These are personal accounts of the negative consequences that inappropriate interviews have had on people.
Here is my story: When I was 4 years old, my parents and I traveled from Arizona to Idaho to see family that summer (1983). We saw a number of family members, including one of my aunts and her husband (and their children) who were a “foster” family for a Native American young man (13-14…
The enclosed is one of the chapters in a book I’ve been working on. Until this year (twenty years after leaving) I had remained silent. It’s time to speak. O! My Father! O my Father, thou that dwellest In the high and glorious place, When shall I regain thy presence And again behold thy face?…
I reported crimes local LDS clergy committed. These reports included some women in the LDS church in my city who talked to me about abuse they and/or their friends suffered. One women told me she was abused as a child by a LDS stake president. I brought all the information I had to the authorities…
One experience I had with being asked completely inappropriate questions in a worthiness interview was just after I had started attending singles ward. I had very recently come to understand, with the help of a friend, that what I had experienced through my high school years was not premarital “sex” but actually rape, in the…
I first want to thank everyone for their efforts to protect our most precious blessings. I have had concerns for the almost 30 years I have been a member and am thankful to be a part of this effort. When my husband served as bishop, I had his ear and many times expressed my concern…
My husband Jon was very well liked by his bishop. He was often called on to give speeches during church. From the outside it appeared my husband had found favour in the eye of his LDS bishop. What people didn’t know is this behavior is a very common grooming process of predators. My husband suppressed…
Sam, there was a discussion on the RFM board the other day about whether sexual abuse always leaves you broken. I felt compelled to finally tell my story but did it anonymously. And even though I know it was easy to tell that I was writing my own story, I had to tell it in…
I remember vividly when I was asked by my bishop if I was masturbating. I was a 12 year old girl and he a man in his 40s. I remember just feeling so embarrassed and uncomfortable I couldn’t even look at him. It felt like there was so much emphasis on being pure when I…
I experienced incredible shame over masturbation. Barely a teenager, the scripture in Matthew 5:29-30 became constant in my mind: 29 And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should…
I grew up as a member of the church of Jesus Christ of latter-day saints in the UK. I remember the Bishop’s interviews very intrusive and embarrassing and also I felt violated looking back now as an adult. I grew up in a ward that there were many leaders men who were very egotistical and…