Mormon Stories #1136: The Lusks: A Mormon Bishop and His Family Face Excommunication Pt. 6

When a sitting Mormon bishop faces excommunication for sharing official church essays on Facebook, the gap between institutional rhetoric and bureaucratic reality becomes impossible to ignore. The case of the Lusk family, detailed in Mormon Stories episode #1136, exposes how disciplinary councils function not as corrections of doctrinal error but as enforcement mechanisms for institutional silence. For the Lusks, the final straw came not from rejecting Mormonism but from refusing to pretend that troubling history does not exist.

The Lusk Family and the Path to Discipline

The Lusks represent a familiar archetype in modern Mormonism: lifelong members with multigenerational ties, and a former bishop who once administered the very rituals now being weaponized against him. Based in Farmington, New Mexico, this family watched their ecclesiastical standing dissolve not through adultery or embezzlement, but through keyboard activism. The bishop shared articles referencing the church’s own Gospel Topics essays, including one with the incendiary headline declaring Joseph Smith a sexual predator. The content was verifiable. The tone was unacceptable.

The family describes a surveillance apparatus that operates through social media monitoring and member reporting, creating what they characterize as a KGB-like environment where loyalty is measured by the suppression of inconvenient facts. When they attended Ward Conference during the investigation period, the congregation sang "Praise to the Man" and "Oh How Lovely Was the Morning," hymns that venerate Joseph Smith. The timing felt deliberate, a sonic reminder of the loyalty oath they were expected to perform.

Key Claims: Apostasy, Sam Young, and the Sexual Predator Label

The charges against the former bishop reveal the hierarchy’s priorities with uncomfortable clarity. Church leaders cited his public support for Sam Young, the activist who campaigned to end one-on-one interviews between clergy and minors. The irony here is stark: while the church retained Joseph Bishop (the MTC president accused of sexual assault) and Sterling Van Wagenen (the filmmaker convicted of child sex abuse), it moved to expel a lay leader who advocated for child protection protocols.