I am one of the lucky ones that didn’t experience inappropriate questions from my bishop when i was under 18. I’m not so lucky, however, as I experienced systemic abuse from organized abuse that is part of my family history. I thank God that I, for whatever reason, never associated that I was doing something…
My boys went to our bishop in Henderson, NV in 1999 and told him that their older stepbrother (my husband’s son) was raping them, sexually abusing them and forcing them to perform sex acts on him. They were 9 and 12 years old at the time. The bishop related to my children as if they…
I had a mission president, ____ ______, in Tampa Florida who took pride in being direct, and often times blunt. During my second interview with him, he asked me if I masturbated. He then asked me if I talked with my companion about masturbation, or if we did it together. And lastly, he asked if…
When I was 12 years old, I had a meeting with my Bishop. He asked me about the law of chastity. I told him that I sometimes masturbated. He became visibly upset. A few days later, there was a game of capture the flag going on down the street from my house. When I showed…
Growing up, I was always the “perfect” Mormon girl; Molly if you will. I never swore, never broke commandments, and certainly never thought the church could ever make mistakes. EVER. From the moment I raised my hand in primary when our teach asked, “who wants to go on a mission?” I knew I would serve…
ONE of many disturbing things that happened to my son by himself behind closed doors with our bishop (besides the fact that he was even in there, as I had told the bishop it wasn’t allowed just weeks earlier after my experience with this and other bishops) My son was 11, nearing his 12th birthday…
When I was about 13, a new bishop was called to my ward. From my very first encounter with him, he made me dread going to church. To everyone else he was a happy, jovial, fun-loving goofy guy, but to me (and from what I remember, other young women – my friends and classmates) he…
I was born and raised in the church and had both fantastic Bishops and then Bishops and other leaders that made my skin crawl. I was asked if I masturbated during Bishopric’s interviews and although I had I ALWAYS lied. The guilt from being “sinful” enough to masturbate was bad enough but when you add…
My mother went to the bishop when we were young and my fathers abuse escalated. She was threatened with excommunication for attacking the priesthood and warned not to continue in that attack on the church. Because the church was more interested in protecting the image of the priesthood they chose to silence my family by…