#1051 Name Withheld. CS: 1,2,3,7

I was raised from birth in the LDS Church. Having been told I was so lucky to have been born into such a wonderful organization for as long as I could remember, I believed it, and in many ways it kept me from leaving for several decades. Around the age of 12, I had my…

#1050 Name Hidden. CS: 1,2,3,8

For over 7 years I was had meetings with my bishop/stake president/mission president at least monthly to talk about my masturbation “addiction”. Most of them were kind and did not ask for many details. They always told me I could overcome it if I had faith in Jesus Christ and tried to access his atonement.…

#1045 Talia K. CS: 1,2,3,7. Other: self harm

I was raised in the church and my mother was sexually and physically abused by my biological father. Whenever she tried to leave him, the church held her back in several ways. After he began sexually abusing me as an infant, my mother left him. However, regular unsupervised visits with him still happened and I…

#1044 Name Danielle J. CS: 1,2,3,4,6,7

I grew up in the LDS church with parents, siblings, friends, and many other family members. I was taught from a young age that men in the bishopric are called of God and that they answer to him. I was raised to trust bishops by my church family. When I turned 12 and I entered…

#1043 Name Hidden. CS: 1,2,3,4,7,8

My first memory of worthiness interviews was being terrified at 7 when masturbation was explained to me in graphic detail but my parents insisted that I go ahead and be baptized. I was young, I felt powerless… This normalization made me an easy target I guess, it was years later that this normalization would have…

#1041 Name Hidden. CS: 1,2,3,4,5,7

Roughly 12-14 years ago a sibling of mine came forward with a terrible story. He gathered the family together and informed us that when he was younger he had been groomed and repeatedly fondled and raped by a former bishop. He approximated that he had been about 10 -12 years old when it hard started.…

#1040 Name Withheld. CS: 1,2,3,7

I grew up in the church and remember never properly being taught about sexuality until my teenage years. Even then it were very vague attempts. It always seemed as though people at church were embarrassed (or largely uninformed themselves) teaching about these things and even my parents never really taught me anything. The only occasion…