After 41 years of affiliation with the Mormon Church, and 38 years as a Mormon elder, I have, at last, demanded that my name be stricken from the records of the LDS Church. In the time that I spent, primarily as a missionary, I witnessed a complete absence of discernment by ward bishops, stake presidents, and Mormon General Authorities and a gigantic arrogance that permeated every aspect of Mormon control over its rank-and-file membership. The Mormon lay clergy of men ordained to the Mormon Melchizadek Priesthood have about as much spiritual discernment and authority from their god, an exalted man, as the General Motor's Corporation.

As a Mormon elder from 1972 until I resigned my membership in 2013, I was a part of 17 wards and 3 branches of the LDS Church in the United States, and 3 wards, 2 branches and 1 group in Japan and Okinawa. In 30 years of active church affiliation, 1970 thru 2000, I sat in over two-hundred bishops councils and ward councils as a mission leader, stake missionary, and ward missionary. I know what goes on in those meetings as efforts to control and manipulate the lives of rank-and-file Mormons in wards and stakes.

In the Mountlake Terrace Ward of the Mormon Church, in the Lynnwood Washington Stake, I witnessed the total lack of spiritual discernment that exists in the entire Mormon global organization. As the Mormons like to say, what is true in one ward of the Church is true in all of the wards. A Mormon high priest, named David Henry Herget, sxually molested (raped) his own daughter in 1998 and was convicted in a court of law as a level-1 sex offender. He was excommunicated from the Mormon Church but still attended ward services in Mountlake Terrace, Washington after some powerful Mormon politicians persuaded the court to put Herget on probation, instead of jailing him. After a year of probation, Herget told the Lynnwood Stake President, Marcus Nash (who is now a General Authority of the Mormon Church in Salt Lake City), and the Mountlake Terrace Ward bishops, Ken Walters and, later, Kim Jurretich, that he was repentant of his grevious sins and crimes and was totally rehabilitated, and, in 2002, Herget was rebaptized into the Mormon Church, and, in 2004, he was re-ordained to his high Mormon priesthood by the Stake President, Nash, and an unnamed Mormon General Authority who had the final determination whether he was truly repentant. All of his high priesthood blessings and powers were restored. Little did anyone know, especially that parents of young children in the Mountlake Terrace Ward, that Herget was a convicted level-1 sex offender. During the time after his re-baptism, Herget was own his best behavior as he persuaded parents of pre-adolescent boys to allow him to transport these children to different Mormon activities, and to tutor them in computer literacy, which was what Herget did for a living.

In early 2005, these young pre-adolescent boys told their parents about what Herget was doing, and had done to them, for the past six months. He had sexually molested these boys repeatedly, and when the Mountlake Terrace Police arrested him, he was charged with 13 counts of child rape. This was the same pervert who was encouraged by Stake President Marcus Nash, Bishop Ken Walters, Bishop Jim Juretich, and another ward bishop, Kimball Olsen, to be the ward Santa Claus at the Mountlake Terrace Ward Christmas parties, during 2004 and 2005, to have all the young children sit on his lap. Herget was locked-up in the Snohomish County Jail and, later, committed suicide.

Now, get this! Marcus Nash was a lawyer before he was appointed as Mormon General Authority, a partner with the Stafford-Frey Law Firm in Seattle, who defended the Mormon Church in federal court against the sexual abuse lawsuits that came against the Mormon Church in the greater Seattle are. If Nash had as much discernment as a lawyer, as he had as a Mormon Stake President, he probably lost many more cases than he won.

The Mormon lay Melchizadek Priesthood is a vast world-wide reservoir of men who are sex offenders, or have the canal lust to become sex offenders. These men are not of the God of the Holy Bible, but, rather, of a god, of many gods, who the Mormons say are exalted men who have a mortal beginning and who are limited in their power. Mormon theology declares very quietly that Jesus Christ was not born of a virgin, but born of a woman, Mary, who was the wife of an exalted man that descended from his home, on a planet called Kolob, to have physical sexual relations with her. This is the essence of Mormon polytheism, an utter blasphemous heresy to Christianity.

