If it bothers you (which of course, it does), do something for that diocese that demonstrates the goodwill within the church.

As for the young men, if they are guilty of all that they are accused, the legal system will take care of them. The Church already has - or is in the process of - discplining them. It doesn't anger me as much as saddens me. These young men acted in very foolish ways (I am not convinced that they actually vandalized the area) and their foolishness is known worldwide.

My reason for doubting vandalisim: vandalism is committed with malicious intent and usually vandals want their destruction known. In this case, the victems were not even aware of any of the damage - because the head had been placed back on. I think it is more likely that the missionaries found the head broken off and replaced it. Or at worse, accidently broke the statue. I am giving the young men the benifit of doubt when it comes to this acspet and, until proven otherwise, believe that they are only guilty of foolishness and not a hate crime.


As a member of the church, I think that we are required not to stone the young men but to let judgement be in the Lord's hand, the Church's hand and by the legal authority.

-- Edited by palmon at 11:07, 2008-03-11

It makes it extremely difficult to deal with non members who bring up this sort of thing. My brother and I have been answering questions about the church that a guy we work with had. He became curious about the church because of Mitt Romney. He has a lot of respect for Romney and it generated questions about the church. He didn't want to go any further than ask questions but we were able to clear up many, many misconceptions about our beliefs with him and the history of the church. All the time I've stressed that while the church is not perfect that we try and hold ourselves to very high standards but that sometimes people fall short. He had a great deal of respect for our young men who choose to serve missions and my brother has told him many different stories from his own mission. I worry that he will read something like this and now look at our missionaries differently. There have been elders in the past that have done dumb stuff but this involves another church and the things they hold sacred. Then they had the stupidity to record and post the thing. I'm sure the proper authority will handle this correctly and that a thorough investigation will be completed and the appropriate justice served. I just hate to see the inroads we have made with those not of our faith messed up by this sort of thing. Maybe I'm overreacting a bit. I've thought about sending that congregation a letter of apology but I didn't do this bad thing. I'm just fustrated and ranting at this point.

There will always be someone who remembers stuff like this, no matter what steps are taken to make it right.
A long time ago, a coworker got on my case for the church's treatment of indians. This surprised me, because, as far as I know, the church has always treated indians in an excellent manner. But certain people will believe something to be true even if only an accusation is made with no supporting evidence. It's not fair, but that's the way it is. Certain people will now think of LDS missionaries as those boys who go around defacing catholic statues.