My Mormon story: growing up in Utah you had to be Mormon to be able to play with your friends. So i had been baptized around 4th grade. I took the lessons on my own, would go to church and sit by myself. I would fast alone as a young child because my dad and mom were not active members or believers.
So fast forward to being 15 years old. I had been abused by my step father and had been closed off and pulling away. I also had taken the summer to go help my aunt who had cancer and a special needs baby. So I spent my summer in another state helping her. When I arrived home and went to Sunday services, my bishop at the time pulled me into an empty room cornered me and told me that I needed to confess my sins and that I had to have been out being a whore and doing drugs.
I started crying and confessed I had been abused and he said it was my fault. Moral, I never went back. Through young woman’s I have been the miamaids and laurels president and done temple work. I had got myself up every Sunday and Wednesday found transportation and gone alone for years.
Fast forward a couple years, he was a physician; and I found out he had lost his medical license for writing himself prescriptions. Oh and doctors are mandatory reporters of abuse 🤷♀️… guess that was just a lose guideline for him. As a healthcare worker now I couldn’t imagine not helping or shaming a 15 year old that reached out.