Mormon Missionary Hypocrisy
Former Mormon
missionary spared prison in Vegas child sex case
ASSOCIATED PRESS
LAS VEGAS (AP) - A former Mormon missionary accused of molesting two children at a church has agreed to a plea deal sparing him prison time.
John Misseldine will have his convictions dismissed if he completes five years of probation under terms of his plea agreement Thursday in Clark County District Court. He would not have to register as a sex offender.
Misseldine pleaded the equivalent of no contest to one count of attempted lewdness with a child under 14 and one count of coercion.
Prosecutor Stacy Kollins told District Judge Donald Mosley the deal "strikes a balance between justice and community protection."
Defense lawyer Robert Draskovich called the case against Misseldine flawed.
Misseldine, then 21, a Utah college student from Little Rock, Ark., was arrested in October 2003 after he was accused of fondling two girls, ages 4 and 7, in a classroom at a Las Vegas-area Mormon church.
Eastern Kentucky lawsuit accuses
Mormon missionary of sex abuse
Associated Press
Jan 30, 2007
(BEATTYVILLE, Ky.) -- A Mormon missionary who was accused of sexually abusing three people in 2005 during a missionary trip in Kentucky and Indiana has been sued along with the church by the mother of one of the accusers.
The eastern Kentucky woman contends that Jason Stark's conduct damaged her son psychologically, socially and mentally. The lawsuit says the boy, who is younger than 18, has suffered public scorn, ridicule and embarrassment because of Stark, who is from Idaho.
The case was filed in Lee County Circuit Court in December. The Mormon church asked last week that the case be moved to federal court.
Stark was charged in Lee County with two counts of sodomy and one count of attempted sodomy last February. He is scheduled for trial July 16th.
The church said in March that Stark had "been released from his missionary duties" pending the outcome of the trial. He is out on bond.
The church has asked that the lawsuit be dismissed, saying some of the claims might be barred by statute of limitations and that it cannot be held responsible for actions of someone not necessarily under its control.
Missionary charged with abusing 12-year-old convert
By Stephen Hunt
The Salt Lake Tribune
02/27/2007
A
Mormon missionary has been charged with fondling a 12-year-old boy he
had recently baptized, according to a criminal complaint filed Monday
in 3rd District Court.
Kyle Saucier, 20, is charged with one count of first-degree felony
aggravated sexual abuse of a child, which is punishable by six-, 10 or
15 years to life in prison.
One factor elevating the seriousness of the alleged crime is that
Saucier "occupied a position of special trust in relation to the
victim," according to the complaint.
The boy told a Salt Lake County sheriff's detective that on Dec.
24, 2006, he and his mother went to Saucier's residence to give him a
Christmas present, according to the complaint. Saucier "gave him a hug,
then reached into his pants, and touched his penis," the boy told
investigators.
A $50,000 warrant has been issued for Saucier's arrest.
Mormon men strip for the faith
November 15, 2007
Sidney Morning Herald
The 2008 Men On A Mission calendar.
A group of Mormon missionaries are the latest in line to strip for the photographer's lens.
A calendar called Men On A Mission is part of a project called Mormons Exposed, which aims to demystify the religion.
The calendar constitutes a significant break with tradition for a faith more commonly associated with straight-laced young men in white shirts, black ties and odd underwear.
The website www.mormonsexposed.com contains a remarkably racy promotion for the 2008 calendar, the first of its kind.
"Usually seen riding their bicycles and preaching door-to-door, these hunky young men of faith explode with sexuality on each calendar page," it reads.
"Hand-selected for their striking appearances and powerful spiritual commitment, the 'devout dozen' are stepping away from the Mormon traditions of modest dress, and 'baring their testimony' to demonstrate that they can have strong faith and be proud of who they are, both with a sense of individualism and a sense of humor.
According to Chad Hardy, the producer and co-founder of Mormons Exposed, "the calendar is intended to help debunk common misperceptions and dispel some myths about the Mormon religion - encouraging people of every belief system to be more tolerant of one another."
The website makes no mention of the Mormons' history of polygamy.
LDS conundrum: A few bad seeds or a need for more missionary training?
By Jessica Ravitz
The Salt Lake Tribune
03/14/2008
Robert Fotheringham had seen these missionaries at their best. He can speak to how they assisted the elderly, dug cars out of snowbanks and hauled firewood to people who were stranded.
So the news that broke earlier this week, after photographs
revealed three LDS Church missionaries allegedly mocking Catholicism
and vandalizing a shrine in San Luis, Colo., has left the Colorado
Springs mission president more than shocked.
