These are personal accounts of the negative consequences that inappropriate interviews have had on people.
My adult daughter came to us 2 years ago to let us know that our Bishop in Bedford New Hampshire head sexually molested her at the age of 17 when she was going in to ask repentance for a situation. That Bishop then proceeded to tell her that whatever she did with that boy she…
I have had too much shame to share my story with even my closest friends. I have been faithfully active for 40 years. In the past five years I have been on a break due to this very subject. I am bold and sassy and able to have a voice in every other area of…
Quite apart from the standard questions on masturbation and sexual purity that always made me feel uncomfortable, I had one incident that was the most harrowing. I did some things on two occasions as a teenager, which of course are no one’s business. When it came time for my interview to go on a mission,…
When I was 8 I was shown pornography by my older brother but I kept it hidden. As years went by I felt dirty and worthless especially at church. Then when I was 13 I had sex for the first time and talked to adult men online and my mom found out. I was forced…
I am a woman in my 30s. In college, first in AZ then at BYU, I had urges to masturbate several times a week. It was a nice release, left no trace and wasn’t unhealthy in any way. Despite that, the church had me believe that I had committed a great sin in the sight…
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…
I am one of the lucky ones that didn’t experience inappropriate questions from my bishop when i was under 18. I’m not so lucky, however, as I experienced systemic abuse from organized abuse that is part of my family history. I thank God that I, for whatever reason, never associated that I was doing something…