During one of my worthiness interviews while I was a teenager, my bishop informed my that my best friend and I were too close, and that people were talking. He proceeded to drill me for an hour about what we did when we were alone. Did we hold hands, had we kissed, had we ever…
My daughter at age 12 was being interviewed alone in the bishops office and asked if she masturbates and asked if she kisses girls. (An adult male asked my 12 year old daughter these questions!!!) very inappropriate. My sons were also asked these same questions.
I grew up in the same ward as a lot of my Facebook friends. We all had the same Bishops and ward leaders and I am so grateful to those that have shared their stories. At age 11, I was in a room alone with the First Counselor for a worthiness interview. I was asked…
The following is my personal story of childhood abuse and how church leadership concealed and diminished its significance. It is long. I come from a large Mormon family. I was born-in-the-covenant and raised “knowing” that it was all true. There was no choice in attending church, seminary, or serving a mission. Those choices were made…
Mine is a story of abuse. Not from a bishop but from a mormon dad who rose in the levels of mormon leadership because he did things like eloquently pray. He was, also,to put it bluntly a suck-up and as we all know this is a feature that helps you get far in mormonism (or…
I was 12 years old and recently found out that something I had been doing for years was called masturbation. My bishop happened to be my uncle, and I had my “biannual interview” when he asked if I had had sex, or if I masturbated. Immediately I felt ashamed of what I had done, and…
I was roughly six or seven when I was molested by an older cousin during a family vacation. (Everyone was Mormon, and all the men mentioned below are Melchizedek priesthood holders.) I remember freezing, thinking that if I just held still, it would all be over. I had zero idea what was happening, and thanks…
My story happened not because of a Bishop with inappropriate intentions, but because the several men I dealt with were trying their best with very little guidance and only very confused cultural teachings to work with. My parents did NOT speak with us about sex. I learned from a medical textbook my mom gave me…
My 17 year old daughter has been sexually active for a bit. Her mom and I knew about it and mostly talked about safe sex. Daughter felt she needed to repent, went to the bishop—who is a really decent guy—and he pulled out a sheet of paper and said “I’ve been instructed to ask you…
I have obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). It started when I was a teenager, originally manifesting behaviorally as excessive confessing of sins to my bishop. I was a textbook case of a subtype of OCD sometimes called “scrupulosity”. My story provides a good example of a bishop not having the training necessary to deal with certain situations.…