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Ex-LDS seminary principal gets 5-to-life for abusing student
Salt Lake Tribune ^ | Sept. 20, 2010 | Donald W. Meyers

Posted on 09/20/2010 4:23:53 PM PDT by Colofornian

American Fork » Former LDS seminary principal Michael Jay Pratt will spend at least five years in prison for sexually abusing a student 20 years younger than himself.

Fourth District Judge Christine Johnson imposed concurrent sentences of five years to life in prison for first-degree felony forcible sodomy and two object rape charges, and one to 15 years for forcible sexual assault, a second-degree felony. Johnson said it was a sentence that best balanced the needs of justice and mercy in a case that carried heavy religious overtones.

Pratt pleaded guilty to the crimes in June as part of an agreement in which prosecutors dropped 11 other charges.

Pratt’s attorney, Stephen McCaughey, sought to get Pratt two years in the Utah County Jail followed by a lengthy probation. He said Pratt had no prior criminal record, and the case did not involve violence or physical force. McCaughey argued Pratt would likely serve about six years in prison on the charges.

Pratt said he was sorry for what he had done, and was given enough time to hug his wife before he was escorted from the courtroom by sheriff’s deputies.

Johnson said Pratt’s position as a teacher and spiritual adviser at Lone Peak High School placed him in a position of trust which he abused.

The victim and her family also told the court how Pratt had gained their trust as a dedicated, popular teacher and church leader who was helping the victim through a rough spot in life. He then manipulated the victim into going along with his sexual fantasies.

“Justice was served, but it is a tragedy,” the victim’s stepfather said after the hearing.


TOPICS: Current Events; Other Christian; Religion & Culture
KEYWORDS: inman; lds; mormon; rape; seminary
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To: Saundra Duffy
Jesus died for Mormons, too.

Yes, yes he did, he did for all man kind.

All they need to is accept HIM...

The real one, not any impostor like the brother of Satan, one of many gods, born of a physical sex act "christ" the LDS have made up..

241 posted on 09/22/2010 11:00:22 AM PDT by ejonesie22 (8/30/10, the day Truth won.)
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To: ejonesie22

Blah blah blah. I am sick of your Pharisee-like baloney. Jesus died for ME to save ME from MY sins. I love my Savior and there’s nothing you can do to sway me from His Loving Arms and acceptance.

Here’s the problem with you anti Mormons: You actually think you know who’s hell-bound and who’s not. Aren’t you always preaching that Jesus Christ is our personal Savior, Lord and Redeemer? But somehow - even though I have said it time and time again that He is my Savior - you still persist in condemning me to hell.

Fortunately, YOU are not my judge!


242 posted on 09/22/2010 11:11:21 AM PDT by Saundra Duffy (For victory & freedom!!!)
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To: Saundra Duffy; ejonesie22

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/2593066/posts?page=236#236

Which Christ?

I find it interesting, that on one hand you claim the Jesus of Christianity is “small, mean and petty” (cruel as well), then go on to say He “died for mormons too”.


243 posted on 09/22/2010 11:20:34 AM PDT by SZonian (July 27, 2010. Life begins anew.)
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To: Saundra Duffy
You are right I am nit your judge.

But your “blah blah blah” blindness is keeping you from the one who is...

And that is not something we “think” it is something we KNOW, and have proven TIME AND TIME again from both the Bible as well as the fiction of the LDS, something you know very deep down inside is true.

Such repetition is what one has to do the blind members of a cult.

244 posted on 09/22/2010 11:22:44 AM PDT by ejonesie22 (8/30/10, the day Truth won.)
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To: Saundra Duffy
If you really want to know (which I doubt) what Mormons actually believe, you should read the LDS Articles of Faith.

...and so forth.

245 posted on 09/22/2010 11:40:19 AM PDT by Elsie ( Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Saundra Duffy
By the way, the word “trinity” is not found in any version of the Bible. It is a man-made concept.

By the way, the word “curelom” is not found in any version of the Bible. It is a man-made concept.

246 posted on 09/22/2010 11:41:20 AM PDT by Elsie ( Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Saundra Duffy
Blah blah blah. I am sick of your Pharisee-like baloney. Jesus died for ME to save ME from MY sins.

It seems your Jesus is a little lacking in the arrogance reduction department...

247 posted on 09/22/2010 11:44:01 AM PDT by Elsie ( Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Saundra Duffy
If you really want to know (which I doubt) what Mormons actually believe, you should read the LDS Articles of Faith.

"I believe I'll have a dozen or more wives."
--Joseph Smith.

PS after all; it's right there in the AoF.

248 posted on 09/22/2010 11:46:05 AM PDT by Elsie ( Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Paragon Defender

“The twistings, mis-representations and straw man arguments following them are a bit annoying though.”

Oh, really. Prove any argument here is a “straw man” argument. If talk is cheap, you’ve got at least a $1,000 of talk on this thread alone. You accuse. You can’t prove. Never have. Never will. That is a direct challenge to the credibility of your post. YOU CAN’T DO IT.

