Michael Jay Pratt
Claims to fame: Former seminary principal, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons) Church Educational System, American Fork, Utah; husband; father of three; rapist
Moral apex: Originally booked on more than 30 charges of sex crimes against a 16-year-old female student, including aggravated kidnapping, aggravated forcible sexual abuse, forcible sodomy, and object rape, among many others. Copped a plea to one count of forcible sodomy, two counts of object rape and forcible sexual assault.
Sentence: Three terms of five-to-life, to run concurrently, plus an additional one-to-five, delivered September 21, 2010.
Same tired old line: Pratt told the girl he loved her, and led her to believe he was going to marry her. Never mind that he was already married and already had three kids.
Suggested Book of Mormon reading for Mr. Pratt:
Gee, we can’t come up with a good one that isn’t qualified by something else. Take Moroni 9:9, for which any value is completely diminished by the writer’s compulsion to slam dark-skinned people (the fictional “Lamanites”):
And notwithstanding this great abomination of the Lamanites, it doth not exceed that of our people in Moriantum. For behold, many of the daughters of the Lamanites have they taken prisoners; and after depriving them of that which was most dear and precious above all things, which is chastity and dvirtue—
And then there’s the repulsive tendency of too many Mormon leaders to blame rape victims for getting raped; e.g.:
Of course, a mature person who willingly consents to sexual relations must share responsibility for the act, even though the other participant was the aggressor. Persons who consciously invite sexual advances also have a share of responsibility for the behavior that follows. But persons who are truly forced into sexual relations are victims and are not guilty of any sexual sin.— First Presidency Letter to General Authorities, Regional Representatives,
and other priesthood leadership
February 7, 1985
At some point in time … the Lord may prompt a victim to recognize a degree of responsibility for abuse. Your priesthood leader will help assess your responsibility so that, if needed, it can be addressed.
— “Apostle” Richard G. Scott
“Healing the Tragic Scars of Abuse”
General Conference
Ensign, May, 1992
There is no true Latter-day Saint who would not rather bury a son or daughter than to have him or her lose his or her chastity — realizing that chastity is of more value than anything else in all the world.
— “Prophet” Heber J. Grant
“Unfortunately,” observes Rethinking Mormonism, “many self-righteous and insensitive men in the Church have absolutely no clue as to how such a mis-teaching of a valuable principle (sexual restraint/abstinence) would affect impressionable young minds. Young girls and adolescents who have been sexually assaulted, either as children or teenagers consider the loss of their virginity or sexual innocence to be the loss of their chastity and virtue. Through molestation and rape, they have instantly and irrevocably become ‘tainted and used goods’ in their own eyes and the eyes of their peers through no fault of their own. And to heap great insult and injury, it was (and continues to be) the instruction of the Bishop to help the person who has ‘lost their chastity’ to identify their part in the transgression and what they need to repent of. (Perhaps they wore suggestive clothing, or behaved in a sexually provocative way, for example; and thereby must assume a measure of blame for the crime which was perpetrated on them.)”
So, we’ll turn back to the ol’ reliable Bible, which far pre-dates the BoM, and, by comparison, makes far more sense…
Suggested Bible reading for Mr. Pratt — and especially for the leaders of the LDS church:
But if a man find a betrothed damsel in the field, and the man force her, and lie with her: then the man only that lay with her shall die.But unto the damsel thou shalt do nothing; there is in the damsel no sin worthy of death: for as when a man riseth against his neighbour, and slayeth him, even so is this matter:
— Deuteronomy 22:25-26
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