These are personal accounts of the negative consequences that inappropriate interviews have had on people.
I remember being called in for an interview with the bishop when I was about fourteen. He said it was an interview to lead the Teachers’ Quorum. He got to the question of the law of chastity and asked if I was keeping it. “Yes.” “Do you masturbate?” He asked the question as he stared…
I grew up in a strict LDS family in Las Vegas. The inappropriate interviews began at age 12 when I started young women’s. Age 12, Bishop asks me if I kept the law of chastity. I say yes. He then proceeds to ask me about masturbation and if I knew it was a sin. I…
I just thought it was normal, being asked about sex – though I was incredibly naive. I was 15 or 16 and called in to see the bishop. A few nights prior, I had been out with a boy and things got heated. I suppose you could call it heavy petting, but I had no…
I was 16 when I had pre-marital sex with my then high school girlfriend. In hindsight, we were kids with raging hormones and we both felt horrible about our actions. We both went to speak to my home-ward bishop about our mutual sin. We were upfront, honest, self-loathing and willing to do whatever it took…
When I was 8, I was interviewed for baptism. I was alone in the room. It was the first time I’d ever even heard of masturbation. Bishop asked me if I did it. I didn’t know so I asked him what it was. He went into detail on…. how to do it… then told me…
I didn’t even know what masturbation was until I had an interview with my bishop at age 12. From that interview I was told that it was really bad, and that any type of sexual relation was bad prior to marriage. Well, when you get married, a switch doesn’t suddenly change so that everything that…
As a boy in high school, I had a friend who was a girl. We had a great relationship just as friends. One day she told me she had slept with another boy be accident. She thought she might have been date raped. I was not jealous as I had no romantic attraction to her,…
I only ever knew about pornography and masturbation from the church deacons quorum meetings. Our teachers lectured us young (12) on how we shouldn’t lust and masturbate and do all these other things. I now realize how inappropriate that was. I have feelings for men and I tried to hide it and would cry myself…
From the time I was a very young girl, I was being sexually abused by multiple members of my family. As is common for children in this situation, I was convinced that it was all my fault, the result of some error or fundamental flaw on my part. The shame was overwhelming, and so I…
I was about 13 when the bishop started asking about masturbation in those worthiness interviews. I’ll never forget the first time. He asked if I masturbated. I didn’t know what it was so he threw out the terms “jack off” and “jerk off”. It made me feel very uncomfortable. I was asked this many times…