Does the Mormon church protect sexual predators?

Yes. By not prioritizing the victim's safety. The predator's crimes are instead hidden under the guise of repentance and not wanting to ruin a family, while also keeping the church's image squeaky clean. When a minor tells their PH leader they are being abused, the first call should be to the police. Not some flunky at Kirton McConkie.
Every action the church takes after learning of abuse, is to protect the church. If it weren't, the hotline would work a lot differently.

sallygirl75

There are numerous examples of them doing so.

swordsman1989

Yes.
With the Church, visuals are everything. Things must look perfect. Victims don't matter. They're either lying or being wicked by not turning the other cheek. Disgusting.

jrrelzinga

Yes. And sadly, many members and local leadership are often willing to accuse innocent people of sexually predatory behavior without proof. That happened to me.

darthyagi

I think considering the news and articles that are being reviled, I think the answer is a resounding yes.

kf7heh

Yes

brian-caulfield

Not intentionally. They have some now famous screw ups and a system that is not designed to recognize and correct mistakes so those things get perpetuated. I hope it will figure things out though and improve in the future.

Brandon Shumway

It certainly doesn't do anything to prohibit them. And that's the real problem. There is no supervision or oversight for the ludicrous amounts of adult-child interactions, especially between male leaders and young girls. Most are trustworthy enough, but you don't have to look hard to find bad apples and sickos.

Yes.
More to come.

heather-borean

Unfortunately, yes. They could be more transparent and utilize more safeguards to prevent the issue to begin with.

downingj

Yes, a thousand times yes. If you don't believe me, google the topic and convince yourself, based on the content and volume of the stories, that I'm wrong. I'll venture that you won't be able to though.

Anonymous

It seems so. The church seems to have done a lot in the act of "preserving the good name of the church". There is a pattern of gaslighting and dismissing victims and skipping legal (and moral) requirements in favor of forgiving perpetrators. For example, leaders are instructed to call a hotline when dealing with issues of abuse - and the hotline is to the church law firm presumably so that the church can keep things quiet rather than to actually care for the victims. The church has punished those who publicly seek to protect children while quickly forgiving and quietly restoring sexually abusive priesthood holders.

For example, lookup and compare two people who are relevant here. First, Sam Young, a former Bishop and leader of the Protect LDS Children movement who was excommunicated for speaking out. Secondly, Joseph Bishop, a former MTC president who sexually abused sister missionaries in the basement of the Provo MTC. Bishop was barely chastised and even protected by the church while Young was excommunicated. This doesn't seem right to me, following any example of Jesus we have would care for the victims rather than worry about the name of the church and involve lawyers. These are just two examples among many more. Who should the church listen to and who should be considered for church discipline?