I was sexually abused by my step-brother when I was an eight year old girl. It continued for two years. My family was broken and dysfunctional and there was no adult I felt I could talk to. Like many victims of sexual abuse, I kept it to myself for years. I was never asked any…
My story is about how the Bishop of the church got information that I had had premarital sex. I was about 15 years old. It was my boyfriend, a convert to the church, that had told the Bishop what he and I did. I did not know this had taken place because we had broken…
How do I even begin to try and explain the damage being abused as a child has caused me. I was 6, we had been friends with this family for a few years, our families did a preschool co-op together. My friend was the same age as me. We had play dates, saw each other…
When I was 16 years old I moved to a new ward in Herriman, Utah. The first day at church right when we walked in the door we happened to meet the bishop. After my mom had talked to him for a few minutes and she had started talking to someone else, he then came…
When I was 7 years old I had my first worthiness interview a few weeks before I turned 8 and would be baptized. The bishop already knew that I was being abused at home and told me that I was a sinner and needed to repent because I was not being a worthy daughter and…
It wasn’t the interviews so much as a combination of the interviews with the fire-and-brimstone chastity lessons. Masturbation was described as an incredibly selfish and shameful act. Then we got the For The Strength of Youth pamphlet which called sexual sins “next to murder”. Then came the interviews asking about masturbation and the copy of…
My 15 year old son has been crippled with guilt and shame about masturbation. He has talked to our LDS bishop about it and feels worse afterward. My son is predisposed to depression and anxiety. His therapist thought he was experiencing a level of religious scrupulosity. I spoke to the bishop about this and asked…
I was shamed continuously because i was honest with them – then i learned to lie.
My father was both a Bishop and a Stake President for almost my entire childhood. Both of my parents were very well known and respected in our small Mormon community. Nobody outside of our family knew the extreme psychological, emotional, physical, and sexual abuse that was happening behind our perfect facade. I wonder how many…
I felt uncomfortable just being in the presence of Bishop _____. Knowing what he was going to ask me made my heart race with dread. Every 6 months he would pull me into his office and shut the window-less door behind me. Then he would proceed to grill me. “When was the last time you…