#1086 Name Hidden. CS: 1,2,3,7. Other: Other forms of abuse in my home were ignored.
I had the usual worthiness interviews starting at age twelve. Until I was fifteen, they were always on script. I never had anything to say…
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View all1. Inappropriate shame and guilt10. Suicide of a loved one or friend2. Childhood self-loathing3. Adulthood self-loathing4. Grooming5. Sexual abuse6. Impaired sexual relations after marriage7. Years of recovery from childhood shaming8. Suicide Ideation9. Attempted SuicideConsequence StoriesHigh Impact StoryNews CoverageSuccess StoriesUncategorized
#1084 Name Hidden. CS: 1,2,3,4,5,7. Other: This leads to very abnormal interactions with people later in life. A mind filled with harmful doctrine that haunts me daily.
Utah has one of the highest youth suicide rates in the country. It is getting worse. When I was raised in the Mormon church, every…
#1078 Sandra M. CS: Other: Found this article on CBC -a CDN story
Court finds Mormon church blocked southern Alberta police investigation into sex abuse of young girls in 1980s Warning: This story contains disturbing details that may…
#1076 Name Hidden. CS: 1. Other: I still feel guilty some times after having sex with my husband of 6 years.
I was 17 and had been in a relationship for over a year with a non-member (who was also extremely active in his faith). Over…
#1074 Name Hidden. CS: 1,2,3,5,7,8,9. Other: Substance Abuse, stuck in abusive relationship cycle for years, diagnosed PTSD
I first learned about the LDS church the school year after I was raped at 14 years old. It was a case of coercion, I…
#1056 Name Hidden. CS: 1,2,3,7. Other: Other forms of abuse in my home were ignored.
I had the usual worthiness interviews starting at age twelve. Until I was fifteen, they were always on script. I never had anything to say…
#1038 Name Hidden. CS: 3. Other: Deep betrayal when I came to understand that the church never was what I thought it was.
Hi Sam. Thanks for being a force for good. My story is not one of childhood. I was on my mission. But what it shows…
#1020 Name Hidden. CS: Other: Extreme discomfort with all male leaders and a fear to come out to my family about this issue.
I am a biromantic asexual female. As I started realizing I had feelings for other girls, I became progressively more guilty about having urges to…
1007 Lisa P.F. CS: 1,4,6. Other: my voice doesnt matter; the rules dont apply to mormon men they can do what they want
First of all Thank You! I never considered this happened to anyone else. I was raised in the church with my own father as a…
1005 Name Hidden. CS: 1,2,7,8. Other: Years of depression and feelings of un-worthyness
Hello Mormon friends, I am a 83 yer old man who was unfortunately raised as a Roman Catholic. I relate to virtually all the stories…
#999 Name Hidden. CS: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7. Other: Confusion as to the “why” of what I was asked. In other words: What was it about ME that would make my Bishop ask me such a vile question.
I had just turned 12 years old. My sister was the Laurel President and absolutely loved the Young Women’s program in our LDS faith. I…
#998 Name Hidden. CS: 1,2,3,4,7,8,9. Other: ecclesiastical coercion to do harm to my congregation
I am one of the many men who was repeatedly sexually shamed in interviews. This line of specific and graphic sexual questioning took place since…
#989 Name Hidden. CS: 1,2,3,4,6,7. Other: Desires at times to cut off my unit. “If thy left hand offends thee, cut it off.”
Like most children do, at the age of 11 or 12 I began feeling sexual urges within myself. I’ve come to learn that these urges…
#973 Name Hidden. CS: 1. Other: Not direct sexual abuse, but definitely inappropriate.
My sister became pregnant when she was 16 (this was in 1983 in Rock Springs, WY). Her bishop, after finding out, came to our home…
#965 Name Hidden. CS: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10. Other: Eating disorder, domestic abuse, difficulty in career and financial loss
My first memory of my father abusing me was when I was 3 years old. He molested me in the bathtub. I knew it wasn’t…
#948 Name Hidden. CS: 1,2,3,4,7,8,9. Other: Severe depression, intimate partner abuse, hospitalization, medication
My family moved frequently as I was growing up, so my twelfth birthday was spent in a new ward. My family wasn’t in this ward…
#916 Jennifer W. CS: 1. Other: This happened to my friend, so I’m not sure what other long-lasting effects occurred
When I was about 14 (about 35 years ago), all the girls had to go in for their “interview” with the bishop or first counselor.…
#910 Name Hidden. CS: 1,3,5. Other: Feeling I am a pervert.
