When I 14 years old my mom caught me looking at pornography. Because of this my parents made me meet with our Bishop. I did not feel comfortable doing this but at the time felt that it was what I had to do really, because my parents told me I had to.
My meeting with the bishop started off nice enough but then he pulled out a newspaper. In the newspaper there was an article about a pedophile who had raped some children. My Bishop then told me that if I continue to masturbate and look at pornography I would become just like this man. My Bishop literally told me that I would become a pedophile if I continued looking at pornography.
This, along with not being allowed to take the sacrament and having to meet with the bishop on a regular basis to discuss my masturbation made me feel extremely guilty. I was held back from being called as a teacher and people ask me all the time why I wasn’t called as a teacher yet and why I wasn’t allowed to take the sacrament. This led to me feeling extremely guilty and hating myself for many years for doing something that the vast majority of people do.
It took me 8 years until I was 22 years old to finally realize that I hadn’t done anything wrong and that the church had instead wronged me. I still have yet to have a serious relationship in my life and I place a big burden of the blame on my bishop and my parents for making me meet with him.