John Doe – Cambridge, Massachusetts

Case report

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This case arose in the Cambridge Stake (Massachusetts) of the LDS church in 2018.

FLOODLIT found a comment on an LDS-themed blog that said the following:

“Today, for the second time in the space of two short months, the Cambridge Stake President stood at the pulpit and advised our ward to forgive a man who subjected his wife (according to her testimony in court, as corroborated by her psychiatrist) to indescribable abuse–spiritual, emotional, physical, sexual, psychological and medical. She was 20 years his junior, physically healthy, but died on September 24 [2018] at the age of 36 of unexplained “heart failure”. The husband is a neurologist, and they were going through a bitter divorce.

This doctor has verbally and physically assaulted various members of the congregation, one of whom is pursuing criminal charges against him. He has threatened to sue two different women for libel, one of whom housed his wife after he kicked her out. He created an enemies list of women who provided assistance to his estranged wife, who was literally homeless and penniless. Relief Society women saved her life (at least until she mysteriously died), but ward and stake priesthood leadership failed to help her in any meaningful way.

It is widely known what happened to her (the abuse over the years wasn’t subtle–we all knew something bad was happening), but the Stake President has yet to say a SINGLE WORD condemning abuse. Instead he has advised us to “embrace” this man and his family, despite the fact that women and children in the congregation fear for their safety.”

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