My frequent readers know that I was, for most of my life, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known by its outdated name, that being the “Mormon” church. I have related to you a situation in the Albany 2nd Ward of the Albany New York Stake where a man who sodomized teenage boys is welcome with open arms while I, a simple blogger who’s never touched a child inappropriately, am banned.
You can read the original article where I discuss an angry article that I wrote. I also discussed a situation where I saw a man basically molesting a young child in an empty classroom during the church’s version of Mass. I chose not to report it because although I find touching a child in a sexual manner to be reprehensible, I do observe the bro code.
But that’s not the point of this article. I linked you to those prior articles to set the stage for this one.
In 2021, I started attending the Catholic Church. I spent months attending Mass almost daily and I threw myself into serious studies. As a result, I participated in the RCIA program, which is a requirement for adults who seek to convert to Catholicism. After those series of lessons, I was baptized during Easter Vigil in 2022.
Though I joined the Catholic Church, I kept going to the LDS one to keep my wife happy. Finally, I could take it no longer, and in 2023, I formally withdrew my membership. Ever since then, things were going well. They left me alone and I left them alone. But that all changed last week when two missionaries rang my doorbell, unwanted and uninvited.
It seems that someone sent a “referral,” which means that someone basically suggested that the missionaries come visit me with the intent of getting me to come back. As you might imagine, I was pretty irate when I saw them standing there in their white shirts and with their telltale black name tags.
I made it clear, more politely than I should have been, that I am not interested and they needed to leave. I calmly pointed out that the neighbors have a not-nice dog. One of them got wide eyes and they thanked me, backed away and left in a hurry. Now, I never said the dog would do anything, because that would be weaponizing a dog and that would be illegal, given that they were an annoyance but not a threat.
All I did was merely point out a fact. Well, maybe I oversold it. The canine in question is actually a sweetheart and isn’t a danger to anyone. But the missionaries didn’t need to know that! And no, I would never incite a dog to violence unless the safety of either myself or my wife were to be called into peril.
I don’t think that they’ll be back any time soon. But I had to make it clear to local leadership that this would not be tolerated. So I sent a very polite but firm email to Dan Bolke, the bishop (priest) of the ward and Bruce McLaughlin, a former state trooper turned truck driver and who is the stake president (Catholic bishop). You can read that way-too-nice email now:
I’m going to tell you scumbags this one time and one time only: do NOT…DO NOT EVER send your missionaries over on a referral to my place EVER AGAIN, like you did last week.
I was nice about it one time and one time only. Next time, there will be issues. There will be cops, which is why I looped one in . There will be restraining orders. I will get them sent home. I am not the one, you got that? I AM NOT THE ONE. Ask Bernacki what I am capable of legally doing.
[My wife] and I have made our place a neutral territory. I don’t bring the Catholics over and she doesn’t bring the LDS over. So don’t you DARE send missionaries over. EVER AGAIN.
I WILL make sure that they get criminal records. I WILL make bad press for you. You will find yourselves on my bad side. Think I’m playing around?
TRY ME.