John Dehlin Stake President update 8/23/14

[_mentalgymnast]

TL;DR

Coming to this party late...can someone sum up why this topic is getting so much attention?

Jealousy.

Regards,
MG

[Guest]

As for the other stuff -- feel free to keep talking about me, and obsessing about me. I'll just say what I keep saying....all the [mormonstories] drama is pretty tiresome to pretty much everybody, and my experience is that you, --------(Equality) and ---------- (Rosebud) are addicted to John Dehlin drama...and that everyone else is pretty tired of it.

Feel free to continue obsessing about my life and decisions if that's what your life is about...

thanks for the permission slip.

i think what you mean by obsessing, is that i am not being intimidated. the insults and mormonesque cliches (you haven't done enough for Mormonism therefore you do not matter) do not really work on me. neither do the comments about not having enough posts in a forum, so my opinions do not matter. when you say i have not earned my place in Mormonism it means almost as much as suggesting that equality is only behaving this way because he is short. it is laughable in a pathetic way. and believe me john when i say this - those insults and judgments say a helluva lot more about you, and your potential as a therapist for people like me, like us, like 'Proud Highway', than it says about me.

i have started very few threads here, and i can only think of two over at nom that i started about you - all were quickly shut down, as you know. i have not taken my comments outside of NOM and mdb and for a brief period i was posting at Mormon stories community. i suspect if one cared enough to compare the number of threads you have started in our shared communities about yourself, compared to the ones i have started about you, it would be imbalanced on your side.

thanks for the clarification about the organization about mmha. there is no conspiracy and frankly, the suggestion is gibberish at best. you may actually find that like two eyewitness accounts, both sides are right. you own it, and you don't. you founded it and you didn't. technically, it is not your baby in your eyes. maury pauvich may want different proof of that.

how about we do this, [mormonstories]. feel free to malign me all you want - but do not throw rosebud into this on my account. address and treat us separately. please.

[Guest]

Wait a second.......

John Dehlin just wrote:

"This feels like EDIT: (XXXX another board member's name was here XXXXX) and EDIT: (XXXXX ny name was here XXXXX) crazy town conspiratorial allegations with zero substance."

And:

"As for the other stuff -- feel free to keep talking about me, and obsessing about me. I'll just say what I keep saying....all the John Dehlin drama is pretty tiresome to pretty much everybody, and my experience is that you, EDIT (XXXX Equality's real name was here XXXXX) (Equality) and EDIT: (XXXXX my name was here XXXXX) (Rosebud) are addicted to John Dehlin drama...and that everyone else is pretty tired of it."


What does the rest of the thread say? Dang-ola. I'm seriously not even going to read.


Mods....

Please take my name off of John's posts. I have a life to live and even though I can't do anything to sever the connection I have to John because I of the evidence I have against him and his continual need to create Mormon drama and pull his own life into it, I wish I didn't have that evidence and that my words weren't so meaningful. I wish he would quietly take care of his life rather than pulling all of these scams. I honestly would like to be able to not have to worry about people who are important to my future reading this thread when they search me. It's that simple. I don't believe I have forced myself so far into the realm of "public figure" that I should have to cope with Google at present. My efforts have been to improve the lives of our people because I care about Mormons. Unfortunately, I met a wolf along the way and he hurt me very much. I don't him to be able to hurt me further by trying to provoke me into destroying him.

_________

Everyone.....

I am here to:

Make a dated record of my thoughts today. History will take care of the rest. John can't protect himself by trying throwing blame back and calling me crazy. He knows what he's doing.

I am not here to:

1 - Get into a testosterone message board fight.
2 - Document what John Dehlin has done. I get that it's interesting. I get that historians will care. They can read my dated posts. They can read my document. That will be enough. I don't care about the rest right now. Documenting Dehlin in a message board fight full of lies would just be a confusing mess for everyone.
3 - Entertain people.


What perplexes me is:

John knows I have evidence. John knows I am good at written debates. John knows that I am better at message board debates than he is. John knows that I could destroy his life. So..... why does he continue to misrepresent things and provoke me? It all seems very self-destructive. Perplexing man.

