Revised July 5th 2021
It started simply enough…
My daughter had recently returned from a
vacation, visiting her boyfriend who was studying at one of the LDS
post-secondary institutions. “Dad,” she told me, “they are all smoking pot and
having sex with each other. All of them.”
But then…
That same day there was a headline in our
local news about how an LDS bishop had sexually abused children, when in his
late teens, and had confessed to it while on a mission—from which he was
not sent home after the revelation. The judge in the trial concluded
that the LDS Church had covered up this abuse. I reflected that this was not
the first such headline that I had seen in recent years in my largely LDS neck
of the woods.
Still that same day I checked into
Facebook and was struck the number similar stories coming from my LDS and XLDS
friends.
There was the recent high profile case of
Joseph Bishop, the former President of the Provo Utah Missionary Training
Center (MTC) who admitted to police that he engaged in sexual
improprieties (allegedly including a sexual assault) with Sister Missionaries
under his stewardship, and who claimed to be a predator and sex addict.[i] An
official statement from the LDS Church indicates that the Church never knew of
the misconduct until 2010, some 26 years after the offending events, but his
statement to the police indicates that Bishop confessed his actions to his
ecclesiastical leaders immediately, yet served out his complete tenure as MTC
President.[ii]
One of Bishop’s alleged victims sued him and the Church. The case against
Bishop was dropped due to the statute of limitations having long past, however,
at that time, the judge ruled that the case against the Church for fraudulent
non-disclosure and fraudulent concealment could move forward.[iii]
There is the recent high profile case of
former BYU instructor and director of three LDS Temple Endowment ceremony films
(and cofounder of the Sundance Film festival), Sterling Van
Wagenen, who admitted to molesting a 13 year old boy[iv]
After pleading guilty to and twice being convicted of molesting under age
girls, Van Wagenen is serving 6 years to life.[v]
For his horrific crimes, Van Wagenen was disfellowshipped for two years from
the LDS Church.[vi]
A BYU professor charged with sexually
abusing students.[vii]
A Utah police officer/bishop involved in human trafficking[viii],
Sunday School teachers involved in child sexual abuse[ix],
Bishops and others in positions of trust involved in sexual abuse and child
pornography[x].
In recent years it has a been reported
that, per capita, Utah has the US’s highest rates of subscription to
pornography websites[xi],
and that “…Utah fosters unique cultural factors that may leave those with
susceptibility at an even greater predisposition to using and abusing
pornography.”[xii]
As of 2015, the popularity of “incest porn”[xiii]
was growing faster in Utah than in any other state[xiv].
And Utah has what could be described as a child pornography epidemic[xv] that,
when discovered/confessed, the LDS Church doesn’t necessarily report to the
police,[xvi]
and there seems to be cases where this child pornography is being treated
lightly by the courts in Utah.[xvii]
It has been reported that rape occurs at a
higher rate in Utah than in the rest of the USA[xviii],
and that although Utah is #8[xix] in
the US for overall rates of abuse, it is #1 in sexual abuse[xx],
with one in five children in Utah experiencing sexual abuse[xxi]. And
there is some concern that the LDS Church is perhaps more concerned with protecting
its image than it is with actually combating the problem[xxii].
The Church recently released a letter, signed by the First Presidency,
instructing local leaders to not participate in any court cases without first
consulting the Church’s lawyers.[xxiii]
And although the Church has a hotline for local leaders to report sexual abuse, it seems to be manned by lawyers from the Church’s legal alter-ego, the law firm of Kirton McConkie.[xxiv]
Kirton McConkie?
One of Kirton McConkie’s founding partners was one Bryan Lloyd Poelman, at one point the chairman of an anti-pornography group called Citizens for Positive Community Values. While a Stake President, Poelman was caught in the act with a prostitute. Although Poelman was excommunicated, Apostle Boyd K. Packer assured Poelman’s stake that “Whatever else will take place, there will be no eternal consequences.” (italics added). He went on to serve a seniors mission and to serve as a worker in the Salt Lake City Temple.
Kirton McConkie also employs one Thomas L. Monson (son of former LDS
President Thomas S. Monson), who was fired from his job as vice-president of
American Investment Bank, then quietly settled the related sexual harassment
suit against him.[xxv]
I reflected on my daughter’s observation
about her friends at her boyfriends’ LDS School[xxvi],
the local story about the bishop, and the stories referenced above, and
wondered if there could be something in LDS theology and culture that somehow
facilitates what appears to be an inability to control one’s sexual
proclivities.
Although this post is focused primarily on
LDS culture and theology, the reader may notice that many of the observations made
here can be applied to broader categories of religious morality.