Hey Davis,
Welcome to the forum! Thrilled to see another church kid here. Please do post an introduction when you have time.
Nell has done a wonderful job, so I only have a very small thing to add. Regarding not being explicit concerning Philip Lee's affairs, what came to my mind there also was just the church life culture of simply not being explicit when it comes to sexually related things. It's incredibly common even for elders directly handling negative sexual situations to stay in the realm of vaguery even in their fellowship with one another. It's just the local church culture, and John may not have been comfortable breaking out of that particular mold. (Not to mention all the other very good points Nell mentioned.)
I remember after I left the LC and visited around to numerous churches, in one church the pastor referenced sex (married sex) in a very positive and appropriate way a couple times in the middle of a sermon that was not generally about that topic. I was blown out of my seat to hear anything like that "in church", being a local church church kid myself who would NEVER have heard anything like that in any meeting in the LC, but as I looked around, no one in the congregation looked uncomfortable at all. As I'm sure you are aware, there is a very specific culture in the local church when it comes to many things.
Anyway, as I said, hopefully you'll post some more when you have the chance.
Trapped
P.S. Sexual predators being covered up, and victims being blamed, still goes on in the local church, particularly when it occurs close to Anaheim. It takes a lot of uproar and chain-rattling for the brothers who cover the brothers to get off their rear ends and do anything. Although usually what they do is shuttle the offender off to another locality, not tell anyone, shun the victim who spoke up, and act like none of it occurred. Still. To this day.
