⛪️ The Abuse Within The LDS Church And Darkest Secrets Of Mormonism

Em Gillespie joins Jonesy & Amanda with the latest in entertainment.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
And Amanda gem.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
Nation from The Daily Os. Here is Emma Gillesbie and
let's talk about Mormons. Well, there's a juicy new doco.

Speaker 3 (00:10):
This is part of the because just to set the
scene here, Mormon seemed to be in popular cultural a
lot at the moment. There's one of the women the
Housewives of Wherever, Salt Lake City City and Dancing with
the Stars.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
There's Mormon Wives, a reality show Mormon.

Speaker 3 (00:23):
Yeah, there's the tradwife movement on social media, which is
this kind of really nicely pr packaged up.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
Version of Mormonism.

Speaker 3 (00:31):
I suppose that goes back to the traditional family values
of you know, women making bread from scratch.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
On, dressing appropriately in farm clothes. Yes, all of that.

Speaker 3 (00:41):
And here we've got Heather Gay, who is a personality
from the Real Housewives of Real Housewives of Salt Lake
City here to shatter the mirage with this documentary, this
three part series called Surviving Mormonism.

Speaker 2 (00:54):
Now, I thought a real housewife.

Speaker 3 (00:56):
Doing an investigative series, it's going to be salacious, it's
going to be over the top, it's going to be dramatic,
and yes, it is kind of all of those things,
but it is brilliant It is so much realer than
I thought it was going to be, and it really
centers around a bunch of interviews that she does with survivors,
people who have left the church, who have their own

(01:18):
fascinating stories. She herself, Heather Gay, was in the Mormon Faith.
She grew up in it. She's generationally Mormon, but she
got divorced, was kind of excommunicated, and it is a
little bit about her, but it's much less about her
than I was expecting. The first episode, we hear from
this guy called David Matheson. He is referred to as

(01:39):
the Godfather of gay conversion therapy. He essentially pioneered gay
conversion therapy in the Mormon Faith, later came out as
gay himself. He's now in his sixties living for the
first time in his life openly as a gay man.
He's with in a long term relationship with a guy.

Speaker 2 (01:57):
And denouncing gay conversion therapy.

Speaker 3 (01:59):
Yes, and he sort of breaks down discussing all of
the shame that he carried, all the shame that he caused.
It's one of those you know, hurt people, hurt people, Yeah, right,
and it's incredible. Here's a little bit about what he
had to say about the kind of image of the church.

Speaker 1 (02:16):
Mormonism is a cruel culture. What's weird about Mormonism is
that it's the kindest cruel culture there ever was, because
it does feel like a plushy toy on the out side,
but there's a knife in it. The younger people they're
in the church going, I can do this. The knife's okay.
The knife doesn't hurt that much, doesn't feel like abuse,

(02:39):
but a lot of abuses that feel like abuse.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
So his story fascinating.

Speaker 3 (02:44):
Then in episode two and three there is some horrific
details of child sex abuse survivors, and I guess the
through line is how the church is systematically built to
protect its image, to protect its senior leadership much more
prioritized than protecting the children. So the church is the

(03:07):
most important thing. The children are second to that. There's
this hotline that people in the church can call to
discuss alleged abuse, and this hotline is run by dozens
of lawyers. So the church employs a whole legal department
and they are the people that handle the alleged abuse.
There's no focus on sensitivity. It's all about, all right,

(03:29):
how do we protect the alleged abuser. How do we
help them to repent and move forward and make this
go away? Yes, and there is no accountability. There is
no obligation to report it on to law enforcement, to police.
It is fascinating these kind of mind control games from
a church in the US that is worth one hundred

(03:51):
and forty billion dollars. The Mormon faith in the US
is the fifth largest private land owner in the country. Really,
so it is a mega mega economy in and of itself.
It was just really really interesting, I think at a
time when there is so much I guess trivialization of
this church and how we're seeing it play out on
social media. I mean, I'm not suggesting that all Mormon

(04:14):
people are like this. I think the Australian community is
very different to the US community in Salt Lake City.

Speaker 2 (04:19):
But it is fascinating. Where can we see this.

Speaker 3 (04:23):
It's on Hey you, which I know you might not
have a subscription, but they have a seven day free
trial so you.

Speaker 2 (04:28):
Can sign so you can watch it and then bugger
off watch Surviving Mormonism and then bugger off exactly.

Speaker 3 (04:33):
I'm sure they wouldn't want that campaign rule like the
other churches don't have these sort of things.

Speaker 2 (04:38):
You know, it's a real endorse it.

Speaker 1 (04:42):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (04:44):
M Lesbie from the Daily Eyes