But it doesn't matter because I know what I'm doing and I'm not that easy to provoke. If I were easier to provoke or less stable, John would have managed to destroy himself a long time ago. What I'm hoping for from him (although at this point the hope for anything from John seems fairly pointless) is that he will start trying to put his life together rather than continuing down the road of provoking people who have power of him until someone hurts him. He has so much ability to make the world better, there's no reason to keep at all this self-destruction.


I've already made clear what I would like to say for now, but I will make make the statement again and add a bit more information:

1) I am creating a brief document.
2) I have no intention of making that document public right now.
3) John will have more information about the document by early October. That information will not come to him through public channels or email.
4) I would like to go on with my life.

_________

John....

Whatever is going on at home that makes it so that you and EDIT2: Mxxxx (mormonstories' wife) need to keep bullying me in order to have peace in your marriage, let it go. Love each other with no regard for me. Ignore me rather than retaliating against me. Ignoring me means pretending I don't exist and knowing that I don't matter, not canceling speaking engagements, enforcing old bannings, etc. etc. etc. etc. Your love is about you. Leave me alone.

Or, if you need to cancel a speaking engagement because I'm there and Edit3: Mxxx (mormonstories' wife, I missed this one during EDIT2) won't let you attend or whatever it is that you two can't resolve, then talk to the people in charge. Send a message. Be professional. Private conversations are so much more ethical than all this boycotting, walking out and starting new events thing (by the way... since I did read a couple posts... the MMHA idea was on the table in the summer of 2012 and wasn't Natasha's idea) then lying about what is going on. Again, I don't know what's so wrong at home that you can't even talk to me to resolve a conflict that has been so destructive to so many people, but it's not healthy: not healthy for you, not healthy for Edit3: Mxxxx (mormonstories' wife, I missed this one during EDIT2), not healthy for me, not healthy for your family, not healthy for the public and not healthy for progressive Mormonism with all of these media splashes going on.

If I'm not an issue in your minds, you won't need to keep this up. Ignore me. Why do I matter so much?

And stop Claiming CTW. You know how little you ever did for any CTW conference. All you did was accept an invitation from somebody with an idea then fight every CTW conference every step of the way. I made it happen from beginning to end. I don't appreciate you taking credit for work you not only did not do, but that you fought. I've been successful despite you, not through your help. And don't try to get me publicly malign you by sharing details with everyone in order to get you to stop claiming a resume item that isn't yours. This publicity stuff is seriously over the top. You don't get a resume item because you made a phone call or two.

You can have a good life. There is no reason to implode. If you're careful and wise, it might not happen. I honestly do care about things not being terrible for you in your future. Don't provoke people who have power over you. It's unwise.

_______________

Everyone.....

I will take the same approach to dealing with Dehlin that his Stake President is taking: I will wait to see.

His SP's reaction seems wise. I think I get a bit of what the guy is going through. It's tough to play media and publicity wars with someone who does not communicate ethically, doesn't speak honestly and thrives in a place of danger.

[_SteelHead]

So much use of the word "I".
Such usage - " can destroy".

For an unaffiliated observer:

[_mormonstories]

[real name deleted] (Rosebud) - Your threats don't intimidate me. Your track record (and [real name deleted]'s for that matter) speak for themselves. But I sincerely wish you and others well.

I think it's clear to many who observe you that you are not well, and that it is you who needs to move on. I hope you will. For your sake, and for that of your family.

P.S. If you don't want your name included in these discussions, then please stop maligning me publicly without any credible evidence. That makes no sense. Think about it. I have avoided speaking about you in public AT YOUR REQUEST. But if you continue to show this obsessive need to malign me publicly without evidence, then I have no choice but to respond. If you want this to be over (as you claim), then stop bringing your drama to the Internet. It's that simple.

[Guest]

P.S. If you don't want your name included in these discussions, then please stop maligning me publicly without any credible evidence. That makes no sense. Think about it.

would you like us to address you as mormonstories or by your proper name? i am fine either way.

[_mormonstories]

would you like us to address you as mormonstories or by your proper name? i am fine either way.

Either way is fine.

[_Tim the Enchanter]

I'm trying to make sense of all this.

Natasha is the chairman of the board of the Open Stories Foundation. She started the MMHA as an Open Stories Foundation project (with the board's blessing) and eventually her plan is to spin it off as its own foundation. There is absolutely ZERO anyone is hiding here. Right now with internship I am simply too busy to be directly involved -- I couldn't even make the opening conference.

