The bishop I had from age 12 to mission departure was seemingly obsessed with the sexual purity of the youth in our ward. My biannual youth interviews with my bishop consisted of a long battery of questions deeply probing my activities. The most invasive and lengthy part of the interviews was a series of questions…
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 horrors of masturbation. This lesson was not in the manual. To this day, I have no idea why he felt compelled or authorized to give us such a lesson. I…
I was sexually abused at age 4 and again at age 7 by members of the Church. I learned early that extreme compliance was the way to keep safe. I was also raised to believe that bishops represented God in everything they said and did and that I could not be forgiven without seeing a…
I was ten. I stumbled across porn for the first time, and had kept it a secret from my parents as I knew they would be ashamed in me if they knew their child was bisexual. I had always considered myself to be a more mature child, and I had heard that finding and occasionally…
I have a lot of stories, but I would like to share the two most important ones. Shortly after turning 16, I had my first kiss. It was totally innocent but, as a good Mormon girl, I believed that it was the height of sexuality. Of course, I never experienced anything more than that, even…
I was born and raised a Utah Mormon girl. I couldn’t have asked for better parents, or a better upbringing. I was always the easy child that never gave my parents any grief, and I always felt a strong inner commitment to never do anything to jeopardize that. I always hated bishop interviews because they…
After having to switch to a different bishop, (the Bishopric was changed in the middle of my mission interviewing process), I showed up to a meeting where the new bishop acted like he had no knowledge of the things from my past that I had been working on with the previous bishop. (After a few…
My story didn’t start in the Latter-Day Saint church though it did end that way. It started soon after my 9th birthday. As a newly baptised child with a convert mother, I was new to the world of Mormonism and its many facets. My father (divorced from my mother) was an adamant anti-mormon who hated…
At the age of 17, I was raped by an acquaintance of mine. I told my bishop, hoping to get some sort of help. Instead, because of his invasive and unnecessary questions, I was made to relive that horrible day, forced to tell this man I barely knew explicit details of whether I had ever…
I was inspired by former Bishop Sam Young’s campaign to end teen interviews with bishops for the plethora of reasons he has outlined. I have been wanting to share my own personal story on this topic for 38 years, but it has been very difficult to find the words, process the emotions, and not end…