Powerful stuff - no wonder you left! It is a travesty that more people don't know about these things....

This story SO needs to be posted on the FB page No More: End Mormon's Sexually Invasive Interviews of Children.

If you are so inclined, that would be awesome!

https://www.facebook.com/pages/No-More-End-Mormons-Sexually-Invasive-Interviews-of-Children/503622079732706

Heartbreaking! Thank you for posting this. I hope all the kids he hurt received counseling from a non-Mormon therapist, and not from the lay-clergy bishop.

This is terrible, shocking stuff. Like SD I hope all the kids got proper councelling and care. Poor kids, they were the victims not only of the predator, but of tscc total lack of responsibility!!!!

OP,

can you provide references to the Herget cases?

Found this through the almighty Google:

http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2002357046_offender04.html

the almighty google!

If I were a conspiracy theorist, I would ask if the guard was a Mormon who had been asked to save the church some embarrassment by providing this molester with the necessary tools to end his life...After all, in suicide watch they aren't supposed to have anything in the cell that could cause harm.

The Mormon Church is in Total Darkness

I have always known this, especially as a youngster.


Well said, RL...

Let there be Light

Wow Resipsa! I was in the Mountlake Ward for several years up until the Brier Ward split off from it (but still met in the same building). I wonder if our families knew each other. So sad to hear about this -- hits very close to home.

I was a member in the Mountlake ward years ago and know of another child molester who was active and trusted, had a leadership position there, who's arrest led to conviction. The molestation happened several years prior to his arrest. Somehow, he had supposedly repented and confessed to church leaders without the parents, the police, or anyone else finding out. The victem came forward years later.

Not to confuse people here. It seems there are two different anonymous posts here from two different people who belonged to the Mountlake ward in the past. What are the odds of that happening?

Actually there are three of us here from Mountlaketerrace when counting the Respisa. It's really not that big of a town so the three of us might even know eachother. When I was there, one member of the ward was a Mountlaketerrace police officer..., wonder if he was still there and if he made the arrest.

When the Mountlake ward split and formed the Brier ward (sometime around 1990, I believe), the Brier Police Chief was in the new ward. Are you talking about him, or someone on the Mountlake squad?

I'm so curious about who you and Resipsa are, and whether our families know each other. I live out of state now, but some of my family members still live in the general vicinity.

I think I know who you're talking about (the perpetrator). Did his initials happen to be M.A.?

Yes, I was referring to Max. I saw him working in the ward clerk's office some Sundays but didn't know what his calling was. Ordinarily, I would be more than glad to out a child molester by giving his last name. But I knew him somewhat and am not familiar with the details of the case. A news article I found last night said he plead guilty to some of the charges and was a good candidate for rehabilitation.

I moved away before the ward split but that police officer I referred to in the other post would have been in Briar I think.

I live out of state now but still have connections to people who live there. I'm curious who the other two posters from there are (probably know one or both of you).

It's just astounding the damage the Mormon church has caused in this world. Three people from the same small town who are unhappy with their church, over a thousand miles from Utah, in an area where they were a small minority when it comes to religions meet by chance on the world wide web, to discuss two different child molesters who belonged to their same congregation. In both cases, priesthood leaders knew about the molestations and allowed and concealed those acts. It's no wonder the whole religion is unraveling.

Anon (first guy) and Respita - Do you recall yet one more person in the Mountlake ward from roughly that same time period who was convicted of child molesting? I hesitated to mention this one because I know a lot more about this person and the case and I really believe he was innocent. The prosecution managed to supress information from the Jury that would have likely changed the verdict. This guy was younger and was liked and respected by both the men and the women in his peer group.

The church teachings about sex are so messed up that real child molesters get away with their crimes for years while others are falsely convicted. All in a small town congregation where Mormon culture and people are in the minority.

I don't remember any other sex offenders around the same time -- I only knew about the M.A incident because my parents told me about it.

