(Wikimedia Commons photograph by — I’m not making this up, but am in fact required to cite it in precisely this way — “Hotboxers at English Wikipedia”)
Wow. Is this a major problem in our congregations?
http://www.ldsliving.com/The-Sad-Truth-About-Bullying-at-Church/s/76598
I’ve never heard of it. So far as I’m aware, my own children were never victims of it nor participants in it. Of course, I’ve never been a Church youth leader, and my service on high councils, in bishoprics, and as a bishop has been entirely in young single adult wards and stakes, so maybe I would be less aware of it than some. (Perhaps, of course, I’m just generally clueless, socially speaking. I think that a solid case can be made for that.)
I really witnessed it only once, and not really in a Church context. I was a chaperone on a high school trip to Costa Rica, and there was a young man who wasn’t so much bullied as, simply, omitted by the others. It broke my heart, and cast a serious pall over an otherwise spectacular trip.
The closest thing that I experienced as a singles ward bishop was a case where it was reported to me that a certain young man was behaving in a rather predatory fashion toward a young woman who, I knew, had some emotional issues that might make her vulnerable to his approach. I came down on him like the proverbial ton of bricks. Although it was a weekday, I called him up and said that I wanted to speak to him. Immediately. He came right over. I told him that, while he and I had been working through some issues that he needed to have resolved, and while I cared about him as a person, if I ever discovered that he had ever sexually exploited her in any significant way his Church fellowship would’t outlast the week. He dissolved into apologies and solemn promises and I never heard another such report.
Anyway, bullying shouldn’t happen. Not at all. Not ever. Not even once. And certainly not at church, among Latter-day Saints. It’s obviously destructive to the victims but it’s also morally corrupting and destructive to the perpetrators.
I hope that we’ll be aware of this issue. And that, as Church leaders and even simply as neighbors and members, and as the brothers and sisters of those involved, that we’ll take steps to stop bullying whenever and wherever it pops up its ugly head.
Adolescents are very often deeply insecure, and one of the most effective ways of assuring yourself that you’re in the in-group is to distinguish yourself sharply from those who aren’t. But this is an evil thing, and it cannot be tolerated.
Posted from Waikoloa, Hawaii
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