These are personal accounts of the negative consequences that inappropriate interviews have had on people.
I sat across the desk sideways from a friendly man, my Bishop. He was giving me the standard worthiness interview before going on a Temple trip. I was an innocent fourteen-year-old and when the question came up “are you obeying the law of chastity” I had to ask as I had done before (and continued…
Our son, 30 years old, called to tell us what happened when he was a teacher. Said a girl called asked him to meet at a park, she kissed him for about 5 seconds, than stopped. They both left. At church the next day, the bishop grabbed our son by the arm pulled him into…
I was 18 or 19, at college with my boyfriend. We had been dating a while and I stayed over at his place late one night. I won’t go into the details but he sexually assaulted me while I was asleep. I honestly didn’t know who to turn to but felt for some reason my…
It is difficult to express the damage that is done to children who are, in all other aspects of their lives, protected by laws that rightly prohibit adults from inappropriately questioning a child to protect their innocence. Yet, when it happens at a church we shy away in fear of being called persecutors of the…
My family moved frequently as I was growing up, so my twelfth birthday was spent in a new ward. My family wasn’t in this ward long and moved within the year, so I never endured more than one interview with this man. But I remember the extreme hatred and fear I felt after my interview…
I was 11 when I discovered masturbation while changing into my pajamas one night. I continued to do it almost every night before I went to sleep, as it felt really good and helped me fall asleep more quickly. Several months later, my father called me into his room for a monthly interview; we had…
As a young woman, I struggled with boys. I was backwards and shy, and lacked confidence in myself, especially when it came to boys. I was nineteen before I ever had my first kiss, and it went from first kiss to almost having intercourse in one evening. I still struggled in confidence with boys though,…
20 Years. That’s how long it took for me to unravel the mess created by my Young Women’s President. I won’t go into a lot of detail about that, because this is a place for inappropriate Bishop’s interviews. But if you’ll bear with me, It DOES involve a Bishop’s interview that ended with the cold…
I was born and raised in the Mormon Church along with my older sister and older brother. The brainwashing began for me at a very early age. Monthly testimony meetings and being led to believe that the bishop had a direct line of communication with the Lord molded my brain to believe that the Bishop…
First, I want to thank Sam Young for doing what I could not: stand up in front of LDS leadership and put the focus on this horrible practice. When I, like so many others, are completely saddled down by the detrimental shame and self-loathing that come from childhood trauma followed by prying worthiness interviews and…