Lamanite Placement Program, George P. Lee, and Sexual Violence in Mormonism

In 1994, five years after his excommunication, George P. Lee was convicted of sexually abusing a child. This church then claimed this as a reason for excommunicating Lee. 

But this church does not care about sexual violence.

Its founders were marrying (i.e. raping) their fellow founders’ teen daughters as polygamous wives (which continues in the FLDS sect). A simple google search for “Mormon Church sex abuse” will produce and endless scroll of examples of this ongoing history. (In 2015, Utah had the highest rate of child sex abuse in the U.S.). 

Around the year 2000, this Church’s law firm, Kirton McConkie, developed a helpline for Bishops to call when they receive reports of abuse. Bishops act as untrained councilors to local congregations. A bishop is “your go-to for everything,” says Helen W., who sued the Mormon church in a sexual abuse-related case. “You have a problem, you have a concern, financial concerns, anything.”

As of 2010 this church’s policy for reporting suspected cases of abuse read: “If a leader becomes aware of physical, sexual or emotional abuse of someone during a church activity, he or she should contact the bishop immediately… In the United States and Canada, the Church has established a help line to assist… bishops in cases of abuse… To avoid implicating the Church in legal matters to which it is not a party, church leaders should avoid testifying in civil or criminal cases or other proceedings involving abuse.”

Its current policy operates much the same, even as they’ve removed references to “avoid(ing) implicating the church.”

“Mormon leaders have long insisted that the helpline’s sole purpose is to advise bishops about compliance with local abuse reporting laws.” But, in a sealed deposition a Kirton McConkie lawyer revealed that the helpline is used to identify cases that pose a significant financial risk to the Mormon Church.

In 2018, 13 Natives had filed suits against this church for the sexual assaults they’d survived while surviving the Placement Program. That same year this church & BYU coincidentally placed a moratorium on pre-1967 church correspondence and other archival sources. Among the demands made by these Indigenous defendants, is a demand to change this church’s policy on reporting abuse. 

In a document from Kirton McConkie’s office to Mormon officials is a list of sexual abuse cases reported to the helpline in 2012. In this doc is an original report from one of those thirteen Indigenous defendants along with report on four missionaries and a Stake President (patriarchs above Bishops) who had sexually asaulted children. One of these missionaries “is accused of sexually abusing (an) 8-year-old girl” He was sent home from his mission and “no (other) action was taken.” 

Another of these missionaries admitted to “sexting” with a 15-year-old girl in Texas, where he is from, and kissing and touching a 15-year-old girl in Arizona, where he was currently on a Mormon mission. In this case the firm reported:
​“(the) missionary department is reluctant to send this Elder home..where he may face prosecution for a felony. His conduct is clearly unlawful in [blocked out], and his Stake President would have a duty to report. It is clear that the Elder needs to go home. Direction?”

This church is clearly using this helpline to protect themselves, not survivors of sexual violence–who, in this report, were all children. The Mormon Church adds an additional layer of abuse to survivors of abuse through this helpline policy and practice. Mormons turn to their church to report interpersonal abuse from within the church and are then institutionally abused as the church positions to protect its profit rather than its people.

To read the full length essay with sources see “Mormonism and Indigenous Assimilation” ​