I don’t think it only occurs for children in Church private interviews to receive inappropriate questions during private closed door bishop and other Church worthiness…
#895 Name Hidden. CS: 1,2,3,4,5,7,8,9. Other: Unworthy bishop, Parental abuse, Danger in the church
I’m honestly not sure where to start with this. How do you fit your story into just words? I hope I can express how I…
#890 Name Hidden. CS: 1,2,6,7. Other: This is one of the main events that led me to leave the LDS church.
I went to a bishop’s interview when I was 16 years old so that I could go do baptisms for the dead. The week prior,…
#885 Reagan B. CS: 1,2,4,6,7. Other: Premature obsession with sexual terminology
When I was twelve I started having yearly bishop interviews where he would ask me questions about keeping the commandments and if I was following…
#877 Name Hidden. CS: Other: It makes me sick to know that I am lucky. I just as easily could have been shamed and taken advantage of by a bishop.
It really pains me that there is sexual abuse in the Church, and leadership struggles to apologize, and counteract it in lasting, meaningful ways. It’s…
#866 Name Hidden. CS: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10. Other: Years of late night harassing phone calls on my family’s home phone. I always suspected it was one of the male abusers from my families ward. If anyone but me picked up the phone, they would hang up. If I picked up the phone the voice on the other side would say sexually explicit things also talking of incest, and made it clear they were masturbating on the phone.
I was raised in a family with half a dozen siblings. Very close, very conservative. My parents were very “morally driven” and extremely uncomfortable with…
#865 Joseph P. CS: 1,2,7. Other: belief that I was somehow bad or wrong for going through the natural process of becoming an adult.
As a teenager, I was repeatedly interrogated by my bishop about masturbation. I lied and felt horrible about it. I thought there was something wrong…
#862 Name Hidden. CS: 1,2,3,4,5,7,8,9. Other: Belief that it was my fault when I was raped, so I never reported it
Prior to my first interview with the Bishop, I had no idea about sexual things. “Doing it” was something adults did. I was 11. But…
#853 Name Hidden. CS: 1,2,3,4,5,7,8,10. Other: Unable to marry or have sexual relations at all
I have had too much shame to share my story with even my closest friends. I have been faithfully active for 40 years. In the…
#848 Melody P. CS: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,10. Other: Normalizing me to physical control and sexual questions by adult men meant that my child was subjected to these things as well, to both our detriment. 🙁
Dear Sam: Thank you for fighting to protect LDS children. They need all the protectors they can get. It has taken me all week to…
#844 Name Hidden. CS: 1,2,3,7. Other: My children suffered these things. While I am not concerned about my name being known, I am concerned for my boys and their privacy.
My boys went to our bishop in Henderson, NV in 1999 and told him that their older stepbrother (my husband’s son) was raping them, sexually…
#821 Name Hidden. CS: 1,2,3,4,7,8. Other: Fear of relationships with the opposite sex.
The worthiness interviews containing questions of a sexual nature drove me to avoid relationships with the opposite sex out of fear of sinning for my…
#811 Name Hidden. CS: Other: Anger that I let my power as a mother be taken from me so easily, without a fight. Anger that the Bishop thought he could keep me out of the interview.
Hello, I am not sure if this story is being shared in the appropriate place. But I wanted my thoughts to go with Sam to…
#810 Name Hidden. CS: 1,2,3,7. Other: Physical neglect from parents who could not recover mentally from their own abuse.
Something that I realized I needed to share was the generational effect of abuse victims. My father was raised in incestuous Mormon family. His father,…
#802 Istrea G. CS: 1,3,4,7,9. Other: Unable to have a normal relationship with a man until I was 45 years old.
My name is Istrea Ann Guest. I was born a 6th Generation Mormon on my Mother’s side of the family. James Campbell Livingston is my…
#790 Jennifer M. CS: 1,2,3,7,8,9. Other: I lived my life thinking I was almost as bad as a murderer.
