Dee Groberg was an evil man. What he did to those poor missionaries in Tokyo South harmed hundreds of young people and their families and left damage unto the second and third generations (and counting).
Well, curiosity got me and I had to check the service out. You can watch a recording of it if your curious too. The service wasn't at an LDS chapel. Seems there have been some very tough times in the family relationships. My heart goes out to them. The children all tried to say something positive but they all also mentioned a lot of shortcomings that he has to answer for. Half of them didn't end their remarks with the standard 'cheese n ramen'. Not a Mormon standard funeral.
Kikuchi was a speaker and he still is delusional. Spoke of SWK and says they did nothing wrong and he was a great mission president. You can check it out at around the 25min remaining time stamp if your interested. Mind boggling too, that you can read memorials at the site and other sites that have praises for the guy from "his" missionaries. One of his APs from the mission gave the closing prayer.
Yes. That's where I did my sentence. Groberg was the only Prez that I knew. Worst 2yrs of my life. (Guess I can't say that. I enjoy Japan) One of his daughters mentioned in her tribute speech that Dee had spent the last 15yrs living in Cambodia. She was thankful that he returned to the states to face some of his "demons" before he died but she never felt that he was remorseful or made meaningful connections with him. She praised her mother for being a saint. Another son said it had been 10yrs since he had seen his dad and probably 10yrs more before that. It was really saddening to hear such dis-function in the family no matter what I thought of him.
Maybe karma is a real thing.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/30/2022 03:53AM by mankosuki.
I will watch that clip. Groberg/Kikuchi is a topic that has fascinated me over the decades due in part to the circle of people I met, people who must have been your contemporaries.
One of those missionaries, John F, told his parents about the abuse and they went to David Haight, who was a personal friend as well as head of the missionary committee. Haight did nothing: no apology, nothing. John later told me that he spoke to Groberg--this would have been in the early 2000s--and he displayed some regretfulness. I once met Kikuchi in the presence of a relative who challenged him in no uncertain terms. Kikuchi just defended himself and denied any knowledge of what you guys had gone through.
I can't imagine living as those men did, having harmed so many people and having done so much damage to the church's reputation in what was once a high-baptizing place. I just looked up Groberg's LinkedIn page and the man doesn't write well. It's funny how the monsters of the past sometimes turn out to be such sad little men.
Appears Groberg and Kikuchi are the true poster boys for the entire church as illustrated by this bit from runto's writings which defines what has always been and will always be the vile poison systemic in the Mormon church. I see this in my own brother in spades and I hate to say it, but in my mother as well.
"But rather than reaching out to help the missionaries or, at the very least, warning bishops and other leaders of the difficulties the RMs were bringing home, the brothren in SLC swept the whole thing under the rug, leaving the isolated and traumatized missionaries to work through the social ostracization, self-condemnation, and disillusionment in solitude.
"Even today we cannot share these stories with Mormon friends. The truth is that the one thing the religion can never forgive–other than diety’s intransident decision, contrary to the urging of his prophets, to create a certain percentage of his children gay–is the arrogance of those who dare to have been harmed by the Church. It would be inconvenient and embarrassing, after all, to ask leaders to admit mistakes…
"Let the Lord sort it out."
Let the Lord sort it out! which is the Mormon answer to everything, translates to, " We wash our hands of anyone who doesn't do exactly as we say. Screw you puppets. Do what you are told--or else!"
They also confidently assume that The Lord will "sort it out" in their favor because, after all, he's Mormon Jesus.
So an appropriate rejoinder might be, "What will you do if The Lord decides that church leaders have always been wrong about everything? Suppose he 'sorts it out' and both you and the church are on the losing end?" My bet is that they won't be able to process this possibility or even comprehend it.
Most folks don't recognize this as a quote from Heber J. Grant. He spent his mission in Japan. In later years he said that the Japanese should all be machine gunned, baptized for the dead, and let the lord sort it out, since they were so non-receptive to his missionary efforts.
Hedning Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > In later years he said that the Japanese should > all be machine gunned, baptized for the dead, and > let the lord sort it out, since they were so > non-receptive to his missionary efforts.
I went through decades of upsetting "back on the mission" dreams like many RM's do. I can't imagine the dreams of those who served under Kikuchi and Groberg. I can't even imagine just remembering while awake how bad the treatment was.
We were just 19 and straight out of the house. Who was ready for that?
As much as I was temperamentally unsuited to be a religion salesperson, at least I had decent, reasonable men as my mission presidents. I shudder to think what life would have been like under the likes of Groberg.
The report on the funeral as being less that fully "Mo" caught my eye. I'm not so sure it is karma, as it is a simple "you reap what you sow."
I spoke at three family funerals. I slapped the pro forma "in the name of JC" on the end of the first two. They were good Christian people, if that is not too much of a cliché, and I was OK with dusting off my Mormonese for the occasion. In the last one, I left it off, I didn't think Jesus should be dragged into that one. It was a difficult and awkward decision, but once you don't say it, the moment is irretrievably over, and there is no point in worrying about it. It is what it is.
That particular parent was a bit of a Groberg, so I think I will pass on watching this funeral. I don't need the memory dredged up.