My story I hope will bring light to how systemic the issue is. The story is my father’s who is now 70. When my father was being interviewed to be a deacon it was now Prophet Russell M. Nelson who interviewed him. My dad said the first question asked was, ” How often do you…
When I was in high school I was sexually assaulted by a classmate. When this happened I was totally naive to anything sexual in nature, so obviously I didn’t quite understand what had happened to me or that what had happened was not a normal sexual experience. After some time of feeling guilt, I went…
I haven’t read even one of these stories. I won’t. I can’t let myself read child abuse. I’m 58, BIC, active nearly my entire life. My experience is likely better than most as I remember it. I wasn’t asked directly about masturbation until i was just a month shy of 16, my priest interview. I…
I remember a dimly lit room where I was interviewed quickly for baptism at 8 years old. My parents were ‘inactive’ and the first I heard of what I was agreeing to was in that interview. I was told I was promising to never sin again. I had a fight with my sister that night…
I was a new missionary at the MTC. The MTC President groomed the sister missionaries by constantly praising and complementing us as if he had us on a pedestal. At the same time he was very controlling over our behavior. He wouldn’t allow us to talk much to the Elders and we couldn’t laugh. He…
I was a very good child always trying to please God and took everything to heart that church leaders said! The guilt and shame of the interviews still even though I had done nothing wrong carried into my adult years reflecting sex as gross and disgusting. I got married at age 25 (which was old…
I’ve faced mental illness for as long as I can remember. Depression, social anxiety/phobia disorder, auditory hallucinations, etc. And on top of everything, I’m a bisexual male who was raised Mormon. I had a hard time coming out to my family because they’re Mormon, and I knew the kind of response I’d receive, but after…
We lost a generation of young men in my ward in NY in the 80s due to grooming and molestation by a bishop facilitated by one on one bishop interviews. He convinced several young men that there was a secret priesthood initiation involving oral sex. One young man spoke out and his parents took it…
When I was very young, my parents discovered I had been sexually abused by a female babysitter in our LDS ward. When they reported this to their bishop, he advised them to not report the abuse to law enforcement because the family was a reactivation project and these allegations would hurt his efforts in bringing them back to…
I am so thankful that people are finally speaking out about this problem. And it is a problem, a big one. I became inactive in the church during my early teens, but due to a VERY inappropriate interview conducted by the bishop behind closed doors, I was driven to never return. Even after telling the…