Another outlet takes up the story...
Both girls and their three other siblings have thankfully been adopted, albeit by (separate) families. The wife was later “indicted on 12 criminal counts.” Adams himself was indicted on 11 counts of child sexual abuse, but hanged himself in prison in 2017 while awaiting trial.
The point of retelling this story is to show that the Mormon Church has a history of covering up this sort of abuse, something we’ve written about before. If there’s any way for the LDS Church to deal with a problem internally before it makes its way to the outside world, that’s the preference. But time and time again, they’ve failed to take care of the problems and abuse has thrived.
https://friendlyatheist.patheos.com/202 ... to-police/
The article highlights the key question and debate
To force a clergy member to report a confidential communication “changes the whole nature of the confessional,” said state Sen. Eddie Farnsworth, R-Gilbert, and a member of the Mormon Church. Earlier this year, he declined to give a hearing to a bill that sought to further narrow the clergy exemption.
…
The bill, well-intentioned as it might have been, would disrupt centuries of church dogma, said Farnsworth, who as chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee has the authority to decide which bills to consider.
And
However, the victims of Paul Adams are still fighting to change that rule.
“Why would any cleric refuse to report the rape of a child?” [attorney Lynne Cadigan] asked. “If a pedophile knows the cleric will not report his crimes, the cleric is enabling this monster to continue raping children.”
That for me is the key question Mormon Bishops have to ask themselves - do they do what the law and their Church advocates i.e. keeping silent about child sex abuse by their parishioners...Or do they fulfil their moral obligation to protect the children regardless of the other consequences? Perhaps the Church Lawyers that advised the Bishops in these cases to keep their mouths shut and allow the abusers to carry on abusing (and by doing so they became complicit in the abuse) would do well to consider what Jesus might have done in those circumstances...and members would do well to consider that they are sustaining this policy when they raise their right arms twice a year.
The article finishes
The reason the religious institutions don’t want the exemption taken off the books is because they value their secrecy more than others’ safety. Their religious dogma is more important than another child getting sexually abused. Put more simply, they just don’t care. And anyone who belongs to the Catholic Church or LDS Church or any other institution fighting to keep this secrecy in place is enabling the abusers.
Amen