Ferocious Apologists of Mormon Sexual Child Abusers in Idaho

One of the worst cases so far, showing how far blind faith LDS members are willing to go to cover up sexual child abuse happened in Eastern Idaho. Journalist Peter Zuckerman, wrote a multi-part story : Scouts' Honour in the Idaho Falls Post Register newspaper.

The story began when journalist Peter Zuckerman and the Post Register began a legal fight to unseal court documents and obtained copies of the court records for civil and criminal lawsuits,revealing multiple instances of sexual abuse by local Boy Scout leaders, including a man named Brad Stowell. In 1997, Stowell had been convicted on two counts of sexual abuse of a minor. What was unknown to the public - and what the court records revealed - was that Stowell had admitted under oath in a court deposition in 1999 to molesting 24 boys, beginning as far back as 1988. And yet, Zuckerman learned, Stowell remained a Boy Scout leader of an LDS Boy Scout Chapter. "Inspired" LDS ecclesiastical leaders, as you will see in hundreds of cases posted on this blog, knowingly harbored a pedophile, because protecting the image of the LDS Church is always more important for the woolf pack of LDS Apologetics, than preventing children being sexually abused.

We will describe the cases, the perpetrators, some of the victims in posts but in this post we will focus on how the LDS members in the area reacted to this "whistle blower". Devout LDS members will always as a knee jerk reaction defend their faith, even when they are totally wrong. Most often they will use character assassination on those who reveal truth that is inconvenient and attack the victims.

The national Boy Scouts of America and its local affiliate, the Grand Teton Council, had hired powerful lawyers to ensure that the public would never have access to the court files and hear the whole story about Stowell. Moreover, one high-level local official of the LDS Church, which sponsors most of the Grand Teton Councils scout troops, was aware not only of the allegations, but also that Stowell had undergone sex offender counseling.

When The Post Register published Zuckerman's Articles in 2005 the paper was immediately accused by the LDS community of being anti-Mormon, anti-Boy Scout and anti-American. Advertisers canceled ads. The newsroom - staffed by many Mormons and former Scouts or Scout leaders - felt the pressure even when, in an open letter to readers, the paper's Mormon-born, Eagle Scout publisher defended the series.

Meanwhile, there was a story brewing behind the stories. The reporter Peter Zuckerman is gay - a detail he and the newspaper considered irrelevant to his reporting. But even before the "Scouts' Honor" stories were published, the Grand Teton Council issued a denial and provided its leadership with guidelines on how to respond to the articles. A wealthy local LDS Businessman Frank Vandersloot, owner of Melaleuca, The Wellness Company, (which Owns Nicole Miller Skin Care) spent huge amounts on ads in the Post Register decrying and attacking what it called biased reporting, and spotlighting Zuckerman's homosexuality, Zuckerman became part of his own story in a way he had never imagined.

Yet, the Post Register continued to uncover and publish documentation of other local Boy Scout incidents of pedophilia, including that of an individual who was convicted in 1991 of raping boys in Utah.

Eventually, Zuckerman left Idaho Falls, run out of town by those who opposed his reporting. But his work at the Post Register on the "Scouts' Honor" series resulted in the public identification of four local pedophiles and, perhaps more significantly, sparked a successful effort by the victims' families to change Idaho law and eliminate the statute of limitations on prosecuting perpetrators of child sexual abuse.

Peter Zuckerman won many National Journalism awards for exposing the sex abuse scandal and the Coverups by the Boyscouts and the LDS ecclesiastical leaders, including the Scripps Foundation's 2005 National Journalism Awards for distinguished service to the first amendment. Frank Vandersloot leading a woolfpack of LDS apologists and the Grand Teton Counsil, however will always be remembered for their dishonorable heartless actions. To this very day they still attack the victims and their families and the Post Register: (also notice comments from a divided community):

http://www.idahofallstoday.com/2006/05/07/embers-of-vs-post-register-burn-hot/

http://www.idahofallstoday.com/2009/02/24/dean-miller-fired-from-post-register/#comment-29743

Trust us -these ferocious LDS members will never cease to attack the victims and the whistleblowers that exposed their LDS Church leaders and told the truth about them. As we will document in more posts to come, the LDS Boy Scouts Leaders and the LDS Church did not learn anything from this scandal.

The atrocities and coverups was documented in the PBS show: EXPOSÉ: America's Investigative Reports: In a Small town: Links to videos in 2 parts: After this preview trailer.



In A Small Town part 1

In A Small Town part 2

It is our sincere hope that lawsuits will bring justice and restitution to the victims and their families. We will not forget them and they are on prayer lists.

