What is the point to highlight that the perp is Mormon?
He could have just as easily been catholic, protestant, hindi, Jewish or Jehovah Witness or moslem.
What is so special to point out Mormon?
Before I respond, I need to ask you -- and would appreciate an answer since I'm taking the time to respond -- Have you EVER gone on any one of the dozens of FR threads about Catholic priests accused of sexual abuse (whether it be of "altar boys" or some other case) and asked the same question:
What is the point of those articles to highlight (& discuss) that the perp is a Catholic priest?
May I suggest a few dynamics I've noticed re: both these type of Catholic & lds sexual abuse threads?
1. Those who rush in to attack the posters of these threads tend to be religiously hypocritical in ONLY defending certain sects, or only attacking certain thread posters.
2. Without usual fail, I've noticed that those who tend to grill the thread posters in these kinds of threads NEVER say any word about the victims -- who, btw, are usually Lds & Catholic as well. IoW, they seem to be siding with the perp.
Now, given the preponderance of other threads involving other sexual perps, and some of the teacher-student sex threads...
...where the alleged perps are usually raked over the keyboard coals...
...(not always, especially by stupid comments of posters who want to "see" the educator pictures before "deciding" their "guilt" or "innocense")...
...I find it strange to see so many either by inference or directly have more negative things to say about the thread poster than about the perp!
***************************************
With those prelim comments out of the way, allow me to address the Q more directly:
Lds are less than 2% of the US population. (By comparison, Black Protestants were 9% of the electorate at the 2012 presidential election)
Iow, black protestants are roughly 4-to almost 5 x the size of Lds.
Now...imagine if we saw the links below expanded by 4-5 times -- say if the latter group mentioned above had its leaders, Boy Scout leaders, and other prominent lay people being arrested for sexual abuse?
What might the reaction be? Nationally?
Or, given that white Evangelicals were 23% of the 2012 electorate...putting them roughly over 11 and one half times the size of Mormons in this country ... what if the headlines below were about Evangelical leaders, Evangelical boy scout leaders, and other prominent Evangelical lay leaders?
Why, we'd have HUNDREDS and HUNDREDS of sexual abuse cases committed by Evangelical leaders & lay people over a mere 5-year span...and there'd be a massive media uproar across this nation!
But, because the Lds church is so small, they are largely waved with a "free pass" cause these patterns are largely ignored...
Just a few 2014 highlights (no in-depth research involved):
* Sex abuse lawsuit filed against Mormon church [allegations re: Lds missionary & cover-up]
* Former part-time BYU instructor charged with sexual abuse
Just a few 2013 highlights (no in-depth research involved):
* Ex-Mormon bishop pleads guilty in sexual assaults of two teens
* Lawsuit filed against church for coverup of sex abuse [Lds church accused of cover-up]
And then for just three years prior to that (2010-2012), see: