I can only discuss my experiences with this particular Church, I cannot say it is a systematic cover-up, but it sure reeks of one. Although I am glad that the one child you wrote about is/will be taken care of, I cannot say the same about the many children left behind in my small town.

Right but just because you don't do it doesn't mean that it doesn't happen. A lot. Enough that there's a whole website dedicated to this kind of behavior (called STFU Parents).
Seriously. No need to get defensive. If you don't do it, fantastic! There need to be more people like you! But there are a LOT of parents who…

She is familiar with how the internet comment stream works and was amusingly heading some snark off at the pass.

I would treat anyone against same-sex marriage the same way I would treat anyone against interracial marriage.

Great then I guess that this comment in this article does not apply to you.

I don't see any demonizing, here. It's just that us childless folks that complain about something such as lack of sleep often hear it from the childfull "you don't know what lack of sleep is!". It's not a competition and it is a choice you made knowing you'd lose sleep. No demonizing, just responding to the inevitable…

Oh ok. I assumed you were an ally because of your post. Sorry about that.

Arizona: We put up with a whole lot of bullshit, but not that particular bullshit.

You are certainly entitled to you opinion, but if I can offer an insight into why leaving IS helpful:

I guess for me, you either believe these are rules written down by your god or you don't. If you can just change or not follow the tenets of your religion then it means you don't really believe it is the word of god and then why bother?

My 9-year-old self developed a crush on Bob Costas during the '96 Olympics, and it has yet to fade away.

As an atheist and a scientist I don't understand why any woman wants to be part of an organisation that so clearly doesn't value them. Its not just the Mormons that do this, the whole damned lot of them seem to think women are just breeding machines. Get out and understand that there is no such thing as a god its all…

renders all laws in the Old Testament invalid.

That's fair enough, Airahead and thanks for responding. It seems to me that you don't like the mention of the Duggars because you think they're nice people who aren't doing any harm to anyone; they're just "living their lives" (which is strangely, the consistent thing I hear from people whenever we write about them.)…

To call it gibberish is rather insulting to the simple men who wrote it. :)

Just because there's a difference between faith and the institution, that doesn't change that they're intrinsically tied together.

I'd request not to be insulted

This version is much better: The Virus of Religious Moderation

The Problem with Religious Moderates

God still doesn't exist and the Bible is still not true. It's still intellectually deficient to think he does even if your Internet charity persona is not something you just made up to win an argument.