These are personal accounts of the negative consequences that inappropriate interviews have had on people.
Approximately 50 years ago, I was molested and raped as a young girl in a small Mormon farming community in SE Idaho. It has taken years for me to realize the impact that this has had on my life. The abuse took place over time by the area counselor to the Stake President. The covert…
My mission president’s monthly interviews with sister missionaries in my mission were emotionally abusive and left me spiritually debilitated and suspicious of all priesthood leadership and closed-door interviews. Our president tried to make it sound like he was just checking up on our worthiness, but he always wandered into vulgar territory with lewd, probing questions…
I grew up in Utah and went to a pediatrician named Glen C. Griffen who had authored numerous books about maturation and sexual development published by LDS publishers which I was given to read. Those books, and the writings of President Kimball, and other talks in General Conference (there was a particularly horrible one by…
It has taken a lot of thought and courage for me to even begin to share my experience. I have only ever shared the consequences I have suffered as a result of the church, but not the worthiness interviews themselves. Though I believe many people who are LDS are good people, my dad wasn’t one…
I was raped by a stake president’s son when I was 14 (in 1994). The bishop did not let my mother come into the interview she arranged (which she did because she thought I slept with someone — not bothering to know the details of my rape). Instead of suggesting I press charges or get…
My three sisters and I were abused by my mom’s Mormon best friends sons for many years. When the abuse was discovered, our mother shamed us into KNOWING that it was our fault. How does a 4 year old get blamed for a 12 year old playing doctor in the Mormon role of men and…
I was born/ raised in the church, and growing up I took my religion very seriously. I was attending a Young Single Adult Ward, and I’d been carrying around tremendous guilt for years. As a kid, I was repeatedly molested by my older brother. My memory on when it first started and ended is hazy,…
Self loathing is a good basis here. Starting adult life with the mindset that hating yourself is healthy and righteous messed me up. I’ve since learned that I am worth loving and that meeting with the old dude that gives me tremendous anxiety to talk about masturbating isn’t necessary to my happiness. I don’t need…
As a youth, there were very few times that I got free of the shame, guilt, and self loathing that accompanied worthiness interviews. Before my mission, I thought I cleared everything up, but my mission president would ask inapropriate and deeply probing questions that caused me to question if I really had confessed everything. I…
Hi Sam! I saw your Facebook feed months ago, and it intrigued me. As I was reading about your cause, my heart was so saddened, not only for the victims I read about, but it then dawned on me, my own children have been subjected to these interviews. I am an active member of our…