“Of course the highly disrespectful attitude doesn’t really help much either.”

Then change your attitude. Smile.


249 posted on 09/22/2010 11:46:32 AM PDT by aMorePerfectUnion
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To: Spiff

“Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment” - Jesus (John 7:24)

Christians are to judge with a righteous judgment - not based on how mormonism looks to outsiders when it puts on its best appearance, but based on God’s standards of truth.

It looks great on the outside. It fails on the inside.


250 posted on 09/22/2010 11:49:15 AM PDT by aMorePerfectUnion
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To: Saundra Duffy

“By the way, the word “trinity” is not found in any version of the Bible. It is a man-made concept.”

You continue to post the same false arguments over and over.

The word Bible isn’t in the Bible either - you just used it.

None of Mormonism is in the Bible. You love it.
Magic underwear isn’t in the Bible. You wear it.
Polytheism isn’t in the Bible. Your group teaches it.

Try again.


251 posted on 09/22/2010 11:51:50 AM PDT by aMorePerfectUnion
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To: aMorePerfectUnion

Ouch...


252 posted on 09/22/2010 12:07:03 PM PDT by ejonesie22 (8/30/10, the day Truth won.)
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To: aMorePerfectUnion; Saundra Duffy; ejonesie22

Neither are the words -
Stake, ward or first presidency.
Neither is the mormon “telestial heaven”
You will not find exaltation or eternal progression

You will find religions like mormonism condemned outright as the bearer of a false gospel.


253 posted on 09/22/2010 12:12:39 PM PDT by Godzilla (3-7-77)
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To: Saundra Duffy
By the way, the word “trinity” is not found in any version of the Bible. It is a man-made concept.

And neither can be found in the bible...the word "mormon". A man-made concept too?

Ya know....S.D. you really don't know the bible very well. But you think you know "the Church" pretty well.

254 posted on 09/22/2010 12:22:57 PM PDT by Osage Orange (Kill them all...let God sort them out.)
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To: aMorePerfectUnion

All of God’s revelations are not found in the Bible. I am glad that we live in a day when more revelations are available to us and we are able to learn more of the great plan of the eternal God.

What people say on this internet board is not going to hinder the Lord’s work one bit.

From the very beginning of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints there have been people who have tried to thwart its progress.

As Joseph Smith the prophet stated in 1842:

“The Standard of Truth has been erected; no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing; persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done.” (History of the Church 4:540)


255 posted on 09/22/2010 12:33:33 PM PDT by Normandy
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To: Normandy; Saundra Duffy
Norm, assume for a moment that I agree with what you posted as a quote from Joseph Smith. Assume that the quote is 100% accurate in what it asserts. Was Joe speaking as a prophet then, or merely as a man? ...

You see, Norm, even satan quoted scripture to Jesus. Would satan have been speaking as a prophet in those instances? No, not possible. Because God would not anoint one such as satan to be a prophet to anyone, especially Jesus. Now, look very closely at the life of your supposed LDS prophet, and recall that even satan quotes scripture when it serves his twisted purposes.

Notice what your mind probably just did? ... You probably immediately had come to mind the some instance which would be iffy regarding speaking as prophet, like when in the Bible a donkey spoke to instruct Balaam. Yes, God would use a donkey, but the donkey would not be speaking as a prophet.

Are prophets of God perfect men or women? No, old Jonah immediately jumps to mind. But God does not take an unregenerate peepstone conman teenager to be His prophet. If Joseph became born again then was used by God, we might consider him a possible prophet. But Joseph Smith's subsequent behavior speaks volumes about whether he was born again. It is that History of the man which Mormons will not allow themselves to believe, because to see Joseph Smith for what he truly was would shatter the mythos built up around him.

When discussing the sexual predatory behavior of Joseph Smith, Mormonism apologists immediately try to refocus attention upon the wives of Old Testament patriarchs. Why do they do this? Because they mistakenly believe this absolves their chosen prophet from guilt. But it doesn't. The predatory behavior of Joseph Smith stands as screaming testimony that he was a huge fraud.

When I bring up the absurdity Joseph Smith claimed to have 'translated' from Egyptian papri, mormonism apologists have an approved response which is so silly that it is no longer offered at FR! Joseph Smith was a fraud, Norm.

I bring up the truth that Joseph Smith claimed to have re-translated the King James Bible, to render a supposed 'more accurate translation' addressing the specious Mormon claim of believing the Bible so far as it is translated correctly. I point to the more than eight hundred words Smith added to extend the Book of Genesis so he could fabricate a prophecy of his coming forth in these latter days. How do current Mormonism apologists deal with this sticky fact? They ignore it. Why? Perhaps because LDS central has yet to formulate an adequate spin response to this truth! Your own religion does not use the supposed 'more accurate translation' of the King James Bible ... translated we might add into King James English from King James English!