This sex abuse scandal paved the way for removing the statute of limitation on child abuse cases in Idaho. Similar cases involving the LDS Church and LDS Boy Scouts leaders in Oregon removed the statute of limitations in the state of Oregon. It is our hope that this will happen in Utah too, to bring justice to the staggering number of victims of sexual childhood abuse , that LDS Ecclesiastical leaders have covered up. Laywers have work for decades and settlements is going to cost the LDS Church hundreds of Millions of dollars, in settlement out of courts. The lawsuits may be announced by local media, but will in 95 percent of all cases be settled out of court, to prevent the public to from knowing about the astronomical amounts the LDS Church has to pay for the poor leadership of the LDS lay clergy. We estimate that the LDS Church is going to pay at least 5 billion dollars in punitive damages to victims of sexual child abuse. You will not be able to read that in the Ensign magazine! Or hear that mentioned in general conference speaches.

Truth and justice will finally prevail. Ironically it takes a gay man; Peter Zuckerman; to shows us the truth and to do the right thing. The LDS Church and LDS scout leaders and local LDS members however, show us what they really are: a bunch of bigots, hypocrites and ferocious apologists of Mormon sexual child abusers. Matt 7:16 Ye shall know them by their fruits.

It Has to Stop Now!

President Thomas S. Monson, ecclesiastical leaders and members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saint: We will no longer remain silent about the sexual abuse of children in the church and organisations affiliated with the LDS Church like Boy Scouts of America.

In spite of the fact that we only see the tip of the iceberg, when various media report about cases of sexual childhood abuse among members of the LDS Church. We know that thousands of sexual childhood abuse cases never see the light of day, and that victims and their families suffer in quiet desperation. We know of hundreds of cases, were local ecclesiastical leaders covered up and silenced victims and their families. We know of hundreds of cases were ecclesiastical leaders on all levels in the church hierarchy harbored sexual child predators and did nothing to prevent them from having access to children in positions of trust. We have letters from families pleading the First Presidency to intervene and stop the spiritual abuse of victims and families, when the perpetrators of the abuse were local ecclesiastical leaders like Bishops. Nothing happened! It has to stop now!

We believe that protecting the image of the LDS Church is less important than preventing sexual child abuse. We find it more important to help the victims of sexual child abuse and their families by bringing perpetrators to justice in worldly courts of law. Over and over, we see that the "Courts of Love" and church disciplinary actions fails to bring justice, restitution, closure and protection to children in the church.

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." - Edmund Burke.

Most members of the LDS Church are not aware of the magnitude sexual childhood abuse by LDS Members has. They may have heard of the sex abuse crisis in the Roman Catholic Church, but think that this could never happen in the LDS Church, where the belief is that the Church is lead by Christ and God, who calls Church leaders to their positions. The authority of these church leaders can not be questioned and this blind faith is part of the problem. "

We have lost our patience and trust in Church leaders ability to handle and prevent sexual child abuse in the LDS Church. By starting this blog and documenting sexual childhood abuses we try to raise awareness to a problem you do not want to hear about. The church pays many millions of dollars every year to victims, that were betrayed by church leaders, who knowingly put "Worthy" priesthood holders and women in callings, where they have access to children, in spite of knowing that they have a history of sexually abusing children - sometimes for many decades.

We are tired of the cover ups, the denial and even persecution of victims and their families, who do not obey the Church's order to keep silent. We even see members of the LDS Church defending the perpetrators and persecuting members of the press. You may think that paying millions of dollars to settle these cases outside worldly courtrooms, so they world will not hear about it, will make the problem go away. You are wrong! As long as LDS Church members keep having blind faith in their ecclesiastical leaders, and do not follow the guidelines to prevent childhood sexual abuse, it will continue to be a problem. Checking all members criminal records or sex offender registries before (Checking with God) "Calling" them to positions in trust of children - must happen in every branch and ward all over the world. Adopting a "better safe than sorry" policy is needed and is a start.

We are going to write about the many cases, were victims and their families were betrayed by Ecclesiastical leaders neglecting their responsibility, and abusing their authority to coverup sexual childhood abuse and worse - failing over and over again to protect children, by harboring these predators. We are going to keep writing and speaking up, until there are no more cases to write about. We are going to keep writing until every victim have gotten restitution and punitive damages. We are going to keep writing to raise awareness about this problems, until policies that prevent sexual childhood abuse are enforced on all levels in the church hierarchy. We care more about our children and the victims, than the image of the LDS Church. It is our hope that you will begin to do the same.

Matthew 18:6 But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.