When I was 16 I had been dating someone for awhile. It was standard to have a bishop’s interview to get a dance card and…
#788 Amber A. CS: 1. Other: Became physically sick from a Bishop’s interview and suffered nose bleeds.
I am an active member of the Church, who served a mission and is sealed in the temple. I have faithfully served my whole life…
#785 Allred. CS: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8. Other: In addition to my own story here, my sisters have endured similar abuse by church leadership – including being sexually assaulted by the bishop in President Monson’s ward where my family lived for almost 20 years. Too many of the men in my family have been taught that this is normal and acceptable behavior, and have perpetuated abuse, and guilt/blame toward us women in the family. I could go on with countless horror stories within my own family, but suffice it to say – the trauma has affected us since our family began, and still causes us struggles as a family today.
I was 15 years old when my biological father raped and sodomized me over 130 times for a period which lasted nine long months. I…
#782 Name Hidden. CS: 1,4. Other: Encouraged not to report rape, impaired decision of parents, caused shame and trauma for selfish reasons.
I know you are going through a tough time right now Sam, so I wanted to tell you how you have helped my little family…
#747 Name Hidden. CS: 1,2,3,4,5,7,8. Other: It in a way normalized the sexual abuse going on in my life already. It sort of set this ideal for men in my mind as being sexual deviants in a strange sort of way.
I can’t remember exactly how old I was I want to say, 12 or 13… I know is was quite Young. I was called into…
#739 Mandy L. CS: 1,2,3,4,7,8. Other: Inability to form secure romantic relationships
I was something of a perfectionist as a child with a strong desire to please God and my family. My youthful guilt dwelled on typical…
#731 Kristine D.K. CS: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10. Other: PTSD, anxiety, persistent nightmares
Around my eighth birthday I was excited to be baptized. The plan was my father would baptize me. Both he and my grandfather would be…
#727 Tara T. CS: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10. Other: Eating disorder for 15 years, postpartum anxiety and depression
My story is difficult for many to believe, but I have spent many years healing and finding evidence to validate to myself that it is…
#715 Name Hidden. CS: 5. Other: Frustration towards church leaders in how they handle cases of childhood sexual abuse.
My stepfather sexually abused my sisters and I when we were younger. I hid the fact, until 5 years later. I wanted to heal from…
#711 Name Hidden. CS: 1,3,6,7,8. Other: Limited capability to feel love. Deep rooted belief I am not worthy of love. Unable to believe Christ could forgive me. Works, no grace.
My story happened not because of a Bishop with inappropriate intentions, but because the several men I dealt with were trying their best with very…
#709 Name Withheld. CS: 1,3. Other: exacerbated OCD
I have obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). It started when I was a teenager, originally manifesting behaviorally as excessive confessing of sins to my bishop. I was…
#703 Kim L. CS: 1,2,3,4,7,8. Other: Self Harming, Dissociative Identity Disorder, Anxiety, Future Sexual Harassment, Future Physical Abuse
I was abused by the boys in my neighborhood when I was 4-6 years old. I didn’t understand it at the time. But I was…
#701 Name Hidden. CS: 1,2,3,4,6,7. Other: Embarrassment, pain and distorted view of sexuality.
When I joined the church as a teenager, a week later the Bishop met with me and conducted a worthiness interview that asked a long…
#679 Name Hidden. CS: 1. Other: Attempting to understand what the Bishop meant, causing some exploration and increased curiosity.
I was receiving my first birthday interview as a Young Man, so I must have been 13 years old. The Bishop had numerous children himself…
#678 Name Hidden. CS: 1,7,9,10. Other: Witness to numerous atrocities encouraged by LDS Bishops against other human beings. And very often these human beings were women.
LDS Church Bishops – the starting position for ALL other “higher” leadership positions in the LDS Church such as Stake President, etc. – are appointed…
#669 Jodi H-E. CS: 1,3,7. Other: This is just one of the experiences that I had and I will share more as I feel like I can.
Bishop T. of East Layton, Utah is one of the bishops who shamed me. He was more instrumental in my exit from the church then…
#664 Pamela M. CS: 1,2,3,4,7,8,9. Other: Secondary violation from questioning due to external sexual abuse from another priestood holder and ex family member
I’m telling this story in hopes that it will help many not go through what I have. My motive is not to shame anyone my…
#657 Richard B. CS: 1,2,3,6,7. Other: Disproportionate fear of sexual diseases.
