Hot Take - Woman who alleges MTC president raped her is filmed testifying about him in church
Oh boy. I don't know how to talk about this one without offending someone. I have just read this news article, and have not gone to other forums to fine tune my thoughts yet, this is a hot take, my opinion may change or become more nuanced, but I wanted to say something, as part of my own process.
In this article, McKenna Denson was training as a missionary in 1984 in Provo, when she alleges Joseph Bishop, the Missionary Training Center’s president at the time, raped her in a basement room.
Sunday she went to the home ward of Joseph Bishop, in Fast and Testimony meeting called him out. There is a video of it on the site
I'm not sure what I fully think here, it is complicated. The court has dismissed the charges due to statute of limitations. But her lawsuit against the church is still ongoing. These things are hard to prove without any evidence after more than 3 decades.
I want to first talk about what she did Sunday. Regardless of what happened 30 years ago, and frustrations at the legal system, Sacrament Meeting is not the place for airing your grievances. Fast and Testimony meeting is not your personal soap box or forum to right the wrongs of individuals or society. It is a place to partake of the sacrament and to bear testimony of god and his love for you. What she did was wrong. No way around it. Wrong. Head shaking wrong. The kind of wrong you don't need Jimmy Cricket to tell you which way to swing.
Now with that being said, I do not know why she has just now brought these charges after all these years. I am not here to judge. It is possible that she had to process what had happened, I do not pretend to understand what she may have gone through. She is going on her own journey, and most likely frustrated with how the court's decision makes it seem like no one is on her side.
What I hope and believe is that the Church does not take these things lightly. They are investigating this the best they can after all these years. Especially when they have a very public damning lawsuit pending. So who do we believe? I have learned that most times the truth is somewhere in the middle. Something happened. You just don't just get accused of rape and of misconduct by multiple people unless you have done one or many somethings. Something happened, even if it was not capital R rape, something along those lines happened. Maybe it was a misunderstanding or mixed signals. But when you are in a position of power like that, you know that you have to keep better eye of how you behave yourself. The fact that the court dismissed it due to statue of limitations and not for lack of evidence. They are unable to prosecute due to the time that has passed. Something happened
Now, this is where the skeptic in me comes out. If we are to believe in the spirit of discernment. I believe that I had it when I was on my mission. Now? Not so much. But I did at one point know what people were thinking and feeling very intuitively. I could sniff out liars and those who were wasting my time. Wouldn't the church have one of their leaders that they believe has this gift talk to these two and discern the truth once and for all. Now I know that we cannot force god's hand, but wouldn't this be one of those things that he would reveal the truth of what happened and let us move on? This and many other situations like this are so troubling to me. It feels like to me that the churches lawyer, or the guy that talks to the lawyers could ask "God, did this guy do it? YES!! K, thanks, Cool. And how about this guy? INNOCENT! Okay, now how about this Trump guy?...." God seems to be more than willing to give people guidance to what to have for lunch (I am serious, that was a frustrating F & T meeting), but cannot reveal the truth to whether or not we have put flawed men in positions and situations to cause great harm to people.
It is days like this that strain and test my faith. It feels like that the Church is just run by men, good men mind you, like a business, with no less guidance than I get from the almighty every day. I know that you are going to say mysterious ways and what not. But his way seems more like mismanagement of personel than divine intervention.
In this article, McKenna Denson was training as a missionary in 1984 in Provo, when she alleges Joseph Bishop, the Missionary Training Center’s president at the time, raped her in a basement room.
Sunday she went to the home ward of Joseph Bishop, in Fast and Testimony meeting called him out. There is a video of it on the site
I'm not sure what I fully think here, it is complicated. The court has dismissed the charges due to statute of limitations. But her lawsuit against the church is still ongoing. These things are hard to prove without any evidence after more than 3 decades.
I want to first talk about what she did Sunday. Regardless of what happened 30 years ago, and frustrations at the legal system, Sacrament Meeting is not the place for airing your grievances. Fast and Testimony meeting is not your personal soap box or forum to right the wrongs of individuals or society. It is a place to partake of the sacrament and to bear testimony of god and his love for you. What she did was wrong. No way around it. Wrong. Head shaking wrong. The kind of wrong you don't need Jimmy Cricket to tell you which way to swing.
Now with that being said, I do not know why she has just now brought these charges after all these years. I am not here to judge. It is possible that she had to process what had happened, I do not pretend to understand what she may have gone through. She is going on her own journey, and most likely frustrated with how the court's decision makes it seem like no one is on her side.
What I hope and believe is that the Church does not take these things lightly. They are investigating this the best they can after all these years. Especially when they have a very public damning lawsuit pending. So who do we believe? I have learned that most times the truth is somewhere in the middle. Something happened. You just don't just get accused of rape and of misconduct by multiple people unless you have done one or many somethings. Something happened, even if it was not capital R rape, something along those lines happened. Maybe it was a misunderstanding or mixed signals. But when you are in a position of power like that, you know that you have to keep better eye of how you behave yourself. The fact that the court dismissed it due to statue of limitations and not for lack of evidence. They are unable to prosecute due to the time that has passed. Something happened
Now, this is where the skeptic in me comes out. If we are to believe in the spirit of discernment. I believe that I had it when I was on my mission. Now? Not so much. But I did at one point know what people were thinking and feeling very intuitively. I could sniff out liars and those who were wasting my time. Wouldn't the church have one of their leaders that they believe has this gift talk to these two and discern the truth once and for all. Now I know that we cannot force god's hand, but wouldn't this be one of those things that he would reveal the truth of what happened and let us move on? This and many other situations like this are so troubling to me. It feels like to me that the churches lawyer, or the guy that talks to the lawyers could ask "God, did this guy do it? YES!! K, thanks, Cool. And how about this guy? INNOCENT! Okay, now how about this Trump guy?...." God seems to be more than willing to give people guidance to what to have for lunch (I am serious, that was a frustrating F & T meeting), but cannot reveal the truth to whether or not we have put flawed men in positions and situations to cause great harm to people.
It is days like this that strain and test my faith. It feels like that the Church is just run by men, good men mind you, like a business, with no less guidance than I get from the almighty every day. I know that you are going to say mysterious ways and what not. But his way seems more like mismanagement of personel than divine intervention.
Hey Mike, so I can totally relate on the last paragraph. I get that we have agency and all, but seriously should some of this be avoided? Particularly in cases like these.
ReplyDeleteAs I have thought about this more, while these things should not happen, regardless of the reason, it gives me comfort that it is very unlikely that this kind of thing could happen now. Not saying that it is impossible, but unlikely. I think it was the culture back then. Total trust and allegiance to the organization was the feeling back then. Not just in the church, but it was how the country was around then. It was trust authority, they know better than you. And upper management did not trust the public to understand, and was just easier to bury the truth and lies, and just not talk about it. It was easy with newspaper and tv new was the only source of info.
DeletePeople just accepted it that way. Today, we have been betrayed by leaders and organizations enough to know better. I and many others now take a Trust, but verify stance.
So this is in no way an excuse, what these people did was wrong, or how they handled it was wrong. But sometimes there is a bit more context to why people do what they do.