Read The Stories

Warning: Sexually Explicit content.

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.

#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,…

#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…

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