember that you are not responsible in any way for the abuse. Please don’t blame yourself. The perpetrator is totally responsible for the abuse and we will hold him or her accountable.
• What can I do to help in your healing?
• We love you. You are a cherished son or daughter of God.
• Would you be willing to let a counselor coordinate with me how I can best help you?
• Please know that God loves you unconditionally and infinitely.

As the Church takes a pro-active approach in helping abuse victims heal, it will become a shining beacon. It will better comfort those who need comfort and mourn with those who mourn. It will follow the Savior’s example of reaching out to those who suffer bu providing them with succor and loving kindness.

1. Russell M Nelson, “Listen to Learn,” April 1991 General Conference

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Ministering

One of the Church’s strengths is ministering to others. Compassionate service is a great Mormon tradition. Members often assist those who are sick or bereaved, visit the widowed and lonely, feed the hungry and perform a host of other acts of Christ-like service.

Each week members serve toddlers, children, teens, and adults through music, lessons, and activities. Millions of members spend countless hours serving folks in their congregations and neighborhoods throughout the world. Most serve tirelessly and faithfully.

Although the Church can bless others, when its leaders are abusive, it can wound others. Too many LDS members have been abused by Church leaders who preyed on their innocence and trust. The effects of ecclesiastical sexual or physical abuse are devastating not only to victims but to those who love them.

Because abuse victims have nowhere in the Church to turn except to their LDS leaders, if the leaders are the abusers, they are silenced. Too often the Church shames and blames victims while it protects and aids abusers.

Some members who have attempted to chronicle ecclesiastical abuse have been excommunicated or threatened with excommunication if they speak up. Some who reported ecclesiastical abuse have lost their memberships in the Church. Instead of punishing the perpetrators, too often the Church punishes, gaslights, or silences the victims.*

When abuse occurs, the Church needs to listen to survivors and help them heal. To do this, the Church needs to authorize a team of crisis therapists, victim’s advocates, and other skilled professionals to listen to abuse victims who have been ignored or abused their ecclesiastical leaders.

This group would operate a 24-hour hotline and be empowered to hold perpetrators accountable and to make certain that survivors receive necessary help to recover. The group would also ensure that reported abusers are prevented from holding positions where they can further abuse others.

To follow Jesus’ example, the Church must minister to all abuse survivors, including those who were abused by people who hold—or have held—positions of trust in the Church. It must take necessary steps in order to follow its written policy: “When abuse occurs, the first and immediate responsibility of Church leaders is to help those who have been abused and to protect vulnerable persons from future abuse.”**

 

*One example of many with which I am personally acquainted includes this account: “When Black Eyes and Police Reports Don’t Matter,” Sisters Quorum, 22 February 2018.

**See LDS Newsroom, “First Presidency Directs Leaders to Prevent and Respond to Abuse,” 26 March 2018 (includes links to a First Presidency letter and the revised Handbook of Instructions “Preventing and Responding to Abuse”)

Other critical steps include eliminating one-on-one interviews with children and youth and providing Church leaders and members with training on ways to prevent abuse and how to recognize abuse symptoms.

 

LINKS