"I can tell you story after story that's noble and uplifting and,
of course, this is just the opposite," said Fotheringham, who's served
this mission for about 2 1/2 years. The behavior depicted in these
pictures, taken in August 2006 and discovered on the Internet by a
Sangre de Cristo parishoner late last week, is "so counter to the
regular pattern that it's just stunning."
Two former missionaries, and one whose call has now been
terminated, reportedly snapped pictures of themselves preaching behind
a church altar, while waving a Book of Mormon, pretending to sacrifice
one another and holding the head of a Mexican saint whom one missionary
claimed to have decapitated. The photos, taken at the Stations of the
Cross, the Chapel of All Saints and the Shrine of the Mexican Martyrs -
all located on a mesa overlooking San Luis - were found on Photobucket,
a Web site. They have since been taken down, but their discovery and
their impact continue to rock the small southern Colorado town and have
set online chatrooms ablaze.
Many entries, including those on The Salt Lake Tribune Web
site, are cries of outrage and dismay, sentiments echoed by The Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which has issued an apology,
promised disciplinary action and vowed to seek ways to restore
goodwill. But handfuls of writers are swapping stories of similar
behavior from their own mission experiences.
Though people may chalk the behavior up to immaturity, typical of
the age, this explanation doesn't fly for Fotheringham.
"It's not enough for people to say they're just 19 years of age,"
the mission president said. "They're held to a much higher standard,
and that's part of the disappointment."
The events in Colorado raise the question: Are Mormon missionaries
properly equipped, through training, to go out into the field and
uphold this higher standard?
Mark Tuttle, spokesman for the LDS Church, said in a written
statement that Missionary Training Centers teach missionaries "to
respect people of all faiths, to be sensitive to doctrines and beliefs
that other religions hold sacred, and to obey the law. Once in the
mission field, mission presidents provide additional training on local
customs and traditions."
A former Provo MTC Finnish teacher, Anthony John, said he wasn't
aware of a "regimented senstivity training" and believed the
responsibility rested primarily on individual teachers. He, for
instance, remembered offering do-and-don't tips to his students and
discussing the predominance of the Lutheran faith in Finland, a
tradition that needed to be respected. His own mission president, he
added, encouraged him and the other missionaries to visit and simply
take in other churches on their free, or preparation, days.
"A lot of them were very impressive," said John, 27, who's working
on a master's in organizational psychology in Missouri. "Even as a
Mormon person," visiting other houses of worship "doesn't mean I can't
have a religious experience."
It's one thing, however, to be heading to a foreign country, where
obvious cultural differences are fodder for discussion and where
missionaries spend many more weeks in training, in large part because
they're learning new languages. John had his students for 11 weeks;
missionaries who don't need language training, he said, only attend the
MTC for three weeks. But Fotheringham was quick to recite from the
missionary handbook a line oft-repeated and meant to guide behavior for
the more than 53,000 full-time Mormon missionaries who span the globe:
"Respect the culture, customs, traditions, religious beliefs and
practices, and sacred sites in the area where you serve."
Perhaps nowhere have the repercussions of ignoring these guidelines
been more salient than they were in Thailand in 1972.
Only four years after the Thailand Mission was established, two LDS
Church missionaries touring an ancient and famous Buddhist temple area
whipped out cameras and snapped photos that sparked an international
incident and landed them in jail for six months.
R. Lanier Britsch, a retired Brigham Young University history
professor and author of From the East: The History of the Latter-Day
Saints in Asia, 1851-1996, recounted the story of what happened.
He said the young men were walking through the ruins, "a highly
venerated place," when they came upon a large Buddha statue that was
easily accessible. One elder climbed onto the statue, straddled the
Buddha's neck, placed his hands on the Buddha's head (the top of which
"represents the Buddha's enlightenment, his expanded capability,. .
.thus making the head the most sacred part of his body," Britsch
explained) and smiled for the camera.
The Thai store proprietor who was later asked to develop the film
was so upset when he saw the images that he submitted them to a
newspaper. The two young men "paid a rather severe price for the
indiscretion," serving six months in a Thai jail, and the incident "set
the church back for many years" in that part of the world, Britsch
said. And this, he added, wasn't an event that left anything broken.
What happened in Colorado, he said, "sounds like zealous
antagonism," worse than the "momentary cultural insensitivity" that
happened in southeast Asia.
"I find it unconscionable and extremely difficult to explain,"
Britsch said.
As for what punishment seems appropriate for these three
missionaries who served in Colorado, the historian speculated that that
will take care of itself.
"Their souls are going to be roasted for years over this. I don't think anyone else is going to have to put their feet to the fire.. . . They're going to feel so stupid."