Good for him... I fully expect to see him on this board in the future. Someone with his courage and love of truth is already on the way out, even if he doesn't realize it yet.
First questioning where FOS $$ goes. What's next? Asking where tithing goes? Send in $500k, and get back $8k for the ward? How much goes for salaries and private planes? $2,000 suits? First class travel? Summer homes?
"He(Stake President Roth) acknowledges talking with the bishop about releasing Thomas, and said the bishop decided that was the proper thing to do. Roth said it was because of general lack of support of scouting by Thomas, which he says is not appropriate for a Young Men’s president."
Aren't those types of conversations to be sacredly secret?
they had this high pressure salesman in the stake call everyone in the 6 wards individually. When he called me, I remember him naming individual members in my ward who had contributed large sums of money to FOS. His tactic was to compare to others by name. He encouraged me to donate money from my checking account every month, in the some of like $25 per month. I played with him, and acted like I was interested, and began reading off my checking accout number, but then half way through I said, "Ya know, I already pay over a $1,000 dollars a month to the church, I just don't think I want to pay anymore." He was also appalled. LOL.
Follow the money trail morgbots. You think FOS are getting large (undisclosed) salaries? Huh...pales in comparison to the Q15.
That's exactly what he is--a whistleblower who is being penalized for it.
Maybe at the ExMormon Foundation we can set up a Hall of Fame for whistleblowers who care enough about transparency to go public when they see the public being duped for the benefit of or with the aid of LDS, Inc.
First rule of Mormonism: Follow your leaders and bite your tongue.
Mormon leaders cannot STAND to have their authority challenged, and will ex other members faster for speaking up than for adultery in many cases.
I heard recently about a couple who were members of the orchestra on Temple Square, that plays weekly for "Music and the Spoken Word". This couple lived almost 100 miles from Salt Lake City, but faithfully drove almost a 200 mile round trip to play in the orchestra each week. They had to be deemed worthy by the church to particpate as musicians, and they obviously were very dedicated to TSSC to put so much time, effort and gas money into serving the church.
They made one big mistake, however. During the "Defeat Prop. 8" campaign the church led against same-sex marriage in CA" they had the audacity to say to other ward members that they disagreed with the church's stance on the issue, because they had some gay friends that they sympathized with.
WELL---those ward members ran straight to the bishop and tattled about what was said, the bishop contacted the couple and tried to strong arm them into a "meeting", and he also contacted the stake president to get him involved. They could see that a "court of love" was imminent, and were so scared and disgusted they resigned before they could be brought before a church court for the heinous crime of asserting an opinion that didn't fall strictly in line with what the priesthood deemed appropriate.
Yessir, there's no such thing as freedom of speech in the LDS church. I think the CHI was based on George Orwell's book, "1984" Big Brother is ALWAYS watching.
Sadly, tattling about trivial things is so prevalent. Perhaps Bishops could discourage tattling, both over the pulpit and by sending the tattler on their merry way to talk to the person they find fault with. Moreover, people should be encouraged to report important and substantial matters. Sadly many people don’t understand the difference between tattling and the need to report. The leadership should set the tone. If I were a bishop, I would refuse to act as a go between for inconsequential matters.
I worked with a doctor once who, when the FOS came to his home to collect a donation, wrote out a sizable check for them. He then proceeded to write a check of equal amount for the Young Women's program and offered them both. He was told they could not accept the check for the Young Women. He then took both checks, said, "That's too bad for both the scouts and the young women." and tore them both up.