Floodlit.org has learned that two former LDS Social Services commissioners (who were also stake presidents) allegedly failed to report child sexual abuse. We’re looking for your stories if you’ve had any interactions with them or with LDS Social/Family Services.
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- Larry Whiting
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- Harold Brown
Larry Whiting and Harold Brown each led LDS Social Services for the Mormon church – Whiting in 1984 to 85, and Brown from 1976 to 1981 and 1985 to at least 1999:
https://rsc.byu.edu/salt-lake-city-place-which-god-prepared/historical-highlights-lds-family-services
They also were each stake presidents who allegedly knew about but did not report child sexual abuse to law enforcement.
Both Whiting and Brown were mandated reporters because they were licensed social workers when they allegedly learned of child sexual abuse, yet both of them allegedly hid behind the clergy-penitent privilege and did not report to the Utah Division of Child and Family Services (DCFS) or police, as described below.
We are curious if there are more cases of alleged failure to report abuse by Whiting or Brown, when they were stake or mission presidents.
Larry Lamar Whiting
Larry Whiting was Alan Bassett’s stake president in Fruit Heights, Utah in the 1980s: https://floodlit.org/a/a780/
Bassett’s criminal case is currently ongoing in Utah, proceeding through pre-trial motions. Bassett’s former bishop, Dean Wade, told the court that he referred Bassett’s alleged child sexual abuse to Whiting, who he said called church law firm Kirton McConkie “about what ought to be done,” but did not call police.
Whiting went on to become the director of administration for LDS Church Welfare and a mission president (Texas Fort Worth Mission, 1998 to 2001).
Harold Call Brown
Harold Brown – Sterling Van Wagenen’s stake president in Salt Lake Cottonwood Stake, in the 1990s: https://floodlit.org/a/a408/
Brown allegedly failed to report Van Wagenen to police, instead encouraging Van Wagenen to turn himself in.
Despite two years of being disfellowshipped, Van Wagenen went on to work as an adjunct professor of film at church-owned Brigham Young University (BYU) as well as direct the Mormon temple endowment film in the 2010s.
- https://www.reddit.com/r/exmormon/comments/dm2fwp/sterling_van_wagenen_temple_video_director_byu/
- https://www.reddit.com/r/exmormon/comments/bpht6o/i_keep_getting_asked_by_people_if_my_story_has/
In addition to heading LDS Social/Family Services for at least 19 years, Brown was an area seventy, regional representative, mission president (Utah Provo Mission, 2006 to 2009), and temple president (Draper Utah Temple, 2012).
Did you ever work with LDS Social/Family Services?
We’re trying to understand more about the role LDS Social/Family Services has played over the past few decades, and especially between the early 1980s, when litigation related to child sexual abuse began to increase dramatically in the United States, and 1995, when the LDS church established its telephone “help line” for bishops and stake presidents to call for guidance in cases of alleged abuse.
We’re looking into the history of child sexual abuse in the Indian Student Placement Program, which fell under the LDS Social Services umbrella.
We’re also looking into reports that unwed mothers some who were victims of sexual assault were coerced to give up their babies to “worthy” LDS couples, via the LDS Family Services adoption agency.
Another area we’re studying related to LDS Social Services is conversion therapy for homosexuality.
According to a 1991 Provo Daily Herald article, “Harold Brown, director of LDS Social Services, said the church continues to assist homosexuals trying to change orientation and believes such therapy is successful in many cases.”
https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/469680862/
Basically, if you ever worked with or interacted with an LDS Social/Family Services program or therapist, we’d like to hear from you.
Support our work: https://floodlit.org/donate/
I did work for them in 1979 for a yr doing adoption home studies. I know then, they were putting a lot of pressure on young women to give up their babies for adoption and also telling them to say they did not know who the fathers were, when in reality they did, as they were trying to avoid having to deal with any father’s rights. Those and some other things really upset me so I left in 1980.
Around 2002 or 2003, I knew of a case where a stake president in Davis County had sexually abused his daughters little grade school aged friend who lived next door. The Church quietly did a Church court and never reported that case. One of the people who served on the church court had a wife who was a social worker and who had been sexually abused as a child. I never understood why he went along with them not reporting it or her either. I didn’t stay in touch with them anymore after I found that out. It was really disturbing that this individual never had to be held accountable for what he did. I know about this as I had worked with the wife of the man who served on the church court.
I knew of another case in Salt Lake County around 2003 where a young woman was told by her Bishop and a counselor at LDS Social Services not to turn her father in for trying to sexually abuse her again (the girl was now college age). because she would be breaking up an “eternal family.” I was friends with her fiance’s family and she talked to me about this and asked me what I thought about it as it had upset her so much and she felt like she was being undermined and discounted as a victim. I told her it was wrong and that they should not have swept her sexual abuse as a child under the carpet and should not be trying to do that as a young college woman. She was so upset her mother had sided with the Bishop on both occasions and was protecting her father not her. The Church did the same thing with him. Her mother insisted he be at her wedding in the Temple and she was so upset about it but did not want to have a lot of family problems on her wedding day so let it go. It is a terrible thing when the Church and some family members side with the perpetrators over victims. It is not wonder victims feel such despair.