Last week, MormonLeaks released a recording of a woman confronting an LDS missionary leader she said tried to rape her. We’re talking about what the Church is or isn’t doing to protect its own.

Last week, the whistle-blowing group MormonLeaks released a recording of a woman confronting the man she said tried to rape her at the LDS Church’s Missionary Training Center. The story was especially shocking because the man was then President of the MTC. It’s a position with significant power and influence over young, faithful Mormons. Tuesday, we’re talking about how the Church and its members are reacting and what Mormon leaders are or aren’t doing to protect their own.

Guests:

Lee Hale, KUER religion reporter

Angela Clayton, LDS blogger at By Common Consent and at Wheats & Tares

Lindsay Hansen Park, Acting Director of Sunstone and host of the podcast Year of Polygamy. She also blogs at Patheos

Natasha Helfer Parker is a Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist and Certified Sex Therapist. She's president of the Mormon Mental Health Association and hosts the Mormon Mental Health Podcast

Last week, MormonLeaks released a recording of a woman confronting an LDS missionary leader she said tried to rape her. We’re talking about what the Church is or isn’t doing to protect its own.

Last week, the whistle-blowing group MormonLeaks released a recording of a woman confronting the man she said tried to rape her at the LDS Church’s Missionary Training Center. The story was especially shocking because the man was then President of the MTC. It’s a position with significant power and influence over young, faithful Mormons. Tuesday, we’re talking about how the Church and its members are reacting and what Mormon leaders are or aren’t doing to protect their own.

Guests:

Lee Hale, KUER religion reporter

Angela Clayton, LDS blogger at By Common Consent and at Wheats & Tares

Lindsay Hansen Park, Acting Director of Sunstone and host of the podcast Year of Polygamy. She also blogs at Patheos

Natasha Helfer Parker is a Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist and Certified Sex Therapist. She's president of the Mormon Mental Health Association and hosts the Mormon Mental Health Podcast

This is the story of Joseph L. Bishop, MTC President from 1983-1986 who had a secret room in the MTC where he would take sister missionaries, so he could see their breasts(his own words) and according to the woman interviewing him; to rape and sexually abuse women.

He went undetected by the Prophet and their so-called spirit of discernment, until she came forward, which is always the case in these sex abuse cases. Many times the local & General Authorities don't even report it to law enforcement when they do know about it and it has been reported to them, like in this case. This should really cause current Mormons to think about how this is possible if their leaders are truly called by spirit and inspiration as Gordon B. Hinckley taught and as Henry B. Eyring said in the October 2017 Priesthood session:

"For instance, it takes faith to believe that the resurrected Lord is watching over the daily details of His kingdom. It takes faith to believe that He calls imperfect people into positions of trust. It takes faith to believe that He knows the people He calls perfectly, both their capacities and their potential, and so MAKES NO MISTAKES IN HIS CALLS.

That may bring a smile or a shake of the head to some in this audience—both those who think their own call to serve might have been a mistake as well as those who picture some they know who seem poorly suited to their place in the Lord’s kingdom. My counsel to both groups is to delay such judgments until you can better see what the Lord sees."

So according to the 2nd most powerful man in Mormonism, "The Lord" knew this man was going to do this to women and called him anyway=it was meant to be and part of the Mormon God's plan.

Pretty sick, isn't it? Mormon leaders like to say, through Eric Hawkins, their Mormon Bagdad Bob of lies, that "they have a ZERO tolerance for sex abuse" but I'd say they have a 100% tolerance for sex abuse, as proven time and time again & as repeatedly taught by former Apostle Richard G. Scott in General Conference.

I'm sure more victims will come forward, hopefully, if they feel safe to do so. Maybe this will give them the courage, after all these years, to tell THE TRUTH and their story, finally!

Thank you Mormon Leaks and to the person that leaked the audio to them.

This is the link to the entire transcript of the interview:

https://mormonleaks.io/wiki/documents/f/fd/2017-Joseph_L_Bishop-Transcript.pdf

On January 21, 2018, David Bednar, Apostle in the Mormon Church, visited three stakes in Houston, TX. He visited the Houston, Tomball and Kingwood Stakes.

This is the talk he gave at one of those stakes.

