BYU Asst Coach Takes Heat Over Tweet After LDS General Conference
PROVO, UTAH – April 6, 2015 – (Gephardt Daily)
Mark Atuaia, an assistant football coach for Brigham Young University, is under fire in the wake of a series of Twitter messages he sent Saturday, making what some believe are veiled threats against those who disrupted last weekend’s 185th LDS General Conference.
The staged dissension, by a group calling itself anyopposed.org, took place just as President Dieter F. Uchtdorf called upon the congregation to sustain various church members by way of a vote. While thousands raised their hands to approve the motion, at least seven members of the group stood and shouted “Opposed!”
The outburst angered members of the congregation, including Atuaia.
He issued the following tweet shortly after the incident:
“For those who oppose go see your stake president and then find me and oppose those beloved men in front of me and witness how I sin.”
Reaction to Atuaia’s tweet was largely critical. One Twitter user called Atuaia’s tweets “un-Christ like,” while another said Atuaia “was clearly a thug” who brought “shame to BYU and the church.”
Atuaia posted another Tweet, recognizing his first reaction was a bit coarse, yet he remained unrepentant.
“I will not – nor will I ever – apologize for standing up for Thomas S. Monson, his counselors and the quorum of the 12 to those that oppose them,” Atuaia wrote. “If someone opposed the beloved men I spoke of – you best believe I’m going to retort with vigor and passion. Why? Because some of them are my friends, they’re cool people and it’s personal to me.”
Brigham Young University has yet to comment on the incident.
