I was taught and groomed to believe that men were standing between me and god. That they were acting as gods representative. I do not remember large parts of childhood, however looking back on symptoms, I see some traits of red flags of abuse or mental instability (I assume abuse, but I don’t have evidences…
Looking back now, I can see that I have always been very interested in sex. Even as a young kid of six or seven years I liked being naked and exploring my body. I was very curious about how girls were different than boys. I liked to experiment with things that would cause erections. I…
My first experience with church leaders asking me about pornography or masturbation happened when I was about 12. I had always been curious about sexuality since most of my friends in middle school were not members and they looked at pornography regularly. My bishop asked me if I looked at pornography or masturbated when I…
I turned 12 and was given a copy of the “For the Strength of the Youth” pamphlet as I entered the Young Women’s program. Shortly after, I was interviewed by our bishop (a kind man, who was the father of a friend of mine) in preparation for a temple trip the youth were doing. I…
In a private interview with my bishop as a child, he asked me if I obeyed the law of chastity. I was young and didn’t know what it meant and just said yes. He kept asking questions to see if I understood the law, which I could not answer. So he went into detail describing…
I was inspired by former Bishop Sam Young’s campaign to end teen interviews with bishops for the plethora of reasons he has outlined. I have been wanting to share my own personal story on this topic for 38 years, but it has been very difficult to find the words, process the emotions, and not end…