The Church Just Can't Win

[kgrigio]

Interesting to see how this one turns out and how the Church's critics spin this.

Oregon woman sues Mormon church for $10 million for revealing husband's child sex abuse

SALEM, Ore. – An Oregon woman is suing the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for $9.54 million after her husband's confession to church leaders led to his arrest, conviction and imprisonment on child sexual abuse charges.

The lawsuit, which accuses local church leaders of violating confidentiality and the "priest-penitent privilege," contrasts sharply with other cases accusing the church claiming the exact opposite – failing to report abuse to authorities and treating sex abuse like a sin instead of a crime.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/oregon-woman ... 01695.html

[Sunain]

Leads you to wonder if the church should even be dealing with sins of this nature at all. Crimes like this should be reported to the police and once a jury pronounces a guilty sentence, the person is excommunicated. There is a major difference between child abuse and adultery.

[Lizzy60]

There is no "priest-penitent" confidentiality privilege in the LDS church. There never has been.
Also, the Church has been very open in recent years that ALL suspicion about abuse must be reported to the police. NO exceptions.

She won't win this lawsuit.

[gkearney]

I was trained as a Chaplain in Australia. Priest-penitent privilege does not apply to crime against others and in particular children. This applies to all clergy and chaplains regardless of faith. This applies to Catholic priests just as it does to LDS bishops. My class was conducted at a Catholic seminary but had students from a wide range of faith Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Hindu this rule applies to all chaplains.

[tmac]

There is no "priest-penitent" confidentiality privilege in the LDS church. There never has been.

Do you mean with respect to issues involving minors, or in general? If you claim there is no general priest-penitent privilege, what makes you say so? And if that is the case (which it isn't), why would anyone ever discuss anything personal with LDS clergy?

[JohnnyL]

Interesting to see how this one turns out and how the Church's critics spin this.

Oregon woman sues Mormon church for $10 million for revealing husband's child sex abuse

SALEM, Ore. – An Oregon woman is suing the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for $9.54 million after her husband's confession to church leaders led to his arrest, conviction and imprisonment on child sexual abuse charges.

The lawsuit, which accuses local church leaders of violating confidentiality and the "priest-penitent privilege," contrasts sharply with other cases accusing the church claiming the exact opposite – failing to report abuse to authorities and treating sex abuse like a sin instead of a crime.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/oregon-woman ... 01695.html

When it's a confessed crime, no, there's no privilege.

What a big backfire. Now EVERYONE knows her husband is s child sexual abuser, lol.

[The East Wind]

The Church trains Bishops to call the hotline on abuse. So this women has no chance of winning. Anyone can sue for any reason. Doesn’t mean anything unless they win.

[Lizzy60]

There is no "priest-penitent" confidentiality privilege in the LDS church. There never has been.

Do you mean with respect to issues involving minors, or in general? If you claim there is no general priest-penitent privilege, what makes you say so? And if that is the case (which it isn't), why would anyone ever discuss anything personal with LDS clergy?

I believe almost every member of the church over the age of 40 has had enough experience with Bishops to know that some of them will keep confidences (not abuse or crimes, just your normal member problems) and others will confide in their wives, or maybe ask their wives for advice, and pretty soon the whole ward knows your business.

Lds "clergy"? We don't have clergy. We have volunteer, mostly untrained, unpaid leaders. There is NO confidentiality promised when you talk to a Bishop or a Stake President. That's called leadership roulette.

[harakim]

I was of the understand bishops do not have to report any crime unless it is murder or child sex-related crimes.

[ChooseTruth]

The Church trains Bishops to call the hotline on abuse. So this women has no chance of winning. Anyone can sue for any reason. Doesn’t mean anything unless they win.

Just to add to this discussion. The hotline is staffed and managed by the Kirton McConkie law firm. This assures that the church can claim attorney client privilege on behalf of the corporation.

[Believing Joseph]

Church doctrine requires disclosure and repentance. The lawsuit quoted Latter-day Saints' scripture Doctrine and Covenants 58:42-43:

"Behold he who has repented of his sins, the same is forgiven, and I, the Lord, remember them no more. By this ye may know if a man repenteth of his sins-behold, he will confess them and forsake them."

Nope, no repentance there. Making the authorities aware of what you did is the goal when you "confess" your sins. If it's a $5.5 million unintended consequence, then I'm pretty sure that the guy hasn't been forgiven and the Lord is going to keep remembering what he did.

[gkearney]

Just to clarify for legal purposes Bishops/Branch Presidents, Stake Presidents, Mission Presidents (in limited circumstances) and LDS Chaplains (when acting as such) are all considered to be clergy under the law. It doesn't matter if you are paid or not. I've never been paid.

Also chaplains cover a wide range of such postings including military, police, fire, hospital, private and public school (mostly in Australia and New Zealand), scout (that is what I am) and similar such posting. As a scout chaplain I had extensive training in dealing with issues surrounding issues of child sexual abuse and the absolute need to report such to the authorities. I will admit that I would be more likely to learn of such from a victim and not a perpetrator. My priest penitent privilege only exists in situations where I am working as a scout chaplain, camps and jamborees for example, and not outside of those settings.

It is also interesting fact that LDS military chaplains generally do not hold any ecclesiastical or priesthood office and are not set apart as such. The reasons for this is that there should be no intermingling of the role of chaplain, who are also officers, and church callings.