First, I must declare that I have OCD so fear of diseases and contamination has a psychological dimension, not just a religious one. I can’t…
#651 Christi J. CS: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7. Other: Complex PTSD, Inexplicable Nightmares, Lack of Trust
Approximately 50 years ago, I was molested and raped as a young girl in a small Mormon farming community in SE Idaho. It has taken…
#635 Name Withheld. CS: Other: No consequences. But both my daughter and I remember the incident to this very day. (27 years later)
My daughter, who was 14 years old at the time, went to the bishop so she could get her temple recommend. She was going to…
#629 Name Hidden. CS: 1,2,3,4,6,7,8. Other: Anxiety, Depression, Panic Attacks, Loss of faith
When I was 8 years old and receiving my worthiness interview for baptism, I remember feeling uncomfortable. I didn’t know my bishop well beyond singing…
#606 Name Hidden. CS: 1,6. Other: Spouse lost testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and marriage was destroyed
I was an active divorced LDS member, in love with a man who had converted, been baptised and had his temple recommend in hand when…
#603 Name Hidden. CS: 1,2,3,6,7,8. Other: Self-mutilation ideation. The shame and guilt were so overwhelmingly, I wanted my genitalia removed so that I would never masturbate again.
Dread, shame and guilt at every annual worthiness interview from my teenage years beginning in the early 1980s into adulthood for masturbation. The interview didn’t…
#599 Name Hidden. CS: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8. Other: C-PTSD, Manic Depression, Anorexia
From them telling us our bodies, the very thing that gives us life…is a sin. From telling us we are responsible for other people abusing…
#597 Name Hidden. CS: 1,2,3,5,6,7,8,9. Other: The double ache was as hard as I tried to protect.
As a young child: Setting, Salt Lake City, close to I have NO happy memories of my mother. My first memory of her is being…
#592 Eve O. CS: 1,2,3,7,8,9. Other: Closeted transgender female forced into the Aronic priesthood.
I was born transgender. I had male parts so that was put on my birth certificate. But I was really female though. In the 2nd…
#590 Leah W. CS: 1,2,3,5,6,7,8,9. Other: It became very difficult to accept God the Father, even after becoming a Born Again Christian years later. I would use the term GOD but not Heavenly Father because Father was not so heavenly.
The enclosed is one of the chapters in a book I’ve been working on. Until this year (twenty years after leaving) I had remained silent.…
#589 Devan H. CS: Other: Publicly attacked by the LDS church for reporting their sexual abuse against women and children locally
I reported crimes local LDS clergy committed. These reports included some women in the LDS church in my city who talked to me about abuse…
#574 Hanford S. CS: 1. Other: Distressed about Kimball’s pre-occupation with Sexual Practices. He was Pres. of the so-called “12 Apostles” then. 1-of-2 “General Authorities, who dealt with “Homosexuality.”
The late Mormon Pres. Spencer W. Kimball asked me explicit sexual questions, in clearing my return to BYU. (’69) I was falsely accused of “Homosexual…
#573 Name Hidden. 1,2,3,8. Other: Loss of self confidence and self worth, especially with the opposite sex. Difficulty having a normal life. Difficulty having a normal dating life.
I was born into the church. Growing up, I always considered myself a normal kid but felt that the only thing in my life that…
#564 Tara T. CS: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10. Other: Ritualistic Abuse and Mind Control
I am a Therapist-Survivor of ritualistic abuse and mind control, that involved at least two of my bishops as perpetrators, and two of my stake…
#548 Name Hidden. CS: 1,3,6,7,8. Other: Spouse had an affair with one of our bishops and it led to our divorce.
Nearly twenty years ago, a bishop that had been an explorer adviser in a ward I grew up in, had told my parents that I…
#547 Name Hidden. CS: 1,2,4. Other: Permanently left the Church, and I am not raising my kids Mormon. I would never subject my kids to this kind of guilt and shame.
