#884 Brian F. CS: 1,2,3,7,8,9
“You know the church frowns on homosexuality.” My bishopric interview at 14 years old (1984) and why it shouldn’t have happened. Life was okay at 14 years old in Bountiful,…
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Warning: Sexually Explicit content.
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Legend for Consequences Suffered (CS):
- Inappropriate shame and guilt
- Childhood self-loathing
- Adulthood self-loathing
- Normalizing children to sexual questions by adult men. (Grooming)
- Sexual abuse. (Pedophilia)
- Impaired sexual relations after marriage.
- Years of recovery from childhood shaming. Often lasting decades.
- Suicide Ideation
- Attempted Suicide
- Suicide of a loved one or friend.
#883 Name Hidden. CS: 1,2,3
When I was 12 I was a very devout LDS kid. I wanted to be “worthy” and tried my best to follow every rule and expectation. At my 13 year…
#882 Name Hidden. CS: 1,2,3,7,8
I was sexually abused by a family member from the age of 6 to almost 15. When it all came to light, I was asked to see my Bishop (alone).…
#881 Name Hidden. CS: 1,6,7
I had a terrible sex education growing up. It was practically a banned topic at my house. We even had a TV guardian that would edit swear words on live…
#880 Name Hidden. CS: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7. Other: Victim shaming
I had a boyfriend in high school and we were both very active LDS. We’d been dating for about 6 months when he told me he would kill himself in…
#879 Name Hidden. CS: 1,2,3,4,6,7,8
I didn’t realize until I was at college that masturbation and strong sexual desire is a normal attribute of nearly every healthy person. My high school years were spent thinking…
#878 Nicole H. CS: 1,4
I was a good girl at 14, when Bishop _______ took me into his office and shut the door. Most of the girls my age had done stuff with boys…
#877 Name Hidden. CS: Other: It makes me sick to know that I am lucky. I just as easily could have been shamed and taken advantage of by a bishop.
It really pains me that there is sexual abuse in the Church, and leadership struggles to apologize, and counteract it in lasting, meaningful ways. It’s fine and necessary for bishops…
#876 Name Hidden. CS: 1,3,7
I was 13 years old when I went to a young men’s camp for the first time. In Brazil, these camps were usually made away from the city, at a…
#875 Name Hidden. CS: 1,2,3,4,6,8
I was raised LDS and was used to bishop interviews. My first bishop was pretty respectful, the farthest he would go was, “do you obey the law of chastity?” And…
#874 Name Hidden. CS: 1,2,3,4,7
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…
#873 Name Hidden. CS: 1
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…
#872 Jenna B. CS: 1,3,7,8,9. Other: Afraid of going to the bishop
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…
#871 E. M. CS: 1,2,3,4
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…
#870 Name Hidden. CS: 1,2
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.…
#869 Name Hidden. CS: 1,2,4,5,7,8
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…
#868 Name Hidden. CS: 1,2,3,4,7
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…
#867 Name Hidden. CS: 4
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…
#866 Name Hidden. CS: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10. Other: Years of late night harassing phone calls on my family’s home phone. I always suspected it was one of the male abusers from my families ward. If anyone but me picked up the phone, they would hang up. If I picked up the phone the voice on the other side would say sexually explicit things also talking of incest, and made it clear they were masturbating on the phone.
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…
#865 Joseph P. CS: 1,2,7. Other: belief that I was somehow bad or wrong for going through the natural process of becoming an adult.
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…