When I was freshly out of high school I was sexually assaulted. I hadn’t been active in the church in sometime but thought maybe a bishop could help give me guidance, or that I could find comfort and support in the church.
When I met with my Bishop and explained what happened to me, he began to ask for explicit and detailed explanations of what happened to me. Was there penetration, with what? Did you preform oral on him or him on you? Did you climax? Did he climax? Etc. I had to relive my assult sitting in this Bishops office alone and with the door shut.
Finally it ended with the Bishop giving me a book to read on the atonement and said I needed to stop taking the sacrament and work towards repentance.
This attitude, this disgusting prying, this idea that I needed to repent because I was in the wrong…it made my recovery process a million times more difficult and painful. I wish I had never gone to see the Bishop.
This practice of Bishops being able to ask whatever they want behind closed doors NEEDS to stop for the sake of the youth in the church.