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 don’t ever think about it again. But know that for me, it is my life, a daily hell placed there by the church and people who decide to do wrong…
My story is not as bad as many others’ because I was lucky enough to have friends who told me what happened to them when they confessed to sexual “sins” and abuse. Growing up it was an open secret that if you told your bishop you did anything sexual, he would interrogate you with questions…
I grew up in a Mormon household. We were considered religious by my family friends outside of Utah, but moving back when I was 12 changed everything. My relationship with my bishops before we moved to Utah were very respectful and considerate of social boundaries. However, when I was 8 and before I was baptized,…
I had to confess to my older white male bishop that I had watched porn at age 13 without anyone else present. I left church early crying in shame. Went home loathing myself only to find my mother who mocked me and shamed me because obviously I did something wrong since I left the bishop…
I was a popular young woman, honor student and athlete in my high school with supportive and loving parents. In the summer before I turned 16, I attended a fireside about chastity in which masturbation was the focus. Since approximately the age of 14 I had engaged in some mild masturbation, completely normal and moderate…
My story isn’t earth shattering but it was embarrassing and so very awkward. It was in the early 90’s as I was interviewing to turn my papers in to go on a mission. I am a female and I was 20 years old at the time. My bishop was older, probably in his 70’s. I…
It’s hard to know where to begin, but I’ll try to be succinct. I’m a survivor of childhood sexual abuse at the hands of my oldest brother (11 years older than I), which lasted from before I can remember until I was around 7, when he left home. I learned only as a teenager myself,…
I wish I was brave enough to post my name, but my family is still unaware of my faith transition. I feel like a coward. My heart is beating rapidly in nervousness as I type this out. But I need to do it. I grew up in an extremely dysfunctional family. My dad was a…
From the Bishop’s Perspective I had been serving as a Bishop for a few years when a 17 year old girl came to my office for a meeting that she had requested. I sat at my desk and she sat in a chair across from me, the door to my office closed and locked as…
On many more than one occasion, I was subjected to inappropriate interviewing that effected me even into my adulthood. From around the age of 12 to about age 19, I tried to correct what I was told were my immoral actions. First was masturbation. At the age of 12, I clued my current bishop at…