The following post from another site troubles me...

"The June 2011 Sunstone arrived Saturday. Kenny Kemp of SLC described returning to his Latin American mission field after 30 years. He met Juan, who had served as a regional rep. before going inactive for 15 years.

Juan's story: he was awakened one night by a call from SLC telling him to get to the mission home. Two gringo elders had run over a young girl, then fled the scene. Juan was told to go to the hospital and tell the father the church would pay all medical bills if he signed a release exonerating the Church and the elders. Meanwhile the mission president took the elders to the airport and put them on a plane out of the country.
Juan went to the hospital and advanced the father some money, but the father wouldn't sign the release. Meanwhile the Church made several more payments. Finally the father signed the paper, after which all Church payments stopped. No one from the Church followed up on the girl's condition. (She was damaged for life)."

(http://www.postmormon.org/exp_e/index.php/discussions/viewthread/29156/#497280)

The reason it really troubles me is because I don't even doubt it. A few years ago I visited the Dominican Republic and wanted to visit the Temple. I had time to attend one session very early one morning. During my visit to the Temple and while waiting for the first session of the morning, I had the opportunity to meet and chat for a bit with one of the workers, he may have been in the Temple presidency or serving a mission there, he was from the U.S. He was happy to chat with someone who was not a local and to talk a bit about the church, his time in the DR and you all know how it goes... We started talking about the crazy drivers in the city and how dangerous it was for pedestrians. Then he shared with me that the American missionaries were instructed that if they hit someone they should leave the scene and go to the mission home. The Mission President would get them out of the country in the next flight. I was shocked to say the least, he must have read my face and said that if they stayed they would probably be thrown in jail and given life or something, you know how the rules in those non-American countries are. I was taken aback but after the explanation I understood. I, of course, had a wonderful session in the Temple. But really, that has always bothered me. I kept thinking is that honest? Is that legal? What about the love for the people? What about that poor person whose life would be changed forever? What about accountability? What about respect for these people and their country? Isn't hit and run a crime?

I get sad the more I learn about some of the practices of the Church but I also get angry when I see cases like the above. Well, just another story jumping out of my shelf!

D

I served in south america 12 years ago. There was an office elder that had to finish his mission stateside because he was in a car accident. The crazy thing is it was just a fender bender. But it didn't matter, the church doesn't deal with that sort of thing with the missionaries. They just send them to another country.

mission, hit a motorcylcle and fled the scene. Other drivers who saw it, boxed him in and stopped him several blocks from where the accident occured. (The mission vehicle had not been impounded so I took my keys and got to vehicle and took it to the mission home.)

The mission pres was out of the country but his wife (a crazy, hysterical, paranoid person) was still at the mission home. I was the 1st assistant and when Elder Nelson (the 2nd assistant) called me from jail and asked that I not say anything to the mission mother I agreed as she was so out of control all of the time over minor issues, we were both certain of the impending explosion.

I called the churches lawyer and he went to work on the hit and run. I called the mission president, He went bersero and told me I was not to go to bed until Nelson was released from jail and that I was not to allow Elder Nelson to spend the night in jail. It was now about 11:00 pm. There was no time to work on this. We came up with a plan to take the sister missionaries to the jail lst thing in the morning. When they brought Elder Nelson out, one of the sisters ran up to him and put her arms around him and told him to fake a back injury.

We were finally able to get Elder Nelson to a hospital with a police guard out side his door. Elder Nelson had 6 weeks left in his mission. We hauled his work to the hospital for him to work on. At the end of the six weeks, the lawyer finally had gotten him realease but he wasn't to leave the country as we were waiting on the court proceedings. We paid the security people at the airport to ignore Elder Nelson, and he and I flew out.

The cheating, lying etc., in this experience made me realize that lying for the lard was standard proceedure. Gawd did not hold a sacred shroud around his servants. That, along with several other not so sacred experiences brought some reality to me. It still took some time for me to flee the cult for good but my mission was a great wake up call for me.

"We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law."

. . . unless we'd rather not

I can't believe they screwed that little girl like that. Reading about the corrupt system in Latin America, I'm glad they protected the Elders, but why not pay off the family? It would be so little money to LDS, Inc. for ruining their lives.

It reminded me a bit of another story I read about a BYU student who fell through a grate neard the SWK Tower at BYU. His ripped his jeans and was taken to the hospital to be treated for any injuries. The whole time, BYU was pressuring him to sign a release form and they would buy him new jeans. Their main concern was not: "is he okay?" or "can we help him out", it was "how can we buy him off and limit our liability"? As a student with lousy insurance, he could have been stuck with serious medical bills that they would be liable for, and they wanted to buy him off with a pair of jeans.

I think it's despicable when corporations pull this stunt, but that's the nature of corporations. A religion is supposed to put other people's welfare first, which is why I call them LDS, Inc. They are just a religious-themed corporation, out to make a profit by peddling their prophet.