So I took my kid to scouts and they hand me a form asking for help being a merit badge counselor. Part of it has a background check in it to make sure that I am a safe person for the kids to work with while I review them for merit badges.

So my MIL is there and mentions that the scouts have a 2 up rule with any kids where they require there to be 2 adults with one kid to prevent anything bad from happening. So I say, well that happens with the Bishop all the time, so why don't they have a 2 up rule for that too.

"Well thats for the Church, and the Bishop WOULD NEVER DO ANYTHING TO HARM A CHILD." PFFFT. So I say

"I have heard of stuff happening."

"Well if they are a GOOD Bishop, they will have someone in the OTHER OFFICE...so they won't be by themselves with the kid."

HUH?

Then she talks about how when FIL was Bishop, she spent many evenings in the FOYER on the couch so he wasn't there alone when he had interviews with the YOUTH and the WOMEN.

OH like that's really a barrier from a psychopathic power hungry bishop. Someone is down in the FOYER, so I better behave myself.

A former bishop of mine, who later served time as a stake prez, is doing time right now for molesting a girl.

You tell them that, and they get all "the church is perfect, the people aren't."

But then they go and say something like your MIL said to you, suggesting the people ARE perfect. It's like there's a short circuit in their brains!

Are you trying to seriously get me to believe the church is perfect but the members aren't?

Yes

Then, whether you realize it or not, you are admitting that the members aren't perfect. Why should I allow a fallible, middle-aged man with no counselling or spiritual training alone in a room with my underage child, asking personal - often sexual - questions? You said the members aren't perfect.

"Well thats for the Church, and the Bishop WOULD NEVER DO ANYTHING TO HARM A CHILD."

That kind of thinking is one of the single biggest reasons why (1) pervs gain access to kids and other vulnerable "prey", (2) kids and others acquiesce and become victims, (3) adults don't believe kids and others when/if they manage to reach out and ask for help, and (4) one perv can claim many victims.

I'm sad to say I had this type of mindset way into adulthood, that you could trust a fellow churchgoer/believer and that they would not perpetrate such crimes.

The biggest wake-up call, and the source of great disillusionment to me as we speak, has been the situation in the Catholic Church especially, but also others, where the rot has been proven to be systemic, not just restricted to an isolated perpetrator here or there. In some institutions, it is now known that the majority of the leaders, teachers, clergy and others were perving on their vulnerable charges, long term, even throughout generations of victims. (For example, in Canada, in residential schools, where victims were First Nations kids(Natives) and in a school for deaf kids, among others).

To compound the evil of such atrocious situations, the institutions in question, including churches (most notably, of course, the Catholic Church) sought to protect the institution, much harder than they tried to help the victims (if, indeed they even did spare a thought for the victims).

People need to wake up and smell the stinky coffee about who the perps are and where they find prey.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/29/2010 07:49PM by Nightingale.

I agree with everything you're saying Nightingale except there is no such thing as stinky coffee. To paraphrase an old song: Nothings quite as fragrant as coffee in the morning.

I have always wondered about that. A few years ago they went to Primary classes with male teachers having to leave their door open. Then it was a male can't even be alone in the room. He has to have another man in their or his wife. But a bishop can be alone with a female? I have heard horror stories about that very thing. Why the double standard? Just because he is bishop? And I guess immune to that sort of thing,or just to perfect.

Have you considered saying something like "*shaking head* You think this church can do no wrong." and then leaving her to stew on that. You might not be in a position to be that forthright, but I would have a hard time putting up with that kind of nonsense.

But there are MANY bishops who would. What's a good bishop anyway? I can only think of a couple in all my years as a Mormon. But there are other kinds of abuse and a kind that happens all the time, from stories I've read here and my own experience, that is verbal and emotional abuse. If a bishop has a teenaged girl in his office, who has been taught that the bishop is all powerful and you come into his office if you're summoned and answer his questions and he starts asking her all kinds of sexual things that are none of his business, having someone in the next room or the hall will do absolutely nothing to prevent it. The bishop I had in late high school was a pervert and there is no other word for it. But I know if I'd said anything to my parents about how uncomfortable it made me to go into his office, I would have been the one who got in trouble for even saying such a thing. They never in a bazillion years would have followed up on my worries.

I was actually shocked when I started going to other churches and found out that a male minister would never interview a young girl, without leaving the door open. Usually won't do that with any woman. There is so much sexual abuse in the mormon church that people just turn a blind eye to.

Is there anyway in the uk to let some authourity know that youngsters are being interviewed privately by an unqualified person about their sexual inclinations etc,surely this should not be allowed,or is it the case that if the parents permit it that makes it ok,I find it most disturbing.

Unfortunatly as unpaid clergy they are hard to track down and dont seem to fall under the same ruleset. But yes contact Scotland yard anyway thats where the police headquatrs or what ever its called still is I think.

blindmag Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Unfortunatly as unpaid clergy they are hard to
> track down and dont seem to fall under the same
> ruleset. But yes contact Scotland yard anyway
> thats where the police headquatrs or what ever its
> called still is I think.

Scotland Yard is for the Metropolitan Police, only. They cover a lot of London, but not all.

If anyone needs the contact details of any UK Police force HQ, please email me, I can let you have it. matt_exmo@yahoo.co.uk