Newly released video shows the malnourished son of a parenting advice YouTuber approaching a neighbor for help on the morning that his mother and her business partner were arrested on child abuse charges.

The malnourished and badly bruised son of a parenting advice YouTuber politely asks a neighbor to take him to the nearest police station in newly released video from the day his mother and her business partner were arrested on child abuse charges in southern Utah.

The 12-year-old son of Ruby Franke, a mother of six who dispensed advice to millions via a popular YouTube channel, had escaped through a window and approached several nearby homes until someone answered the door, according to documents released Friday by the Washington County Attorney’s office.

Crime scene photos, body camera video and interrogation tapes were released a month after Franke and business partner Jodi Hildebrandt, a mental health counselor, were each sentenced to up to 30 years in prison. A police investigation determined religious extremism motivated the women to inflict horrific abuse on Franke’s children, Washington County Attorney Eric Clarke announced Friday.

“The women appeared to fully believe that the abuse they inflicted was necessary to teach the children how to properly repent for imagined ‘sins’ and to cast the evil spirits out of their bodies,” Clarke said.

  • BaldProphet@kbin.social
    11·
    9 months ago

    I don’t think anything that you listed is a secret. And yes, I am an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I’m not sure your talking points are made in good faith (you sound like you have a massive chip on your shoulder) but I’ll try to address them anyway.

    Every prophet is a prophet until a new prophet says something that contradicts the old one, and then the old one was “speaking as a man”.

    This is a mischaracterization about Latter-day Saint beliefs regarding contemporary prophets. Unlike most Christian sects, we believe in an open canon and that God actively communicates to humankind via a prophet today just as in biblical times. A prophet can say one thing and then another prophet can say something else, and both can still be speaking the word of God authoritatively.

    They used to print notices of excommunication in Desert News. Literally. So this idea that “oh no, we can’t tell people about this, they need their privacy” is utter nonsense.

    It is not “utter nonsense”, it is the policy of the Church. Your logic is faulty, because it could be used to define any improvement in any organization or group as “utter nonsense”. One could just as easily say that because slavery was once legal in the United States, the emancipation proclamation is “utter nonsense”.

    So, here’s your fundamental problem: the beliefs are un-falsifiable.

    From where I stand, that is your fundamental problem. You sound like you feel personally affronted when someone has faith in something that you can’t observe with your natural senses. That’s okay, I get it. It’s not for you. Why spend so much energy arguing with an internet stranger whom you identify yourself as being obviously an adherent to such a faith?

    I am comfortable with my faith and have no interest in forcing anyone to believe like I do. However, it sounds like you have a chip on your shoulder and are heavily prejudiced against religious people in general and Latter-day Saints in particular. I can’t envision a productive outcome to continuing this discussion, but should you have questions about my beliefs and are willing to listen with an open mind, my DMs are always open.

    I wish you a joyous day.

    • HelixDab2@lemm.ee
      1·
      9 months ago

      I don’t think anything that you listed is a secret.

      My dude. Really? This is the classic Mormon gaslighting; “we’ve always known this”. No, this was actively hidden and concealed for centuries. For fuck sake, Fawn Brodie was excommunicated for publishing No Man Knows My History–officially it was apostasy–and now it’s acknowledged to be historically accurate. I was in for more than two decades, and have been out for more than three, and there’s a vast difference between what we were taught as being absolutely true and what was available for study when I was 20 compared to what there is now.

      you sound like you have a massive chip on your shoulder

      Yes. I do. I insist on things being factually true. I insist on honesty. I was raised to believe that honesty isn’t just telling the truth, but that it’s telling the whole truth, and not intentionally omitting truth or speaking things that are factually correct with the intent of leading a person to a false conclusion. That’s what I was taught by the Mormon church, and the Mormon church has never come even close to living up to what it teaches in that respect.

      A prophet can say one thing and then another prophet can say something else, and both can still be speaking the word of God authoritatively.

      Yeah, no. That a bullshit rationalization that you need to tell yourself in order to be able to maintain your belief. God’s doctrine is supposed to be unchanging, and yet it changes continuously. The November 2015 policy was prophecy and the will of god, and then just a couple years later it wasn’t. Temple ceremonies are supposed to be directly from god, and yet those have changed massively over the years. Polygamy was supposed to be the everlasting covenant, but then it wasn’t. And let me be blunt: deviating from these points of doctrine was apostasy and violators were subject to excommunication and the revocation of their temple covenants. That means that for doctrine that changed with the whim of the prophet and apostles, the eternal salvation of people was taken away.

      it is the policy of the Church.

      …Which is claimed to be doctrine and the will of god by the prophet, and then changes with the change in leadership.

      You sound like you feel personally affronted when someone has faith in something that you can’t observe with your natural senses.

      …

      There are a lot of things that you can’t observe directly with your natural sense. Tons of things. But you can prove their effects, and you can test them. You can form a hypothesis, you can test that hypothesis, and then you refine your hypothesis as necessary.

      To be clear, if I discover that something I believe is not supported by facts, my belief changes. I follow where the evidence leads. I certainly have my own cognitive biases–that’s unavoidable–but I do my best to be honest with myself, and to question my own beliefs and biases. My views have changed radically over the last 30-odd years as I’ve evidence that has tested and contradicted my beliefs. But what would change your belief? Would any factual evidence change them?

      I am comfortable with my faith and have no interest in forcing anyone to believe like I do

      Then you aren’t following the guidance of the prophet for every member to be a missionary.

      • BaldProphet@kbin.social
        12·
        9 months ago

        God’s doctrine is supposed to be unchanging, and yet it changes continuously.

        The doctrine is pretty unchanging. You sound like you have a misunderstanding of what is “doctrine” and what is not. I have no interest in convincing you of anything, but I will address some of what you have stated just so other people do not get the wrong idea. Much of what you have stated is incorrect.

        The November 2015 policy was prophecy and the will of god, and then just a couple years later it wasn’t.

        The November 2015 policy change was never prophecy. It was never characterized as prophecy. It was always merely policy.

        Temple ceremonies are supposed to be directly from god, and yet those have changed massively over the years.

        Temple ceremonies have never been directly from God. From the very beginning, the first time they were introduced in Nauvoo.

        Polygamy was supposed to be the everlasting covenant, but then it wasn’t.

        Nope. The everlasting covenant was about our doctrine of eternal marriage in general; polygamy was only included as far as it involved a sealing in the temple. The words describing this are the same as they were when Joseph Smith wrote them in 1843.

        …Which is claimed to be doctrine and the will of god by the prophet, and then changes with the change in leadership.

        Incorrect. The Church makes a clear distinction between its policies and its doctrine. See here: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/liahona/2021/12/come-follow-me/why-does-church-policy-sometimes-change?lang=eng#title1

        Then you aren’t following the guidance of the prophet for every member to be a missionary.

        What, do you think missionaries go around baptizing people at gunpoint? I’m no longer a full-time proselytizing missionary, but even when I was, forcing people to join the Church against their will was never a part of the program. What I’m doing right now is being a missionary, by rebutting the misinformation you are posting. Since you’ve clearly got no interest in coming back, all I can hope is that you will find peace in your heart and stop spreading misinformation about us.