President and Sister Kusch: Invitation to Come unto Christ and Warnings from our Spiritual Leaders

An address given by President and Sister Kusch, delivered April 18, 2023, at the Ensign College Multipurpose room.

[@chrislebleu6821]

Invitation 100% accepted!! I'm gonna do my best to be a good person!

[@latterdaycovenantliving]

Having permission from myself to be a work in progress has been a long journey Christ has always taught it was so I’m grateful I finally figured it out enough to apply it to my emotions.

[@janicemiller9133]

I am so sorry that you are going through this nightmare, so sorry. No the Lord does not condone this behaviour at all. Please can you take a moment to listen to talk given by Elder Kearon on this very topic. He is very clear about how we should and should not treat each other. Know that you are not alone. Know that if the local help is not there then seek help from the Stake Leadership. I will pray for you my sister in the Saviour. You can do this!!

[@josevasquez-ju8rb]

the holy pristhood most be awaken or the devil will laugh at you. in jesus name amen.

[@josevasquez-ju8rb]

the control of the devil is the same control the new car you have ..you are distracted from the voice of the lord im seam of jessy decendance of jesus 2 nephi 21. in jesus name amen.

[@josevasquez-ju8rb]

finacial security is not eternaty laws. devils strategy that maney is god and dont worry ...it was better than not know. in jesus name amen.

[@phoenixrising5338]

I have no idea what President Nelson means by "let God prevail in your life." Does that mean I sit in church Sunday after Sunday, right along with my unrepentant abuser, who is continuing to be abusive, and let God prevail by allowing the abuse to continue and by allowing all the enablers and excusers to go on making church attendance a living hell? Since pointing out abuse and demanding change and accountability is "contentious"? And makes church members very upset with me. So far, God hasn't done anything to stop the abuse. So presumably, letting God prevail means just letting it continue. My church community is in no way supportive. Is that God prevailing? The abuser is doing all he can to destroy my life, within and without the church. No one is stopping him, despite my asking them and God to. He's succeeding in ruining my life many areas. Is that God prevailing? I keep hearing things like "God loves you so he sends you trials". But I also hear that God will heal me. And my family. He hasnt healed anything and he hasn't stopped the abuse. There don't appear to be any legions fighting for me and against the abuser or the abuser's minions. So continuing abuse in my life is God prevailing in my life? And the knowing acquiescence of my church "brothers and sisters" with the abuse, despite being told about the abuse and asked for help in stopping it, which they have declined to provide, is also God prevailing in my life? It's quite clear the church will do nothing practical or useful to help me escape abuse or to stop an abuser. Is that God prevailing? What is this whole "let God prevail" thing referring to? Prevail at what? In what way? Prevail is typically a word used to indicate winning a conflict. Is God in conflict with me? Why isn't he in conflict with those abusing ne? What I wish would prevail is clarity, unambiguous communication, and a clear and consistent demonstration that God does value his daughters more than those who hit, punch, kick, bite, strangle, rape, manipulate, gaslight, belittle, insult, criticize, demean, and denigrate his daughters, and spread lies about his daughters. What I hear, instead, is that God loves everyone, the righteous and the wicked, the abused and the abuser, equally. So how is God prevailing in my life, exactly? Allowing the destructive to keep right on destroying doesn't really seem to be the kind of prevailing I'm looking for I'm my life. And that's about all the church offers: "take whatever comes and love it."

[@carrie8643]

I'm very sorry that you're going through so much abuse, Sister. You are not alone, and as someone who has personally dealt with relationship abuse for a large part of my life, my best advice is to use your agency and make the decision to get as far away from it as possible so you can start to heal. You may currently be a victim, but it sounds like you're choosing to stay in the abuse and you're waiting for someone else to fix the problem, including God. You have the agency AND power within yourself to do something about it! Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ will help you but you need to take action and do what YOU can to take yourself (and your children if they're being abused) away from it! You're worth more than that and one of the worst things you can do is to act completely helpless about your circumstances, as that leads to being "comfortable" in the situation and tolerating what is unacceptable. Heavenly Father loves you and, of course, doesn't deem abuse in any form as acceptable -ever! He doesn't want people to stay in those situations. Start by praying for the strength and courage that you need to make a decision to get out and the Lord will provide a way. Also, work on choosing to move from a victim mindset to one of a survivor (speaking from personal experience). You're stronger and more capable of shaping your own life than you think!

[@jessea2871]

@@carrie8643 you obviously didn't read what PheonixRising said. She wants the church to practice what they preach. to be held to the same standard they hold us to. to be repentive instead of just provide lip service. the church continues to fight for the right to keep abuse cases internal so the good name of the church isn't tainted. these guys are hypocrites and it needs to stop.