So, Norm, the foundation to your religion is framed by a fraudulent person who was not suitable to be a prophet of God, yet Mormons insist on believing a proven liar, a proven sexual predator, a proven false swearer, a proven false 'translator'.

Now lets return to the quote you offered from Joseph Smith regarding 'The Standard Of Truth'. Do you really believe that God would entrust His Standard of Truth to someone so base and foul as Joseph Smith? ...

Joseph Smith,
--the peepstone fraud who was dragged into court for conning gullible farmers
--the boy who claimed to have variously been visited by God in a body and Jesus in another body, but on another telling of the tale claimed an Angel of light was whom visited him and on another telling claimed ... oh, never mind, the various tales he told have been posted numerous times, as QUOTED FROM LDS SITES
--the Joseph Smith who lied to young women and his wife Emma, so he could take these young women as sexual play things
--the Joseph Smith who lifted whole Masonic rituals (like special handshakes and garments of significance) to give his false religion a semblance of formalism
--the Joseph Smith who lied to married women in order to bed them while they were still married to other men
--the Joseph Smith who tried to establish a separate nation from the United States
--the same Joseph Smith who shot and killed two men when a mob came to drag him from a jail cell

Norm, do you really believe this is the low standard God accepts to deliver His Truth? Surely not! God forbid! You see, Norm, Joseph Smith was a fraud, a servant of demonic influence, a reality we may discern in this day by the false religion he established which is accomplishing the damnation of any who will trust in that religion to guide them to salvation through all that they can do.

The astonishing claim that ALL of Christianity was in total apostasy from the second century until Joseph SMith arrived ought to be a strong enough clue to you that your prophet is not working for God! This lie has so many layers of satanic influence it could fill pages deconstructing it, but know this, Norm: if what Joseph Smith claimed regarding all in Apostasy were true, then God would have been unable to keep His promise given through/by Jesus. Do you really want to believe God could be so feckless?

You may wish to fall upon the plea that the trinity is a man-made concept, like your friend Saundra Duffy desires to fall back upon. But that really ins't the point now, is it Norm? The point is God did not lie through Jesus when He promised even the gates of Hell could not prevail against His Church and that He in the person of His Holy SPirit would never leave or foresake His Church.

Salvation comes through God's Grace in Christ Jesus, and none of all that you can do can add or diminish that Grace. THAT TRUTH infuriates satan, because it is so loving from God to us that satan's brilliance cannot defeat it once applied. Let me re-assert that truth for you Norm: God's Grace to the broken and contrite sinner calling upon Jesus for deliverance cannot be added to OR diminished by anything that you can do. His 'soterism' is as sure to the faither as the DNA you carry from your parents ... you can claim all sorts of things, but you cannot change the DNA which makes you descended from your mother and father.

Jesus, Who knew no sin, died for you. He did not sin, because His seed--His Holy Spirit--remainded within Him as He walked the walk and talked the talk. God's Holy Spirit was not in Joseph Smith, as shown by the twisted deceitful predatory life he led even to his death.

256 posted on 09/22/2010 1:52:12 PM PDT by MHGinTN (Dems, believing they cannot be deceived, it's nye impossible to convince them when they're deceived.)
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To: aMorePerfectUnion; Paragon Defender
Oh, really. Prove any argument here is a “straw man” argument. If talk is cheap, you’ve got at least a $1,000 of talk on this thread alone. You accuse. You can’t prove. Never have. Never will. That is a direct challenge to the credibility of your post. YOU CAN’T DO IT.

PD, it time for you to step up to the plate. Accusing people without proof is slander. You have been asked repeatedly for proof and your consistent failure to provide it can only cause reasonable people to conclude that you have no evidence. As someone who purports to be spiritual, you must know how serious a sin this is. In case you forgot, the words of Paul:

9Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders 10nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. (1 Corintians 6:9-10)

Is that the kind of company you want to keep? Since God takes slander seriously, I would think you would want to avoid even the appearance of slander.

257 posted on 09/22/2010 2:45:33 PM PDT by CommerceComet
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To: Osage Orange

But...

but...

we found ALMA somewhere!!!

—MormonDupe(How ‘bout that choir of ours!!)


258 posted on 09/22/2010 3:04:10 PM PDT by Elsie ( Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Normandy
From the very beginning of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints there have been people who have tried to thwart its progress.

Oh!!

MUCH earlier than that!

The BIBLE warned against those two Angels of LIGHT that lied to Joseph Smith!

259 posted on 09/22/2010 3:06:06 PM PDT by Elsie ( Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: MHGinTN

“God does not take an unregenerate peepstone conman teenager to be His prophet.”

Thank you for fulfilling prophesy. Joseph Smith said his name would be known for good and for evil. You know his name for evil; I know his name for good.


260 posted on 09/22/2010 3:18:40 PM PDT by Saundra Duffy (For victory & freedom!!!)
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