The following is posted with the permission of the author. A few minor
spelling errors have been corrected.
From: <Cassandrahera1@aol.com>
To: <sterlingda@greaterthings.com>
Sent: Sunday, March 25, 2001 12:54 PM
Subject: GTcontact
I was reading of Holly
Borden's testimony. Too often, priesthood supports priesthood when the
wife, daughter, employee,,,,,whatever, tries to "tell" when there is
gross abuse going on. Where I live in the Cedar Town branch in Georgia, almost
6 years ago, there was a branch clerk who's wife went to the priesthood about
him and that there were severe "problems". They drove her from the
church and he continued to attend and fulfill his calling. his wife threw him
out of the house and the whole branch put their arms around him and wept with
him and supported him in his calling while he was moved in living with a
single sister sleeping in the bed with her son. One Sunday he elatedly told
everyone that he obtained a position as manager of the local toy store, a
position he said he had greatly desired for the longest time. He was arrested
for molesting several children in that store. He said he didn't and the
"priesthood" and the sisters supported him and wept with him and
told him that the Lord would help him. They did release him from his calling.
While he was out on bail, still living at the single sister's home sleeping
with her son, he molested several other children. During the trial he still
held to his innocence and then the single sister began to be implicated in the
molestations, and he confessed, ending the trial. Not long after that, they
made this sister 2nd counselor in the primary presidency where she destroyed
the first Christ centered primary they had ever had there and the children
were, for the first time, eager to attend. She did this through lying and
manipulation and she succeeded and the primary children were left alone with
that sister because the primary president resigned her calling in the face of
all the trouble she (the single sister) caused. Today there is still an
apostate group of some denomination, meeting in that building. They are not
latter day saints. I have caught them refusing to use the church materials and
teaching from handwritten texts that do not resemble the approved lesson in
the manuals. The branch president's wife, a couple of years ago, told a new
move in who was the chorister that she should never teach "those book of
mormon" songs to the children. She had stopped this sister in the middle
of class and pulled her aside and told her that "the children wouldn't
understand them and the parents would be very angry and forbad her to ever
teach the Bof M in that primary. This kind of thing has gone on for years and
every new person who is baptized is there one or two weeks and then they are
gone and never return and won't let anyone come to their house or say why, so
the same "core" group stays in control. I, myself, have been the
victim of "verbal abuse" and mistreatment at their hands. I am no
ignorant person. I have served as RS president and I have served in 2 stake RS
presidencies in California and Alabama. Why am I telling you all this? Because
no one else cares or believes they are that wicked in Cedar Town , Georgia But
none the less, no one stays in that branch. Even I do not attend but once in a
while because of their mistreatment and insulting behavior and refusal to
adhere to the doctrines of the Church.
Why do I tell you these things about Cedar Town, Georgia? Because I have
learned that those within the church who call themselves
"priesthood" are not always of God. "The enemy is
combined." Holly Borden's post prompted me to write. I can imagine what
that family has gone through when initially, they tried to get help from a
bishop or home teacher. And I have no doubt they did. We cannot say what a
beautiful new suit the Emperor is wearing because the Emperor has no clothes.
Do you know that story? Why do you think, oftentimes these things are not
reported and the priesthood dealt with before damage is done? For the simple
reason that these Bishops and Stake Presidents have submitted the names of the
mentally and spiritually sick man to leadership and been told that they had
response from the Lord Himself that the man was pure and dedicated and good
for the calling. They don't want to admit to higher ups that they had been
wrong. So wives, children and church members suffer and the result is that the
whole church suffers.
cassandra
From: <Cassandrahera1@aol.com>
To: <sterlingda@greaterthings.com>
Sent: Sunday, March 25, 2001 2:05 PM
Subject: Re: GTcontact
In a message dated 3/25/01 2:07:54 PM Central Standard Time,
sterlingda@greaterthings.com writes:
<<
Thanks for sharing this.
Would you mind if I posted it as feedback to that Boren
page?
By the way, have you tried contacting the 'higher ups' in the church regarding
this situation you are talking about?
I'm surprised it has persisted. It ought to be put to an end.
Sterling >>
__cassandra__
No I do not mind if you use it. I hope someone will see it and do
something. I have reported to the stake president. Our branch was
"occupied" for three years by brothers and sisters who had been
assigned as stake missionaries to teach the proper ways to the locals. Some of
what the locals do went on anyway behind the backs of those assigned and as
soon as the former high councilman who was our assigned branch president, left
it was business as usual. I think the stake president is a very good brother
who simply is at a loss as to what to do. When things are reported, and he
moves to correct them, they say the same line they have used for 30 years.
"Please forgive us. We are just ignorant country people. We didn't know
any better." And if the stake were not to believe that,,,,,,,it would
mean the closure of the building since there would not, then, be enough worthy
priesthood to preside if they dealt with the perpetrators. You may want to
remember (I am going to tell you) that the head of church security attends
that branch at least he says he is. It is to their credit (he and his family)
that they only come for sacrament meeting most of the time and don't associate
with the branch members either. This family was very, very, very instrumental
in helping the church establish the Atlanta Temple. No one wants to admit that
the emperor has no clothes. I don't know, really, just how deep the apostasy
goes and to whom. Most do not want to believe that anyone group of people
could be that wicked. They go into immediate denial. I only know that no one
ever stays and that they teach false doctrine and I know that because they
made the mistake of making me librarian and I had a church manual to follow
along with. One of the men who is so spiritually and emotionally abusive
behind closed doors, was the most upset when I reported this to the stake. The
core group was completely upset and irate. Wouldn't you think they would be
happy to find out that their teachers were not using the manuals so they could
change it? All I know is that this has gone on for many years before I moved
here and correction has not come yet. The only thing I can guess is that there
are some who fear stepping on toes. And others just faint in their minds at
the horribleness of it all and take the easy way out by believing that what
they continue to do over and over again is just "accident". The high
councilman that was our branch president for 3 years took them step by step
through the manuals over and over again and also was an excellent example of
love and charity for them to follow. There is no excuse for what they do.
These people are not country bumpkins. The one with the meanest spirit is a
church employee who is over the building maintenance in the stake. He shows
one face to the brethren and another face behind closed doors. He has been a
high councilman himself. Anyway How intelligent do you have to be to know that
in a small town where a church officer is on trial for child molesting,,,,that
you don't put the single woman he lived with in the primary presidency? If
your purpose is to cause the church to grow, do you do that? Where are these
people that have been baptized over the years. Two of the good brethren who
moved here from somewhere else, visited every in active in the branch that
would let them in. (most won't) EVERY one that would talk to them said they
don't attend because things are not right there.
I took classes on abuse and one of the things that was taught is that when
abuse is going on that it is common to blame the victims and support the
perpetrators. That is what happens in Cedar Town. I was also taught that
because, initially people don't want to believe such ugliness that the victims
should keep telling and telling and telling and telling until SOMEONE does
something.
cassandra
