1274: LDS Church

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, often called the Mormon Church, has protected and shielded child predators repeatedly. In December, 2023, The Associated Press did a story exploring just one of the many times the LDS Church has intervened to protect predators. The case they write about is unique in having recordings of the church’s efforts.

Floodlit is an organization that keeps a database of members of the LDS chuch accused of sexual abuse. Several law firms are helping survivors of abuse to sue the church for its efforts to protect sexual predators among its bishops and elders.

Along with moving accused clergy to other states, the Church as a Risk Management Division. When a young woman went to the police to report the years of sexual abuse by her father, a Mormon Bishop, the head of that division went to Idaho to persuade the bishop who had heard her father’s confession to refuse to testify. Ryttig, the head of the Risk Management Division presented himself as someone helping the young woman, but instead he was working to protect her father from prosecution, thereby protecting the Church. The AP story is devastating.

In another case in Arizona, a father confessed that he was raping his daughter on a church helpline, but rather than intervene to protect the children, the Church did nothing and allowed the abuse to continue and, in time, two more of his children were also abused. How were they saved? When authorities in New Zealand discovered a Child Sexual Abuse video of the father raping one of the children. The helpline, two Bishops, and LDS lawyers protected the abuser. Seven years of abuse that church leaders in Arizona knew of but it was only ended by law enforcement in New Zealand.

The helpline destroys all records of calls at the end of each day, but if the abuse is serious, the church does not call the police. It calls its lawyers. Perhaps if the helpline were part of the churches family counseling or children’s advocacy, but it’s managed by Risk Management which tells us all we need to know about whom it is heping.

Nothing the Church did is illegal. Of course, avoiding illegality is the lowest possible bar for those who claim to offer moral leadership. The Mormon Church is not alone in abdicating moral leadership when it comes to dealing with sexual abuse. The Catholic Church is paying a high price. The Southern Baptist Church is experience their own “come to Jesus” moment.

Churches have lost their moral authority by protecting predators.