It was my sophomore year of high school and one night when my boyfriend and I were making out he put his hand down the front of my pants. It was there for a few seconds but then I pushed it out and told him I had to go home. That was it. I feel…
Dear Sam: Thank you for fighting to protect LDS children. They need all the protectors they can get. It has taken me all week to write this letter; I have never told anyone else my story. Who would I have told? Who could I possibly trust with these details? My story goes back 50 years…
Growing up in the church, I first learned of masturbation from a bishopric member asking if I did it. I was young and being interviewed to go to the temple to do baptisms. I said “no,” as it sounded horrible, and then went home to look up the definition in the dictionary. (Thank goodness I…
My story is too long so I’m writing a book. To offer some insight I can tell you that my father was taking religious classes at BYU from 1959 -1967 and during that time he was taught secret doctrine that fed his narcissism and he began sexually abusing me when I was three. He would…
ONE of many disturbing things that happened to my son by himself behind closed doors with our bishop (besides the fact that he was even in there, as I had told the bishop it wasn’t allowed just weeks earlier after my experience with this and other bishops) My son was 11, nearing his 12th birthday…
My father was my Church authority all during high school and I had to do these interviews with him. It was excruciatingly humiliating and, in retrospect, I think it was awful for him to be put in that position as well. He was not a perfect father or husband and, being in the “mission field,”…
When I was fifteen years old I had a boyfriend who was manipulative, coercive, and abusive. I was confused because he told me he loved me and he bought me flowers. He made me feel special. Behind a closed door, he started to force me to do sexual things that I didn’t want to do.…
When I was 8 years old, the Sunday School teacher told the class that the bishop was the best friend we had. We could take our problems to him, and he’d always listen, and help. I took myself to visit him as soon as class dismissed. I told him what daddy had been doing to…
My father sexually abused me when I was 9 years old. It was not complete penetration, but unwanted touching and fondling and he made me touch him. The abuse began occurring while my mother was out with relief society meetings and visting teaching or shopping. It went on for about a year and was beginning…
Growing up, I believed ANY and ALL questions asked by members of the bishopric helped them decide my level of worthiness and understand the nature of my sins. I never thought to ask my parents to sit in each interview with me; it just wasn’t ever done or encouraged. I saw that my parents trusted,…