Did the Mormon church “grandfather in” known sex offenders in 1995, when it launched its abuse “help line” and started placing confidential annotations on membership records for child abuse?
In other words, did the church tell its members about the abusers it already knew about?
What did the church do in 1995 to combat child abuse?
From https://news-uk.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/child-abuse :
“Since 1995 the Church has placed a confidential annotation on the membership record of members who previously abused children. These records follow them to any congregation where they move, thereby alerting bishops not to place them in situations with children. As far as we know, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was the first religious institution to create such a tracking mechanism.”
In 1995, the Mormon church also launched its abuse “help line,” a telephone hotline for bishops, stake presidents and other church leaders to call for guidance from social workers and church attorneys:
https://floodlit.org/help-line/
What did the church know prior to 1995 about child abusers in its ranks?
Prior to 1995, some LDS church members were convicted of crimes related to sexual abuse. Here are 70+ convicted in the 1980s alone:
https://floodlit.org/when-convicted/convicted-1980s/
Convictions prior to 1980: https://floodlit.org/when-convicted/convicted-1900s-1970s/
Others were never criminally charged, but had faced church discipline, including excommunication. Example: https://floodlit.org/a/a187/
Our research into the Boy Scouts “perversion files” shows that Mormon officials knew of at least 14 alleged sex abuse perpetrators between 1966 and 1979:
https://floodlit.org/findings-mormon-official/
Did church officials annotate their membership records to prevent them from working with children?
Why did the church wait 11+ years?
We recently reported our discovery of a 1984 lawsuit against the Mormon church regarding sexual abuse:
https://floodlit.org/uncovering-knowledge/
In 2012, a church risk management official stated under penalty of perjury that the first such lawsuit was not filed until 1989:
https://floodlit.org/findings-mormon-official/
We are trying to find out the reason for the discrepancy.
Why did the Mormon church wait for at least 11 years after that lawsuit to create its help line or start annotating child abusers’ records?
Were abuse victims punished too?
Previous Reddit discussions on church officials placing “annotations” (restrictions) on abuse victims:
- https://www.reddit.com/r/exmormon/comments/152493l/do_lds_abuse_victims_ever_have_confidential_notes/
- https://www.reddit.com/r/exmormon/comments/4ge37j/do_bishops_place_an_annotation_on_membership/
A timeline of sexual abuse in the Mormon church: https://floodlit.org/timeline/
If you have any information about this topic, please comment below or contact us. Thank you!
Get involved: https://floodlit.org/get-involved/
