Rob Porter's Church Leaders Are Mandated to Hold a Disciplinary Council. Will It Happen?

It is currently worldwide news that Rob Porter, (former?) staff secretary for Trump, has resigned from his position due to multiple credible allegations of abuse of his ex-wives and a former girlfriend.

The national media has been presenting the angle that this is another bad story for the White House. Some of those reasons are:

• Chief of Staff John Kelly was clearly defending and fighting for the alleged serial abuser to keep his job
• The White House and, specifically John Kelly, apparently did a poor job vetting Porter for a job that has access to some of the most sensitive information in the government
• Porter is currently in a relationship with Hope Hicks who, as White House communications director, crafted the White House response and defense when she should have recused herself due to their relationship
• This is another White House employee, and Trump associate, apparently with a history of violence towards the women in his life

All of that is important, but I think this also is, and should be, a growing problem for the LDS Church. And they need to do something about it.

Deseret News story about a Mormon in the White House

Last year, Hal Boyd of the Deseret News ran a story titled "Meet the Mormon helping run Donald Trump's White House." Clearly he and the Deseret News, as most Mormons usually are, were proud to see a Mormon at such a high level in the government (unless that person is a Democrat like Harry Reid). They were even so bold to say he had utmost integrity (because he is good at writing a lot):

"Having sat down with Porter in the months prior to his appointment, I can vouch for his intellectual acuity, professional comportment and policy prowess. And as far as integrity is concerned, anyone who wrote a doctoral-length dissertation on C.S. Lewis — as Porter did at Oxford — should be presumed ethical until proven otherwise."

Clearly, it looks like it is now being "proven otherwise."

Media Mentioning the Mormon Angle

Last night, Lawrence O'Donnell's show  The Last Word opened with a segment that every single person (any every single Mormon!) should watch  titled "Why One Punch Wasn't Enough For John Kelly." Watch it below before proceeding.

In the segment, Lawrence rightly goes after Porter's former bishops for failing to protect the women he was allegedly abusing.

Orrin Hatch, a former Mormon bishop himself, initially released a "personally dictated" statement attacking the women. He later admitted he wasn't aware of the details of Porter's personal life.

[An aside to Orrin Hatch: Well, Orrin, if you weren't aware then don't attack the women! Instead of defending Porter, look into it before responding. Clearly you haven't learned anything from the #metoo movement.]

The Friendly Atheist also laid out the problems with for the Mormon Church in his recent article "The Mormon Church Was Complicit in Rob Porter’s Alleged Abuse."

Laurie Goldstein, New York Times National Religion Correspondent, tweeted:

Sad religion angle on the Rob Porter domestic violence story: his ex-wife says the Mormon bishops she confided in failed her, and a secular counselor helped her get free from abuse.

Here is a good list of more articles about the situation. One of the best articles came from The Intercept. Ruth Marcus also had a great opinion piece titled "Explain the Rob Porter story. Any of it."

Finally, here is Jennifer Willoughby's blogpost about why she stayed with her abusive husband. It is a must-read.

Wives went to Mormon Bishops...Nothing happened

Here a few relevant excerpts from The Intercept article:

One summer, when [Colbie Holderness, Porter's first wife] was interning at a federal agency, she had access to a counselor through her job. “When I explained to him what was happening, he had a very different reaction from the Mormon bishops,” she said. “It was weirdly validating to hear that from somebody else.” Speaking about the counselor, she said, “He was very concerned to hear Rob was choking me.”

In her blog post, Willoughby wrote, “When I tried to get help, I was counseled to consider carefully how what I said might affect his career.” She told The Intercept that she had described Porter’s anger issues to a lay official in the Mormon church. She said the official had told her to think carefully about what she said publicly about Porter’s behavior. “Keep in mind, Rob has career ambitions,” she recalled the official saying. (The press office at the Mormon church’s headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah, declined to comment for this story.) 

Willoughby [Porter's second wife] said the first year of their marriage was the most volatile. During a period of separation that spring, Porter showed up at her apartment and refused to leave. According to a protective order, which the Daily Mail published and Willoughby confirmed to The Intercept was authentic, “I asked him several times to leave with his things, but he did not until I picked up the phone to call our clergy member. While he was gone, I took his clothes and put them in a suitcase on the front porch. When he returned a few minutes later, he punched in the glass on the door. I called the police, afraid he would break in.” 

A Disciplinary Council is mandatory, will it happen?

So, clearly local Mormon leaders were aware of the alleged abuse, but some seem to have been more concerned about his career than her safety.

Now that basically everyone believes abuse was actually happening to his two ex-wives (as well as most recently to a girlfriend he lived with), will anything happen to this "Mormon helping run Donald Trump's White House"? I don't know, but The Church Handbook of Instructions Book 1 (CHI1) is clear that at this point a Disciplinary is "mandatory" and "must be held."

The relevant section begins in CHI1 Section 6.7.3 by saying:

A disciplinary council must be held when evidence suggests that a member may have committed any of the following transgressions.

Let me reiterate that: 

a disciplinary council MUST BE HELD when evidence SUGGESTS that a member MAY HAVE committed ANY of the following transgressions.

It doesn't require that the transgression be proven first, just that there is evidence suggesting it may have happened.

So what transgressions are we talking about? One of those transgressions is explained in the same CHI1 section as:

Pattern of Serious Transgressions

A disciplinary council must be held for a member who demonstrates a pattern of serious transgressions, especially if prior transgressions have resulted in Church discipline.

Two ex-wives and an ex-girlfriend, is that a pattern?

What is a "serious transgression"? Section 6.7.2 defines what a "serious transgression" is:

As used here, serious transgression is defined as a deliberate and major offense against morality. It includes (but is not limited to) attempted murder, forcible rape, sexual abuse, spouse abuse, intentional serious physical injury of others, adultery, fornication, homosexual relations (especially sexual cohabitation), deliberate abandonment of family responsibilities, robbery, burglary, theft, embezzlement, sale of illegal drugs, fraud, perjury, and false swearing.  

It seems pretty clear to me that this fits the requirement.

So, will the LDS Church follow its own rules and initiate a Disciplinary Council for this man they were once very proud to profile as the "Mormon helping run Donald Trump's White House"? I don't know, but they should.