Posted by:
azsteve
(
)
Date: November 09, 2017 12:37AM
In 1989, I had a girlfriend living in the apartment next door to me. Shortly after we broke up, I came home one night to hear loud, rhythmic, headboard-banging sex right up against my bedroom wall. With the sounds of "ooohs" and "ahhhhs" coming through the wall, there was no mistaking what I was hearing as sexual activity. This wasn't the first time this happened. She had just been excommunicated after I told her Bishop what I had heard when this happened before, just recently. I confronted them this time. There was no violence, but none of us handled things very well. We probably woke up some of the neighbors with loud arguing after I discovered it wasn't my ex-girlfriend there this time either and I threateded to tell their bishop what I was hearing. It turned out to be another mormon couple barrowing my ex-girlfriend's apartment for the evening, this time. I had pounded on doors and windows to try putting a stop to it. At one point, the other guy stood at my open door with a beet-red face and bulging eyes (demonic-looking face), screaming in to my apartment repeatedly "You can't tell on me. I'll repent when I am ready to repent. But you can't tell on me". Then he and his girlfriend called the police on me. They claimed that I came over un-provoked even though they should have known that any normal person would be provoked and what I had been through. They hated me anyway because my ex-girlfriend had been excommunicated for the same thing after I told our Bishop (confessing my own actions then too then). I was arrested before I could tell the police what had provoked me. Whether or not I was disorderly or tresspassed, hinged partially on whether or not I was provoked by them. About a month later, the other guy and I met face to face in his Bishop's office, with his bishop. All I wanted was for the other guy to tell the Prosecutor's office the truth of what had provoked me. Of course, this would be an admission that he had reported falsely to the police about not provoking anything themselves. His Bishop didn't believe anything I said. After I sent a certified letter to the church headquarters, the Bishop admitted to me that he had no choice but to meet with myself and the other guy. Here is how that meeting went.
I recounted exactly what I heard that night in explicit detail. The other guy looks his bishop squarely in the eye and said "I could honestly look my savior in the face and say that what he just said is not true". Then he got a brief but clear, freightened look on his face and looked down to hide his expression. The Bishop then could see the truth and said "I think we've heard enough now". The bishop told me that he didn't think that the other guy should testify or change his story because there would be emberrasment on the church. I didn't agree and told him that a court of law has a right to the whole truth and that charges might be dropped if they knew the truth. But I also didn't want to spend thousands of dollars to pay an attorney to defend me against a minor mistermeanor charge when it became obvious that neither the bishop or his guy would man-up. So I accepted a reduced charge and paid a few hundred dollars. Everyone involved knew that this was un-just and in the case of the other guy, his lies resulted in an illegal and malicious prosecution. His girlfriend had left the state to avoid needing to answer to her bishop or to have to testify.
So we had a guy invoking the "savior" to make his lie more believable. We have a Bishop who finally sees through the lie, and yet while knowing of the injustice it would cause (a malicious prosecution), does what he can to protect his ward member from admitting to the truth, and to avoid emberrasment on the church. All I wanted and needed was to be left alone in my own apartment after a devastating breakup of a relationship. What I got was betrayal by a girlfriend, a betrayal by my so-called friends who were having sex with her, their friends who were also having sex also on the other side of my bedroom wall with eachother, and betrayal by church leaders, who defended their ward members, no matter what the cost.
So, will people break the law of chastity and not confess? Yes, at any cost. They'll sell their soul or even their "savior" if they think they can preserve their church membership and their reputation.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/09/2017 12:45AM by azsteve.