About me: a few hints for Resipsa and the other Anon who attended the Mountlake ward back in the day. My dad was a counselor in the bishopric around that time (the bishop at the time was either G.H. or R.S.) My dad left the church shortly thereafter, and he and my mom got divorced. I'm the oldest child of the family.

Wow, what a post! To back you up I want to say that back in the seventies, in the Roseville, California ward, there was a man who sat in the foyer and solicited children to sit on his lap for a piece of candy. He was a re-activated member, and the ward wanted to keep him. Additionally, the Bishop was a perve. My sister and a female friend went to talk to him about dating protocol. "Are you two having a lesbian love affair?" he wanted to know. And when I was almost fourteen I was interviewed by a Mormon bishop who wanted to talk about my wiener.

http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_15202642

on May 1, 2009, Pratt professed his love for the girl, which sparked a two-month sexual relationship the girl believed was a prelude to marriage, even though Pratt had a wife and three children.

The girl testified of more than 30 sex acts, mostly fondling and oral sex. But on three occasions, she said, Pratt unsuccessfully attempted sexual intercourse.

She said the trysts occurred up Provo Canyon, on the roof of the seminary building, in a ravine near her Highland home, in an empty home, inside an abandoned mine near Eureka and at a hot spring near Goshen.

My family just dodged those bullets. We lived in the ward and stake next door. We moved in from another state, so had no idea what the set up was in the different areas. We came very close to living in that area. The only reason we didn't move to mountlake terrace, was because we couldn't find a house to buy. We ended up in Mill Creek. We only lived there for a year because we couldn't stand how snotty the Mormons were in that ward. After we moved, we left the church completely. Good riddance!

Where we lived was pretty bad, but not as bad as what I just read.
The good news is we are ALL out of the mormon church now. It's a petri dish for sex offenders. I've lived in a lot of different wards over my lifetime. There's been one or more serious sex offender in every single ward i've been in.

Any Mormon who thinks them and their family is immune to those types is living a fantasy. I suspect the Catholics look like choir boys compared to the mormons.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/16/2013 02:04AM by madalice.

Certainly disgusting how much of this goes on.

I read a few articles about this guy and it made no mention of him raping his own daughter in 1993. I hope the rest of this is accurate.

I have a problem with the last comment:
"This is the essence of Mormon polytheism, an utter blasphemous heresy to Christianity."

I could care less about blasphemy to Christianity, as it is as bogus as Mormonism. And the LDS church isn't the only one in which children are abused.

I don't understand the hypocrisy of supporting one over the other.

I knew Marcus Nash very well on several levels. I discussed things with him on number of occasions when I was Ward Mission Leader of the Mountlake Terrace Ward in 1999 and 2000. Nash was a true company man, and did exactly as he was told to do by the Salt Lake hierarchy. It was in 2000 when I discovered the factual history of the Adam-God Doctrine, and I went to him with the historical facts laid out so plainly that a fool could have understood.

You see, I worked as a litigation paralegal for attorneys in California for four years, and I knew that Nash was a lawyer. So I laid out the facts just like in a legal research memo, and he just looked at me like a deer in a car's headlights and said, "I don't see any facts, just conjecture." That's when I realized he was probably as bad a lawyer as he was a Christian. The truth about his inability to discern a person's heart and mind was declared when he interviewed David Herget, the pedophile, and accepted his contrition for sexually molesting his daughter. But the real kicker was when the General Authority, sent from Salt Lake representing the Mormon Prophet, accepted Herget's contrition. There was no discernment whatsoever on ward, stake, and prophet levels of authority.

Wow! Just came across this thread.

I lived in the Lynnwood, WA stake (Alderwood ward) from 1997-1999 and I knew Marcus Nash. I knew that he was a lawyer, but I had no idea that he was involved in defending the church.

I actually thought he was a pretty nice guy, but there is a world of difference between being a nice guy and having the power of discernment.

That, and I might very well have not viewed him as a nice guy under different circumstances.

