Posted by:
messygoop
(
)
Date: November 26, 2017 02:16AM
[Originally, I had planned to tack this onto Boner's thread. See
http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,2048810Then I started to think about how this event closely mirror's BYU's stupid honor code. I actually believe that the honor code prevented any sense of true justice or consequences. I have repressed this memory because it really affected me as a missionary and as a human being. It is true and accurate and I always change names. The power of the cult has really messed me up as I still have some anxiety in sharing this. I am putting my credibility on the line.]
In my MTC district, Elder Badger came from the PNW area. He immediately shocked us by bragging that the only reason he was serving a mission was part of his conditional probation of being convicted of sexually assaulting his girlfriend. He was a narcissistic, ego driven bully. He literally would attempt to physically intimidate anybody that threatened his power.
At the MTC, we had a rotating set of RM's though BYU as teachers that were our language teachers. One such teacher was a semi-naïve and somewhat timid sister. However, she was kind , generous and caring person. She had a short stature being petite and small. She was about 4'10" while Elder Badger was 6'4". When she learned that one of us was celebrating his 20th birthday, she went out of her way to bake a cake and have a small celebration. I thought that was wonderful. Elder Badger had other ideas about her. He was verbally abusive to her as he challenged her authority over and over again in class. Badger was nothing short of a walking asshole. She would share personal details in confidence to us and Badger would say things 100% inappropriate. She often left the room due to his curt and snide remarks. Later she would return after trying to recompose herself after crying. Badger would further the personal attack by telling her that she looked real pretty with her with tear streaked make up. This pattern repeated itself and I am still angry at myself for not speaking up sooner.
One evening, Elder Badger crossed the line when we he got downright physical with her. It started with him practicing the foreign language that we were supposed to be learning. He began his harassment by telling her to come sit on his lap. She ignored him so he tried again to beckon her to come sit on his lap. Badger began to cat call and whistle. He slapped his pant leg as if he was calling his dog. She continued to ignore him. Badger saw his chance as she walked by and he unexpectedly grabbed her waist while he was sitting in his desk chair (this was in our assigned MTC classrooms in the evening around 8-8:30 pm). Poor sister lost her balance and began to fall backwards. One of her shoes flew off as she tumbled across his thigh. A few of received a brief upskirt view as her skirt rode up to reveal her garments. As Badger pulled her closer to his chest, he tried to force her to give him a little kiss. It was horrifying to watch him control her. She immediately began to scream and push him away. She got away when he dropped her to the floor. She scrambled on the floor and crawled over to retrieve her shoe. She stood up and tried to regain her composure before she walked out of the MTC classroom. She never returned. A very tall elder that we called "Cowboy" stood up to restore order. I also stood up to confront Badger. We were the only two willing to confront this animal. Badger came after me (even though I was a big person not easy to physically move around). He started to push me in the chest hoping that I would throw the first punch. That caused Elder Cowboy to come from behind to back me up. Cowboy was so pissed that he told Badger to get his ass out of class or he was going to kick the holy shit out of him. So Badger left. We sat in silence for the remainder of the evening without a teacher.
The Fallout
That night both Cowboy and I collaborated the details of Badger's assault as we each wrote about the incident. This was easy to do as we both shared the same room in the dorm (two companions per room). It wasn't long before Badger came storming into our room to continue the fight. Again Cowboy and I stood up to his threats. Cowboy made it clear that even if he were to whoop his [Cowboy's] ass then he would still have to whoop Goop's ass. He left and returned to our room one more time. This time he apologized to us then tried to "sweet talk" his way out of the mess. We never told him that we had the entire incident well documented.
In the morning, we had one of the MTC presidents waiting for us inside the classroom. He was not pleased with our entire group. He informed us that our entire district of eight elders were unworthy to represent the lord. We were informed that each one of us was on probation until we left the MTC. He continued to remind us that the slightest rule infraction would get us on a van to the nearest airport, bus station or train station. We were then told to never discuss this incident again. It essentially was a gag order. (The power of this can not be easily dismissed because I have never shared this travesty with anyone until now. Not even my parents knew of these horrendous events.) Now Elder Cowboy was going to have his say as it appeared this entire incident was going to be conveniently swept under the rug. He stood up and began to tell the president that this was an unfair punishment to those that were not directly involved. He pulled out his letter to read his account of events and the MTC big wig walked over to shut him up. He raised up his hand to shush him and took the letter. Cowboy was asked to sit down and Cowboy obeyed. He then told everyone that the matter was closed. He tore up Cowboy's letter in front of us and stuffed it into sit suit pocket. He left the room and we were reminded by our MTC teacher that we would now be taught by only two male teachers. He looked over at Badger and told him firmly that he would not sit in his lap.
I still had my letter so I dutifully turned it into our local district president that came weekly to the MTC in order to oversee and preside over our MTC branch. Part of his job was to hold PPI's to determine missionaries' worthiness. The PPIs took up the bulk of our time on Sundays. I was not amused that my incident letter that had been mailed together with my weekly letter was nowhere to be found, but my mundane letter about growth in spirituality was on his desk. The incident report had obviously had been confiscated and destroyed. He lied about not knowing about the incident and then began to attack my own character and unworthiness. He had my companion's letter that bitched about me going alone in the dorm building to the vending room to make a nightly purchase of Barqs root beer. (I had a lot of problems with a reluctant companion that hated me and wouldn't talk to me, but that's another story) So I was then chastised for breaking mission rules about going alone anywhere at the MTC and then I was called to repentance over a so called "caffeine addiction". We would have many more Sunday interviews discussing why [caffeinated root beer] disturbed the holy ghost and why I had so many companion problems.
The MTC classroom incident was never discussed again even when Cowboy and I briefly served as companions in Texas. I had the misfortune of having Elder Badger following me around from zone to zone within the mission. I was grateful that we were never companions because we would have slugged it out. I never forgot about his assault on the teacher. Surprisingly, he stopped threatening me though. We boarded the same plane to leave Texas after both of us served a mission "honorably". He upgraded himself (unofficially) to an empty first class seat on our Delta plane ride to SLC. I never saw the pig again.