Dear leaders of the LDS Church, I am from Sandy Utah and I was raised Mormon (12th Ward of the Granite Stake). Starting at age…
#544 Name Hidden. CS: 1,2,3,4,6,7. Other: What you tell in the Bishops Office doesn’t stay in The Bishop’s Office. Bishops and Other Church Leaders do not Respect your right to Privacy, and they DO ABSOLUTELY Tell MANY other people of their own Choosing, NOT YOURS.
I was born in 1950’s, growing up in Salt Lake Valley. In 1964 at the age of 13, the Bishop came to our Deacon’s Quorum…
#516 Name Hidden. CS: 1,2,3,6,7,8. Other: Not the victim in the typical sense — Trigger — victims, please avoid this.
Trigger warning — I’m being honest and open where I never have before. If you have suffered from abuse, I caution reading this. Feel free…
#509 Name Hidden. CS: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10. Other: Foundational damage to my testimony of the truthfulness of the Gospel and the LDS Church.
I was sexually abused by family members (aunts and cousins) and babysitters from my earliest memory (as a toddler). One such abusive event actually resulted…
#506 Matthew B. CS: 1,2,3,4,7,8. Other: Depression and impairment in social and professional environments.
I masturbated only once (yes, ONCE) as a young man growing up in the Church. I was 14 years old. I didn’t really understand what…
#498 Name Hidden. 1,2,3,4,6,7,8. Other: Fear/High anxiety of Leadership interviews, and Church attendance, job interviews, Therapy, Psychiatry appointments, and Doctor’s appointments alone.
The earliest I have a memory of abuse was at the age of 6. At age 7, I remember preparing for…
#492 Name Hidden. CS: 1,2,3,4,7,8. Other: impaired sexuality even still 15 years later/unable to feel confident and free of shame for my body and it’s normal healthy functions; I based my entire adult and sex life on how others *might* view me, instead of what I want and need for myself in that private & personal part of my life–which is NO ONE ELSE’S BUSINESS!!
I was born into the LDS church, raised and lived my whole life in the heart of LDS country, Utah County. There’s no escaping the…
#485 Name Hidden. CS: 1,2,3,4,6,7,8,9. Other: Gaslighting; feeling like I’m crazy because I’m told my abuse was a sin and not abuse
I was sexually abused as a child and as a teen. At my baptism interview, I remember feeling shame for the abuse, and this continued…
#482 Name Hidden. CS: 1,2,3,4,6,7,8. Other: Confusion. unrelenting, unresolvable, baffling, confusion.
I grew up in the 70’s. My dad is mentally ill –probably a mix of Asperger’s (back when there was that), Bipolar, OCD, and PTSD.…
#470 Name Hidden. CS: 1,2. Other: Feeling incredibly far from the church and seeing the threat priesthood power is
I went to my bishop to ask for support as i filed a rape case against my rapist from 10 years prior. My bishop said…
#468 Name Hidden. CS: 1,2,3,5,6,7,8,9. Other: Violation of privacy. Release of confidential information causing embarrassment, shame, and loss of a relationship. Edangerment of a child by tellin an abusive parent that child had told them of the abuse.
My story is four stories, and you may split them if you wish, or you may tell them together. So we will begin: The story…
#432 Name Hidden. CS: 1,2,3,5,6,7,8,9. Other: General inability to function constructively in interpersonal relationships
Dear Mr. Young, March 22, 2018 I only recently discovered your work yesterday—your website, and stories of LDS children abused by ecclesiastical interviews. I glanced…
#416 Adam B. CS: 1,2,3,7, Other: Actual pain in my body went thinking about sexual shame.
Growing up I was taught in church that masturbation was the most vile and nasty thing and no one did it except really bad people,…
Former Mormon bishop asks church leaders to stop interviewing kids about sex behind closed doors
Former Mormon bishop asks church leaders to stop interviewing kids about sex behind closed doors ST. GEORGE — A petition to stop the practice of…
Report: Mormon Masturbation Interviews Damage Children
Report: Mormon Masturbation Interviews Damage Children Protect the children: The aggressive interrogation of children about masturbation and sex by Mormon church officials constitutes child abuse.…
#374 Name Hidden. CS: 1. Other: Defending physical abuse by a priesthood holding father.
