My husband is a retired police officer. There have been many times when he was investigating child abuse cases where bishops and other church leaders would not cooperate with the investigations. They stated this was a matter being handled within the church. They would not give any information. They were protecting the perpetrator, and the…
I went in for an interview to be allowed to go to the temple to be baptized for the dead when I was 12 years old. I was a shy and immature 12 year old. The stake president at the time was the interviewer and I had never had a conversation with him before. I…
I began masturbating without knowing what it was. When I realized I felt afraid and guilty, feeling I’d done the worst thing save murder. A few months later, at age 13, I told my bishop. He asked me to describe how I had been doing it, how often, and for how long. He also told…
The other day, I found myself reading through the journal entries I’d written both before and after I was formally disfellowshipped from the Church. I was disfellowshipped when I was 14 years old. Like many Mormon girls my age growing up on the Wasatch front, the LDS church was my whole life. My family went…
I’ve slept on this, and woken up just livid about it, because I’ve had to relive it through discussions with people who won’t listen to victims. I’m livid at the deafness of the people who won’t listen because, as far as they know, their child hasn’t been affected. Yet. From the ages of 8 –…
There’s nothing quite like trying to be the best child of God you can be – praying fervently, loving scripture study, always lending a hand to fellow brothers and sisters in need – and being told behind a closed door with your bishop that masturbation will damn you and keep you separated from God. Nothing…
I was 13 years old when a boy told me that his bishop had told him to “not associate with someone like me” . My neighbor who was my age and my first crush told his bishop that we had French kissed and “engaged in petting”. The bishop told him to inform me that it…
I was 14 and in an interview with the bishop, a trusted neighbor from up the street, when I first felt violated. I watched his eyes shift from my face to my breasts as he told me, “Never let any boys touch your breasts. Many of them will want to.” I instantly felt uncomfortable. Why…
I was 10 the first time my parents made me go confess masturbation to the bishop. Ten years old! They told me that sexual sin was 2nd only to murder, and my feelings of self-worth went right down the toilet. I felt doomed and terrified. Luckily my first bishop was very kind and gentle-mannered, and…
First off, thank you…thank you! Years of shame, guilt, self loathing and gender confusion because of what I endured. When it first began….I was called into the bishop’s office out of their concern I was “dangerous ” for other children to be around because I had just come out to my parents as being sexually…