I hadn't realized that my true remarks about Mormon sexual abuse had generated so many responses. I am glad to know that other people out there in cyberspace are obtaining the truth about Mormonism from the Internet. It seems that Tim Kosnoff, a fine and decent attorney in Seattle who handled a case for a Kent, Washington man who was sexually abused as a child in a Mormon ward, was right when he said that the Mormon Church is a haven for pedophiles. I knew Tim Kosnoff when I lived in Seattle. Parents don't really know the risks they are taking by entrusting their children to Mormon elders who are Boy Scout and Cub Scout leaders. Even members of bishoprics, Sunday school, Young women, and Young Men teachers and leaders are suspect.

Presently, there are over 20 federal lawsuits pending against the Mormon Church for sexual abuse, and what is really sad is the fact that Mormon General Authorities are also suspect for sexual abuse against children, and for immoral behavior. I was told off-the-cuff by several high-ranking Mormon Elders, in 1975 and 1978, that they knew that S. Dilworth Young, of the First Council of the Seventy, was a child molester when he was in his 70s. I was also told by a former employee of the Church Security Service, who was fired because of his allegations of hypocrisy against the First Presidency, that he had heard and seen Gordon B. Hinckley say immoral sexual things in his presence. His life was threatened when he told the Church Security Service that he was going to gp public with the information he had.

The very brief investigation that was, supposedly, conducted by the Mormon Church, when accusations of homosexuality and sexual misconduct were brought against Gordon B. Hinckley, was a joke. There were three solid witnesses who had testified against Hinckley that they knew that he was bisexual and had parties when he was a Mormon apostle where he enjoyed the sexual companionship of young men. Ed Decker mentioned this in his film, "The God-Makers, II." I did some investigating on my own and know that there was much more to the allegations than the Mormon Church admitted. It's investigation left Hinckley smelling like a rose, by there was a lot more to it than met the public eye. Invariable, where there is smoke, there is some fire, to some degree.

I am presently in Northern Virgina, and am doing my best to let Christians know about they are getting themselves involved in by investigating Mormonism. There are so many suckers out there who end up believing that the Mormon Church is Christian, and that its elders are empowered with discernment and the other gifts that Jesus gave his ancient apostles. I believed it for 30 years, until I woke-up and heard the real Holy Spirit calling me. Again, I am very glad my posting did some good.

Any paperwork, transcripts, or anything available that backs up GBH being a bisexual?

The evidence against GBH consisted of personal statements by people who knew him, and what he did, when he was an apostle in the 1960s, 70s. The Mormon Church did its best to make the witnesses look disreputable and unreliable, and the attorney representing the witnesses encouraged the LDS Church to file a lawsuit for defamation, so that the truth could fully emerge during a trial, but the Mormon Church never filed a lawsuit.

I wonder if the lawyer representing the witnesses has anything about Gordy giving and receiving handjobs. Either thesis guys were paid off, gad no real argument or Gordy shook the "gay" right out.

SO sorry to hear SUCH a tragic story. Thankyou for lettin us know!

It is really a matter of hypocrisy. If an educated Mormon really knew about Joseph Smith and the kind of person he really was, they would get out of, and far away from, Mormonism. Mormonism is based upon lies. It's 19th Century history is a story of deliberate doctrinal concealment and plural marriage practiced by Joseph Smith and his intimate circle based upon adultery. Mormons believe that God Almighty was a human being who became a god, with a capital G. They don't believe that Jesus was God until he was resurrected. They believe he was born a normal human beings and became God through changing. I can't believe, looking back, that I bought such heresy and believed it for 30 years. I hope God will forgive me. These Mormons with advanced degrees know the truth about the heresy they try to sell to Christans, but they have sold their souls to evil and try to make people believe that what is as black as coal is as pure as the driven snow. Unless these people repent, there's going to be a special place in hell for them. I know that there will be a special place in hell for Gordon B. Hinckley.

I never liked GBH, but my understanding was there was another person with same GH name who was a peddo, and the name thing stuck, and the story took a life of it's own. But that may be separate to these matters.

So, are we saying an apostle who "just" had regular sex with an adult female hooker is pretty normal?