MTC President Sexually Assaulted Sister Missionaries

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

That was fast. I can't find his listings on Deseret Book Co's website.

- Doc

[_Fence Sitter]

To be clear, it is obvious this anonymous woman alleges Bishop attempted to rape her in a room in the basement of the MTC back in 1983 or 1984.

It also appears she confronted Bishop some time last year regarding her allegations.

I am not saying it did not happen.

All I am saying is it does not sound to me like Bishop is admitting, or confessing, that it happened.

Again, if I am wrong, I am happy to have it pointed out to me.

But it seems like much of the internet commentary on this is saying or assuming that Bishop did confess.

it is even part of the opening post on this thread.

Consig,

Your lawyer background is overriding your Mormon background. I served a mission before this event transpired. If a woman started making the accusations she has, in the manner she is, even though it was that long ago, I would be denying it at every opportunity. Explicitly denying it, as in "that absolutely did not happen."

So while a court of law may care how he is responding, the court of what probably really did happen is strongly against him being innocent.

I find it hard to believe that this is a case of an old man deep into dementia. Why in the world would anyone who is charged with taking care of such a mentally incapacitated elderly allow any sort of unsupervised interview to take place?

[_Craig Paxton]

Wow...this is a shocker. I know bishop, he was in my stake when i was growing up. Always seemed like the all American successful wiz kid. When he was at WSU, his kids burned their free university provided house to the ground playing with matches. Did i say that this is a shocker?

[_Sammy Jankins]

I find it hard to believe that this is a case of an old man deep into dementia. Why in the world would anyone who is charged with taking care of such a mentally incapacitated elderly allow any sort of unsupervised interview to take place?

I think many people would not have anticipated a hostile interview even with a mental condition. So I wouldn't read into that at all.

[_consiglieri]

Consig,

Your lawyer background is overriding your Mormon background. I served a mission before this event transpired. If a woman started making the accusations she has, in the manner she is, even though it was that long ago, I would be denying it at every opportunity. Explicitly denying it, as in "that absolutely did not happen."

So while a court of law may care how he is responding, the court of what probably really did happen is strongly against him being innocent.

You may be right about this. I have already had another friend tell me he thinks I am thinking about this too much like a defense attorney. I am doing my best to be fair to the evidence as I have skimmed over it.

I think this guy is definitely guilt-ridden about something having to do with sex. No surprise there, what with his scoring a perfect ten on Bob's Mormon Cred Scale.

He seems to feel badly about giving another sister missionary a back-rub at the MTC. Now I can't imagine a sister missionary asking for a back-rub from the MTC president, and I can't imagine an MTC president giving a sister missionary a back-rub, but he does seem to be bent out of shape about it. So I am guessing it probably happened.

Then there was some lady who comes over in a skimpy bathing suit when he is a bishop in Florida. Not sure what happens, but it sticks out in his mind. He seems to feel guilty about this, as well.

Then there is something that happens when he is looking at a girl on a swing when he was serving his mission in Argentina. Not sure what, if anything, happened there. But he seems to feel plenty guilty about this, as well.

Then there is apparently some incident with GAs (?) in a hot tub in Utah. She thinks it is Wyoming, but he corrects her to Utah. But he never gets around to saying what, if anything, happened in this hot tub. (Shades of Ed Decker!)

(One of the problems I have is that at several points right when it sounds like Bishop might be on the verge of saying something important, the lady interrupts him and gets him off track.)

When he is confused about who this sister missionary is, I think that is understandable since it is about 35-years ago and he is 85. Here I am talking about her identity as in who she is, not what took place.

And then when he is casting about to see if he remembers who she is, he asks if she is this one sister missionary, and she says she isn't. Then he asks if he is this other sister missionary, and she says she isn't.

This is being interpreted by some as admissions that he had inappropriate sexual contact with these other sister missionaries, too, and he had so many dangerous liaisons that he can't keep them straight.

I can't tell from the transcript whether that is the case, or whether he just can't remember the identity of this one sister missionary and is asking if she is this one, or that one.

Okay, having said all that, there is one inculpatory statement he makes that jumped out at me.

And maybe I misread this.

But it seemed like this lady was telling him that when they had their MTC interview 35-years ago, Bishop told her a story about how his wife would flash her boobs at him at restaurants.

It seemed like Bishop agreed with her at this point, not necessarily that he remembered telling this sister missionary about this, but agreeing that his wife did in fact flash his boobs to him when they were out at restaurants.

If I am reading this correctly, this would seem to be strong evidence that Bishop did, in fact, tell this sister missionary about his wife flashing him in restaurants.

I mean, where else would she have heard this if not from him?

It is such an unusual story that this alone would seem to corroborate this aspect of the sister missionary's account of her interview with Bishop.

And this aspect of the sister missionary's story, if true, would be so inappropriate for the MTC president to be sharing with a sister missionary that it makes it easier to believe that the inappropriateness didn't end with Bishop telling her the story.

Still trying to get my head around this, so to speak, and I appreciate your willingness to hear me think out loud.

[_consiglieri]

That was fast. I can't find his listings on Deseret Book Co's website.

- Doc

New Church PR guy Richard Turley calls an emergency meeting this morning.

What should we do?!

Issue a statement that says we are horrified by the allegations and we will cooperate with the police in any investigation?

Begin an internal investigation to get to the bottom of how many young ladies may have been assaulted by Bishop?

State publicly that from this time forward, no interviews of any sort will be conducted one-on-one behind closed doors?

"Those are all good ideas," says Turley, "But I have a better one."

"First thing we do, we pull this guy's books from Deseret!"

[_consiglieri]

Not . . . making . . . this . . . up.

http://www.byustore.com/30-Ways-To-Love ... ion-Bishop

[_Sammy Jankins]

I have to say that I agree with Consig about the interview. I’m not a lawyer but he never really admits he did it. He says that he is sorry for the pain he caused. He says that he was addicted. But the word addicted is misused when it comes to sex addiction within Mormonism. And unfortunately I think his age does have to be considered. He does sound somewhat confused to me.

I’m not saying his lack of explicit confession means he is innocent or even implies he is innocent.

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

No one is going to wonder why he was confusing her with, oh, I dunno, other women that he admitted to, uh, doing things with? C'mon.

- doc

[_DoubtingThomas]

I have to say that I agree with Consig about the interview. I’m not a lawyer but he never really admits he did it. He says that he is sorry for the pain he caused. He says that he was addicted. But the word addicted is misused when it comes to sex addiction within Mormonism. And unfortunately I think his age does have to be considered. He does sound somewhat confused to me.

I’m not saying his lack of explicit confession means he is innocent or even implies he is innocent.

In other words we simply have to wait to see what happens.