My sister and I, at different times in our respective childhoods mustered up the courage to tell the bishop about our dad, who physically, emotional…
#373 Charmaine Ferreira. CS: 1,2,3,4,7,8. Other: Sexual abuse by Young Men’s President at age 15 onwards
This is my story for all the men and women who’s hearts and souls are broken because of men at church. This My story for…
#361 Sandy C. CS: 1,2,3,4,6,7. Other: Feared God that he was always judging me because he spoke through the church leaders!!
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…
#358 Steve H. CS: 1,2,3,6,7. Other: Loss of trust in the priesthood, the Spirits, and the Church.
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,…
#356 Name Hidden. CS: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7. Other: Fear/anxiety in interactions with bosses or authority figures
My bishop touched me inappropriately during a private, closed-door, one-one-one interview in his office at a church stake center in Provo, Utah while I was…
#355 Name Hidden. CS: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7. Other: Basically, I’ve become a pathological liar since I was trained in it as a small kid.
Although it isn’t quick or easy to deal with, I’ll make this story brief as if it were. So, read it in two minutes and…
#323 Sally T. CS: 1,2,3,4,6,7. Other: mis-information, or perhaps a blatant lie used to coerce???
I went through those highly emotional and impactive teen years, in the 70s. This was when our LGBTQ brothers and sisters were still in the…
#313 Name Hidden. CS: Other: I feel like my issues are not directly related to the sexual aspect of worthiness interviews, so I didn’t check anything in this list.
I remember the first time I was asked if I masturbated. When I was about 15 years old, I was very depressed. My bishop was…
#309 Tosh K. CS: Other: I’m a gay man that was spiritually compelled to tell my leaders that I had sinned.
On my own volition and guilty feelings, I was compelled to tell my ecclesiastical leaders that I was gay and had been having relations at…
#302 Ryan J. CS: 1,2,3,4,5. Other: Learning how to lie well when I never imagined developing such a casual relationship with lying.
I support the stories shared here, and am now willing to publicly share my own. After just turning 12, I was scheduled for my first…
#269 Lauren S. CS: 1,2,3,4,6,7. Other: Silenced about sexual abuse. Blamed for my own sexual abuse.
I was 11 when a cousin 4 years older than me began sexually abusing me. It went on every summer for 3 years, worsening each…
#260 Name Hidden. CS: 1,2. Other: Regular questions about masturbation led me to habitual lying.
I asked my children’s bishop not to ask them any questions related to sexuality. He refused my request, claiming that he had a responsibility as…
#244 Name Hidden. CS: 1,2,3,4,7,8. Other: Lost opportunities due to shame filled “best dating years.”
When I turned twelve years old, it was time for my Aaronic Priesthood interview. Everyone seemed to be talking about it like it was a…
#230 Heather S. CS: 1,2,3,4,7,8. Other: Belief that sex is evil & next only to murder and that if sexual touch felt good in any way, that meant I was evil.
Trigger Warning: child sex abuse. This is about church teachings being used by my abuser. I grew up in a small Mormon town and was…
#203 Name Hidden. CS: 1,2,3,7. Other: Extreme fear of Hell and punishment for normal developmental processes; anxiety disorder (OCD)
Some LDS readers might turn a blind eye to stories that don’t fit their worldview of ‘ultimate authority’ and blind trust in leaders. The gospel…
#200 Name hidden. CS: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9. Other: Unable to trust myself – always needing someone in authority to tell me what I needed to do
My story is complicated. I was sexually abused by family members when I was 5-7, but I didn’t know that’s what it was and didn’t…
#184 Name Hidden. CS: 1,2,4,6. Other: Fear of sex, gynecological exams, etc
I remember having to decide whether to confess to masturbation at my baptismal interview a few months shy of my eighth birthday. I decided to…
#178 Name Withheld. CS: 1,2,3,6,7,8. Other: Seemingly irreversible damage to sexual identity
Growing up, I was not talked to about my sexuality in what I would consider a healthy way. I don’t fully blame my parents, because…
#145 Name Hidden. CS: 1,2,3,4,6,7,8,9,10. Other: Loss of confidence in spiritual leadership.
