These are personal accounts of the negative consequences that inappropriate interviews have had on people.
I wasn’t born into a “mormon” household. I was born into a “wordly” household, as I was often told as a 9 year old little girl trying to navigate my way through life in the LDS church, while having two addicts for parents. It was often hard for me when my grandmother would take me…
Bishop asked me about touching myself inappropriately when I was 12. I didn’t realize this meant masturbating until later and that it was bad. I said no at the time but I had. I didn’t learn that it was bad until maybe a year later and soon after that I started using pornography. From that…
It was October of 2007, and I had just turned 8. I was told I had to meet the bishop, to see if I was worthy enough, so I could get baptized. I went in nervous as all hell, and wondered what he was going to ask me. He started off with the standard questions…
I served as Young Women’s president for almost 10 years between three wards. On several occasions, the Bishop of the ward I was serving in made comments to me about the young women referring to their clothing, their bodies and the thoughts it gave them and encouraged me to teach them the appropriate way to…
This story is not my own but my wife’s. I share it in hopes that others can learn that they’re not unique when it comes to inappropriate interviews of minors. My bigger hopes are that someone from LDS church headquarters can see this as well and know that it is heartfelt and with No malice…
My father, Stan ______, held one on one “priesthood” interviews with his children when I was growing up. He set this up to feel much like a Bishop interview, and often compared the Bishop’s stewardship over the ward with Stan’s stewardship over his family. When I was 15, Stan began “Sex Ed” in which he…
My children will not be interviewed by bishops because of what I faced as a teenager. When counseling about my “sins,” my bishop, a man who lived on the next street and was the same age as my dad, asked me a very specific sexual questions. These were things I wouldn’t/couldn’t discuss with my closest…
I had two interviews happen to me that I did not question but did not feel right about at all. When I was 14 and had admitted to having sexual sin I was asked questions I did not feel were appropriate to be asked to determine what consequence I had. I should have stated when…
I was raised in a family with half a dozen siblings. Very close, very conservative. My parents were very “morally driven” and extremely uncomfortable with anything adult oriented or things they deemed inappropriate. Easiest examples being the censorship they used for the family TV Many channels were blocked, we weren’t allowed to watch mainstream shows…
As a teenager, I was repeatedly interrogated by my bishop about masturbation. I lied and felt horrible about it. I thought there was something wrong with me. I thought I would be looked down on if anyone knew the truth. the guilt was always weighing down on me. I thought I was a horrible person…