There is no one more arrogant than David A. Bednar, in the BIG 15..the arrogance drips from every word he speaks. Get ready for the day he becomes Prophet..maybe he can finish things off & drive away the last true-believer if we're lucky.

Thanks to Mormon Leaks for posting this audio & for the person that sent it to them. They need to be exposed!

Wednesday, we’re talking about new LDS Church President Russell M. Nelson, other changes in the First Presidency, and how the Church may meet the challenges of a global faith in the 21st century.

Tuesday morning, the LDS Church announced the new leader of the faith. It was no surprise that Russell M. Nelson was called; there’s a clear succession plan when a president dies. It was a surprise though that he replaced the popular leader Dieter F. Uchtdorf as a counselor in the First Presidency, the highest governing body of the Church. So Wednesday, we’re talking about Nelson, the “new” face Dallin H. Oaks, and how they may meet the challenges of a global faith in the 21st century.

We want to hear from you. What do you see as the social, political, and faith challenges facing the LDS Church? What are you hoping to hear from Church leadership? Send an email to [email protected] or comment below.

Guests:

Lee Hale, KUER religion reporter

Joanna Brooks is a professor of English and comparative literature at San Diego State University. She is the author or editor of nine books including Decolonizing Mormonism: Towards a Postcolonial Zion [Indie bookstores|Amazon], due out in May with University of Utah Press. She is also the chair of the Dialogue Foundation supporting Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought.

Janan Graham-Russell is a PhD student at Harvard University. Her research focuses on the dialogue between Afro-Atlantic identity, religious experience, and contemporary Mormonism. Her work has been featured in Mormon Feminism: Essential Writings [Indie bookstores|Amazon] and A Book of Mormons: Latter-day Saints on a Modern-Day Zion [Indie bookstores|Amazon]

Thomas S. Monson, President of the LDS Church, has died at the age of 90. Thursday, we’re talking about his life, the course of the Church during his tenure, and what comes next for Mormonism.

Thomas S. Monson, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, died Tuesday at 90 years old. President Monson had served in the role Mormons regard as “prophet, seer, and revelator” for nearly a decade. Thursday, we’re talking about his life and legacy, the course of the Church during his tenure, and what comes next for Mormonism. Our guests are historians Patrick Mason, Andrea Radke-Moss, and Greg Prince, as well as Church observer John Dehlin.

Remembering the life and legacy of President Thomas S. Monson (1927–2018). From the official Thomas S. Monson Facebook page.

Guests:

Patrick Mason is the Howard W Hunter Chair of Mormon Studies at Claremont Graduate University. His latest book is called What is Mormonism? A Student's Introduction [Indie bookstores|Amazon].

Andrea Radke-Moss is a history professor at BYU Idaho and a contributor to the Mormon history blog Juvenile Instructor.

Gregory Prince is an independent historian whose books include David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism [Indiebound|Amazon] and Leonard Arrington and the Writing of Mormon History [Indiebound|Amazon].

John Dehlin is a psychologist and founder/host of the podcast Mormon Stories

Read more from KUER News:

LDS Church President Thomas S. Monson Dies At Age 90

Utahns, Others Share Memories Of Mormon Leader Thomas S. Monson

Thomas S. Monson: Mormon Faithful Recall A Great Leader Sharing Humble Stories

How A New Mormon Prophet Is Chosen

Utah Senator Steve Urquhart says the LDS Church “effectively snuffed out” his bill to strengthen the state’s hate crime laws.

Last week, the Church criticized any legislation that would upset the “careful balance” Utah achieved between LGBT rights and religious liberty with last year’s anti-discrimination law. Wednesday, Urquhart and others will join us to talk about the timing of his bill, what balance should look like it, and why proponents argue the state’s current hate crime law falls short.

For a complete list of guests & links, please click here:

http://radiowest.kuer.org/post/utah-and-hate-crime-law

A great show by Doug Fabrizio, on RadioWest, entitled "The Mormon Jesus", from July 14,2016.

