Dear Penthouse Forum,Originally Posted by Rocker Ute
I never thought this would happen to me ....
oops scratch that, wrong story
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I was 12 or 13 when it “the incident” happened. Our new bishop loved basketball and played for our ward team. We used to hang out and watch them play, because during timeouts we’d run onto the court and shoot hoops. Our stake had a sweet court with one main court that ran North to South and two other courts that ran in the middle of it East to West. Our Stake court was as big as most high school gyms (and no carpet …. all wood baby).
During one game our ward men’s team were becoming frustrated with each other and things started to get heated. There was lots of finger pointing and banter with each other, “pass me the ball, I was wide open”, “you need to set a screen on that guy”, “rebound” type of stuff. The usual banter, but then it escalated. Before I describe “the incident” that led to us getting a brand newer bishop, I want to point out that this guy (our bishop of just a few weeks) was a good man. He was down to earth, caring, kind. Everyone thought he was an excellent choice to lead the ward. His fatal flaw was that when he played hoops, he transformed from Mr. Rodgers into Bill Laimbeer. He had a demon switch, he went from Mother Teresa lite to Nick Emery with a migraine quicker than a quarter mile with a borrowed friends Volkswagen Jetta. We’ve all played with this guy that considered a minor pickup game with a couple of guys the equivalent of playing for an Olympic gold medal. That was this guy. Off the court, he was just a regular easy going guy.
Our ward had one black family, and the dad played church basketball. During this game tempers continued to flare and I recall seeing a couple team members holding our bishop back from other players on his team. A couple swear words were dropped and our bishop shouted the “N” word! (Shudders), I’ll never forget that. It was completely awkward! Our Bishop finally calmed himself after a few of his friends calmed him and then he grabbed his stuff and left, never to return (okay that’s a bit dramatic, he would come once or twice a year if his kids were giving a talk or singing).
A few weeks later, we had a new bishop. I don’t know if he asked to be released or was canned. The black family in our ward that the “N’ word was directed too, moved out a few months later. I’m sure some apologies were offered, but it was probably just too uncomfortable for all involved.
Throughout my life, I’ve been in some great wards with great individuals with very little drama, but for whatever reason the ward that I grew up in as a kid had some bizarre/creepy incidents
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