[@phoenixrising5338]

@Carrie Excuse me? You have completely misunderstood everything I said and totally misconstrued my personal situation, about which you know nothing. I was speaking about the messages the church sends to abuse victims. You gave me, "It's your own fault for staying in an abusive situation." Which is about as blaming and shaming as you can get. You also went to, "Be a survivor, not a victim." Which is another way of putting down survivors and getting them to stop pointing out issues. Quite a lot of people, including children and women, cannot "just walk away" from abusive situations. The culture of the church certainly doesn't help. There are many ways within the church that you cannot "just walk away" from your abuser(s) when they are members of the church in good standing. They can and will do a lot of damage to you even if you live 1,500 miles away. Have you never heard of gossip, destruction of your reputation, parental alienation, and child custody battles? Or stalking, cyberstalking, identity theft, financial abuse, and constantly being hauled into court on false pretenses? Have you ever personally encountered an abuser who stalks you, contacts people who you do business with from many states away in an effort to harm you, and even travels long distances to wreak havoc in your life? I have. You seem completely unaware of just how vindictive and damaging an abuser can be, ESPECIALLY when you walk away. And the church isn't particularly supportive of women who "walk away." As I can attest from personal experience, which you apparently don't share. I was specifically speaking about the messages the church gives and how they don't really hold up in the face of abuse within the church and how that's handled by members. Which you totally ignored. In fact, you seem to have utterly missed all of my points. I strongly recommend some careful reflection. Perhaps after immersing yourself in the videos of Dr. Ramani, who can be found on youtube and is so much more knowledgeable about abuse than virtually everyone I've ever heard speak on this topic within the church. Personally, I think if the church truly believed God loves his daughters and doesn't want them abused, it would start providing genuine help to women who try to leave abusers. Like extremely gifted divorce lawyers. And advocates to help fight a legal system that doesn't recognize the right of a child to NOT be a possession of an abusive parent. And shelters for abused women. And genuine support groups. Help surviving physically and financially. The church does almost nothing, and the ONLY way it does anything is if you are very lucky and get a bishop who is sympathetic. That's a gamble. Many women don't. The church does little but talk about opposing abuse. What a joke. What it actually does is embrace the poor sinning abuser while the victims get trampled by church members who refuse to believe another church member could be abusing them. The church's track record on supporting the victims against the perpetrators is abysmal. What the church actually does is tell you over and over that God loves you, like you did, and then tells you to report to civil authorities and trust that everything will come out okay. Civil authorities actually act in very few abuse cases, which the church conveniently ignores. And everything does not "come out okay" quite frequently, but that's ignored, too. I cannot tell if church members are willfully ignorant of this or they just don't bother to ever educate themselves. In the church, you must get permission from a man to change things. So, if you are a woman, if you cannot get a man to sympathize with you and help you, you have no power and no recourse. Let me give you a personal example. After I filed for divorce from my very nasty and abusive narcissistic ex-husband, I said I was taking my son and moving to a different ward. I was still living in the same house I had been; my husband was not. Not easy to sell a house quickly, especially in the market at the time. First our bishop saw no need for me to go to a different ward, and then he insisted my abusive husband GO WITH ME. This was the bishop who conducted my ex-husband's disciplinary council, which was a farce under this man. Everyone seemed stunned I was divorcing this man, women especially continued to tell me how lucky I was to be married to him right through the divorce, and he played the victim card hugely. He was stunned, bewildered, heartbroken, blah blah blah. While becoming ever more abusive in private. Our stake president bent over backward to tell him, in my presence, that he was not in trouble in any way and would not be punished in any way for his behavior. The only reason my son and I were able to move to a different ward without my abusive ex sitting in the same pews every Sunday is that a different bishop -- again, a man -- went to bat for me. You are so totally clueless about the garbage women get put through in the church when they leave an abuser and just how little the church really does support and help them. I've belonged to an LDS support group for survivors of abuse for years. It has thousands of active LDS members. The vast majority have similar stories and most have far, far worse stories than mine. It's a very real scenario that you leave your abuser and he and all his supporters end up at church with you Sunday after Sunday. Do you know what it's like to be on the receiving end of the malice that goes with church members -- especially the women -- who are offended that you've said publicly that their friend and maybe their (bishop, counselor in the bishopric, elder's quorum president, young men's leader, gospel doctrine teacher, ministering brother -- fill in the blank) is abusing you and your kids? The treatment you get is nowhere near Christlike or supportive while they bend over backwards to show support for the abuser. What do you think that does to your kids and your relationship with your kids? Educate yourself. God permits so much of this to happen in the LDS church I have a difficult time believing this is truly God's church. Either that or God doesn't care at all about abuse. Because what's happening in the church around abuse -- routinely -- is about as unChristlike as you can get. So where is Christ? And why do we keep hearing how much he loves his daughters when he allows "his church" to treat them this way? President Nelson sends lawyers after little tiny start-up churches when he thinks their church name is too close to the name of our church. So the church spends a lot of time and money on stuff like that. But abuse? No lawyers show up to protect the victims. Not from the church. Lawyers show up to make sure the church's reputation isn't besmirched. Somehow, I just don't get the impression from the church that what they -- or God -- care most about is the abused.

[@josevasquez-ju8rb]

financial security all ia well inZION ..it is not . in jesus name amen.

[@josevasquez-ju8rb]

yey the prophets warmed but why they are destroyed because the financial security the devil say it is we dont worry ...you will live your life same way will make any different if i say speedily repent? because satan haold you with his chains only see the moster behind the curtain trust me sister the devil is trying to take you, celestial glory ..the anticrist is defeated but why would you follow it? live and perished not. in jesus name amen.

[@josevasquez-ju8rb]

if i dont lead the church the salt lake temple will fall because exactly what he wants having no one to confront him ...i lieave the church and it will colapse because the church has the laws of the book of Mormon with out ...your own misery will fall upon you because it is writing ZION became dark 1 Isaias 1 you has forgotten your master .in jesus name amen.

[@rickgustafson2647]

Sorry brother, but your English is impossible. No offense, but......

[@josevasquez-ju8rb]

satan fear the prophet...the only person who know what is next for him ...but if we donot resived the warning the devil dance with you.... in the name of jesus amen.