Did you know that in the 1850s some Mormons argued that Jesus was married and had children? Or that even today, there’s LDS theology around Jesus Christ that leads Evangelicals to say The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints isn’t really Christian? Thursday, scholar John Turner is Doug’s guest. He’s written a book called The Mormon Jesus and he joins us to discuss how the LDS concept of Jesus Christ has changed over time, and what it reveals about Mormonism in American religious life.

John Turner is a historian of American religion who teaches at George Mason University in Virginia. He's the author of Brigham Young: Pioneer Prophet [Indiebound|Amazon|Audible] and a new book The Mormon Jesus: A Biography [Indiebound|Amazon]

On Wednesday, July 27, Turner will deliver the Smith-Petit opening lecture of the Sunstone 2016 Salt Lake Summer Symposium. His talk is entitled Jesus Christ, Marriage and Mormon Christianities It begins at 7:00 p.m. at the University of Utah Olpin Student Union, and is free and open to the public.

http://radiowest.kuer.org/post/mormon-jesus

A great show by Doug Fabrizio, on RadioWest, entitled "The Mormon Jesus", from July 14,2016.

Did you know that in the 1850s some Mormons argued that Jesus was married and had children? Or that even today, there’s LDS theology around Jesus Christ that leads Evangelicals to say The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints isn’t really Christian? Thursday, scholar John Turner is Doug’s guest. He’s written a book called The Mormon Jesus and he joins us to discuss how the LDS concept of Jesus Christ has changed over time, and what it reveals about Mormonism in American religious life.

John Turner is a historian of American religion who teaches at George Mason University in Virginia. He's the author of Brigham Young: Pioneer Prophet [Indiebound|Amazon|Audible] and a new book The Mormon Jesus: A Biography [Indiebound|Amazon]

On Wednesday, July 27, Turner will deliver the Smith-Petit opening lecture of the Sunstone 2016 Salt Lake Summer Symposium. His talk is entitled Jesus Christ, Marriage and Mormon Christianities It begins at 7:00 p.m. at the University of Utah Olpin Student Union, and is free and open to the public.

http://radiowest.kuer.org/post/mormon-jesus

"Woven into the story, the history will be some of the issues that sometimes rise associated with church history and our doctrine. We try to cover those with some essays which are linked to lds.org under Gospel Topics. The Brethren two years ago gave us twelve questions to answer. They included 'œRace and the Priesthood'€, 'Polygamy'€, '€œThe translation of the Book of Mormon', on and on. Nine of those have now been answered and three questions remain to be answered and we are still working on those.

We should conclude our work by the end of this year. If you haven'€™t had a chance to look at those essays, we'€™d encourage you to do so and share them with your friends.

We are in the process of letting leaders, stake presidents and bishops know about them so they can be a resource in the event that some of their members are having questions or challenges about those issues. 'Book of Abraham' essay was just released in July, that's the most recent of the nine essays that have been published on-line.

I think it'd be helpful to know how we chose to roll those out. It was a soft roll out. There wasn'€™t an announcement saying '€œYou can go to this website to learn everything weird about the Mormon church you ever wanted to learn.' (Loud Laughter from the audience) But yet we had a lot of people struggling with some of these issues. We were loosing young people particularly. And we felt we owed a safe place for people to go to get these answered.

So they were deliberately kind of placed in an existing database, so they wouldn'€™t..You know, 90% of the church probably couldn't care less, they don'€™t worry about such things. But we do have some folks who are on-line and we felt like they needed a safe place to go to get answers if they had questions.

So I don'€™t think you are gonna see a well publicized campaign to tell you to go to these sites. But we just, you know, the people that are interested seem to kind of pass the word amongst themselves. And the only other thing is that leaders now will have access to them.

And I think the long- probably the greatest long-term benefit will be: These are answers that have been vetted by the, reviewed by the Quorum of the Twelve and the First Presidency and they have signed off on these answers.

And now curriculum and seminaries and institute can safely weave these essays into a future curriculum to in a sense '€œinoculate'€ is a word I use quite a bit for the rising generation. So, they can learn a little bit about these things without being totally shocked when they hear them for the first time. Does that make sense? ('yeah'€ from someone in the audience) Yeah, OK.

So, don'€™t expect a big campaign. I think there'€™s been a lot of interest within maybe a small percentage of church members but my view is most of the church really is not troubled, members are not troubled by these."