When I was a very naive 12 year old, I attended my first bishops interview. I was scared & really had no idea what to expect. I was intimidated by anyone in a leadership position. I think it all started out fine and then was hit with a question that I never imagined being asked.…
Even though it was long ago, I remember being interviewed by the bishop as I prepared to be baptized at the age of eight. It was the mid-1950’s, and both of my parents were with me in the bishop’s office. I was NOT asked if I lived the law of chastity, but rather was asked…
I was ~middle school age when my Mormon leaders started bringing this stuff up and asking me about the same stuff. Wish I’d known back then how messed up it was. In my case. My father drove me late at night to have an “emergency interview” with our Mormon bishop when they found some “magazines”…
I’m a pretty sexual person. I don’t know if it’s a consequence of my youth or whether it’s just how I am and I was made to feel ashamed of something that is just natural for me. When I was 14 I ‘sinned’ with a boy in my stake. My mum found out because I…
My story I hope will bring light to how systemic the issue is. The story is my father’s who is now 70. When my father was being interviewed to be a deacon it was now Prophet Russell M. Nelson who interviewed him. My dad said the first question asked was, ” How often do you…
I remember a dimly lit room where I was interviewed quickly for baptism at 8 years old. My parents were ‘inactive’ and the first I heard of what I was agreeing to was in that interview. I was told I was promising to never sin again. I had a fight with my sister that night…
I was a new missionary at the MTC. The MTC President groomed the sister missionaries by constantly praising and complementing us as if he had us on a pedestal. At the same time he was very controlling over our behavior. He wouldn’t allow us to talk much to the Elders and we couldn’t laugh. He…
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 the interviews still even though I had done nothing wrong carried into my adult years reflecting sex as gross and disgusting. I got married at age 25 (which was old…
We lost a generation of young men in my ward in NY in the 80s due to grooming and molestation by a bishop facilitated by one on one bishop interviews. He convinced several young men that there was a secret priesthood initiation involving oral sex. One young man spoke out and his parents took it…
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 a teenager. He got a pass on his behavior and went on to ruin the lives of others. To this day he has not been held fully accountable. My bishop…