Ok, so far we have Natasha starting MMHA as an Open Stories Foundation project, that may spin-off in the future, and John Dehlin is too busy to be directly involved.

Natasha Helfer Parker, John Dehlin, and Margi Dehlin will be hosting a 6 hour workshop for current, mixed-faith, and former Mormon couples who are navigating faith issues, parenting, and sexuality in either a mixed-faith, post-orthodox, or a post-Mormon context. Couples and individuals are welcome to attend, but the content will be oriented towards helping married couples deal with faith transition issues.

And here we have a 6 hour workshop (sponsored by MMHA, unless I am mistaken) hosted, in part, by John Dehlin. But isn't hosting a 6 hour workshop sounds like direct involvement. How could it not be? So why claim no direct involvement?

John, I don't know you. We've never met so I've never had the opportunity to form an opinion of you based upon personal experience. But it's hard to make sense of your claim to not be directly involved with MMHA. As the leader of Open Stories Foundation,* you are obviously involved. If MMHA started as an Open Stories Foundation project, you are directly involved. If you make a distinction between being involved with MMHA on a corporate level and being involved on a day-to-day operational level, to me that is a distinction without a difference. Why do you feel the need to distance yourself from direct involvement with MMHA? If MMHA is an Open Stories Foundation baby, why not wear it with pride as the leader of of Open Stories Foundation?

*I understand Natasha is the Chairman of the Board of Directors, but my guess is that you have the power to appoint and remove directors which would make you the one really in charge. And even if you don't have the power on paper to appoint or remove directors, I'm guessing you have enough influence on whoever has that power to get who you wanted appointed or removed from the board.

[_RockSlider]

It's more like tree, meet forest. Much ado about nothing.

It's done. And not only is there nothing to hear, there never was.

A lot of the "ado" is from you. Go ahead and yap all you want, but it's sort of annoying that you trivialize him while commenting ad nauseum on anything dehlin-related.

funny, same thoughts occurred to me upon reading this.

dehlin, the Mayan Elephant hobby horse. But what Mayan does not seem to see/realize (as pointed out by others) is his behavior in this regard shoots past hobby horse to pure obsession. John can not be mentioned with out Mayan's predictable hate spamming of the thread to follow.

Poor Mayan, so emotionally damaged in some way by JD to invoke such an endless flow of hate towards anything jd.

[_mormonstories]

I'm trying to make sense of all this.

Ok, so far we have Natasha starting MMHA as an Open Stories Foundation project, that may spin-off in the future, and John Dehlin is too busy to be directly involved.

Natasha Helfer Parker, John Dehlin, and Margi Dehlin will be hosting a 6 hour workshop for current, mixed-faith, and former Mormon couples who are navigating faith issues, parenting, and sexuality in either a mixed-faith, post-orthodox, or a post-Mormon context. Couples and individuals are welcome to attend, but the content will be oriented towards helping married couples deal with faith transition issues.

And here we have a 6 hour workshop (sponsored by MMHA, unless I am mistaken) hosted, in part, by John Dehlin. But isn't hosting a 6 hour workshop sounds like direct involvement. How could it not be? So why claim no direct involvement?

John, I don't know you. We've never met so I've never had the opportunity to form an opinion of you based upon personal experience. But it's hard to make sense of your claim to not be directly involved with MMHA. As the leader of Open Stories Foundation,* you are obviously involved. If MMHA started as an Open Stories Foundation project, you are directly involved. If you make a distinction between being involved with MMHA on a corporate level and being involved on a day-to-day operational level, to me that is a distinction without a difference. Why do you feel the need to distance yourself from direct involvement with MMHA? If MMHA is an Open Stories Foundation baby, why not wear it with pride as the leader of of Open Stories Foundation?

*I understand Natasha is the Chairman of the Board of Directors, but my guess is that you have the power to appoint and remove directors which would make you the one really in charge. And even if you don't have the power on paper to appoint or remove directors, I'm guessing you have enough influence on whoever has that power to get who you wanted appointed or removed from the board.

The workshop had nothing to do with the MMHA.

And I'm not trying to distance myself from the MMHA. I'm just stating that I don't have time to be involved much with it this year on internship. Maybe next year. It's an Open Stories Foundation project, but it's not a project I'm working on. It's Natasha's baby that I may get involved with next year.