I will never forget when a young inexperienced bishop’s counselor took it upon himself to come into our Deacons Quorum and “warn” us against the…
#144 Name Hidden. CS: 1,2,3,4,6,7. Other: Suffered a crisis of faith. Bitterness toward LDS faith. Years of inactivity. Difficulty trusting LDS leaders. Damage to emotional and spiritual well being. Difficulty trusting men.
At different times in my life I have confided in several bishops about various spiritual and emotional concerns. Throughout my youth, and young adulthood, I…
#142 Julene CS: Other: Shared grief with those who have suffered as a result of this policy.
Years ago, out of the blue, I got a clear impression that the present practice of clerical interviews on sexual matters, especially of young people,…
#119 Name Hidden. CS: 1,8. Other: Introduction of inappropriate ideas / suggestions about sexuality
I lived in Kansas for couple of years as a military dependent. I was in a ‘part member family’. I was about 14 years old…
#118 Name Hidden. CS: 1,2,3,4,6,7,8,10. Other: Normalizing trust in socially accepted authority, sexism (trusting that men know better), extreme inappropriate guilt for normal and healthy sexual and mental behavior.
For those of you who haven’t lived in Utah, let me preface this story by introducing you to some facts of reality of living there.…
#96 Bryce B. CS: 1,2,3,4,7,8,9, Other: impaired sexual relations (I have never been married), hating myself for being gay
Growing up a gay Mormon child is really difficult. The first person I came out to was my bishop, a man from our neighborhood whose…
#92 Name Hidden. CS: 4. Other: Introducing masturbation to my child.
My son turned 12 and was getting his priesthood interview. He is on the high functioning autism spectrum and was quite nervous about the interview.…
#91 Name Hidden. 1,2,5,7. Other: Intense guilt caused by constantly policing my thoughts for things I’d have to admit to the bishop – like being attracted to other women.
My brother, M, was sexually molested as a child by somebody in our ward. We found out that my brother had been molested when his…
#86 Name Hidden. CS: 1,3,4. Other: Renewed shame and memories of past sexual molestation. She felt like she was molested again.
This is a story of two of my daughters who were interviewed by the same Bishop. One daughter was asked if she masturbated and what…
#70 Name Hidden. CS: 1,2,7. Other: Lasting fear and anxiety about sex, damage to relationships and friendships
I grew up in a traditional Mormon family. As a teenage boy, I could always tell I was a very sexual person. I had an…
#57 Name Hidden. CS: 1,4. Other: Lying in order to coerce me into allowing my children to be interviewed alone with the bishop without me present.
When my son turned 8 the bishop interviewed me to make sure I was worthy to baptize and confirm him. He also wanted to interview…
#53 Name Hidden. CS: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8. Other: Sexual abuse by the bishop
Trigger Warning * Sexual assault involving a bishop* **If you are a survivor of molest, be very cautious about being triggered reading my story!!!** *…
#42 Name Hidden. CS: Other: Very strained marriage. My children & I have left the church.
When my oldest son was approaching his 12th birthday, he came to me and told me he didn’t want to be interviewed by the bishop…
#39 Name Hidden. CS: 1,2,3,4,6,7,8 Other: Ideation about self-mutilation
On average, from age 5 to 28, I considered suicide and/or self-mutilation roughly once a week, in part because I was subjected to these interviews.…
#36 Name Hidden. CS: 1,2,3,6,7. Other: Fear of the Second Coming occurring before I could confess and being cast down to hell
I confessed to the bishop that I had been masturbating when I was 15 years old. His response was that he “didn’t know girls could…
#29 Jason L. CS: 1,2,3,7, Other: Thoughts of self genital mutilation
I was asked by my bishop at age 12 about masturbation. Every priesthood advancement and youth calling interview following I was asked about masturbation.
#13 Name Hidden. CS: 1,2,3,6,7. Other: Inability to date and marry during “normal” LDS timeframe; judgementalism of others, etc
I grew up in the 1970s and ‘80s. I loved the church and never thought I would leave, but now I’m a middle-aged apostate who…
#10 Name Hidden. CS: 1,2,3,4,6,7,8. Other: Mental illness-scrupulosity, including delusions regarding sexuality
I was harmed by the church’s teachings regarding sexuality, including invasive interviews on sexual topics. I was a very well-behaved child. I didn’t do anything…