These are personal accounts of the negative consequences that inappropriate interviews have had on people.
I wish I was brave enough to post my name, but my family is still unaware of my faith transition. I feel like a coward. My heart is beating rapidly in nervousness as I type this out. But I need to do it. I grew up in an extremely dysfunctional family. My dad was a…
I was born in the church and presented as a very devout, chaste and faithful girl my whole life. It wasn’t an act. For the most part, I really was. But I had a secret : I masturbated. I was never asked about this, and masturbation was never addressed in YW. I came away with…
I grew up in a small town in Southern Utah. When I say small I mean about a 100 people small, give or take a few. Everyone in town was Mormon with the exception of a wife and kids of a Jack-Mormon that had moved there to sort of homestead. Their daughter, in fact, was…
When I turned 12 I had a really cool bishop. During interviews he would basically say “I don’t want to know what you did just don’t do it again”. He was awesome. Then when I turned 16 they released the cool bishop and put in a bishop that was the complete opposite. This guy wanted…
I met my husband when I was 18. He is four years older than me and was a return missionary when we met at work. We became intimate and, after a few months of dating, ended up having sex. It was the first time I had sex with anyone and his too. I didn’t tell…
From the Bishop’s Perspective I had been serving as a Bishop for a few years when a 17 year old girl came to my office for a meeting that she had requested. I sat at my desk and she sat in a chair across from me, the door to my office closed and locked as…
When I was 18, I had my first sexual encounter with a boy. I was so scared to confess because I didn’t want my parents to find out, but eventually the guilt overcame me when I was in a meeting with the stake president about preparing for a mission. I told him I wasn’t worthy…
I don’t know if my story is typical, at least the later parts of it, but the beginning part I believe, is almost common in the church, at least among those of my peers who, like me, and my oldest son, with whom I have discussed this issue, had the desire to be completely honest…
I was lucky enough that my father was my Bishop during my formative teenage years so the damage and shame I received as a youth was from other people in leadership positions or during lessons and not one-on-one interviews at an early age. I never had negative experiences with a Bishop, but that changed my…
On many more than one occasion, I was subjected to inappropriate interviewing that effected me even into my adulthood. From around the age of 12 to about age 19, I tried to correct what I was told were my immoral actions. First was masturbation. At the age of 12, I clued my current bishop at…