On occasion, members of the church have fussed at the petition. They have said that it paints all bishops as if they are pedophiles. Let me straighten that out: I assume that the number of pedophile bishops is pretty small. The vast majority of Mormon leaders are good upstanding men.
The supreme head of the Catholic Church estimates that 2% of his priests are pedophiles. Some estimates run as high as 7%. Is it possible that the population of sexual predators in LDS leadership is smaller? I hope so. We simply have no scientific data to support any estimate.
However, plenty of evidence exists which proves that there ARE sexual predators in every rank of our Mormon hierarchy. From Sunday school presidents, to bishops, to stake presidents, to mission presidents and seventies. With the advent of the #metoo movement, more and more Mormon victims are coming forward. Over the past 12 months, at least 8 leaders, mostly bishops, have been arrested, convicted or sentenced for sexual assault of minors. So far in 2018, two men who served in high leadership positions have been revealed as sexual predators, Joseph Bishop and Philander Smartt.
So no, not all bishops are sexual predators…but some are. Like every other institutional church on the planet have already done, we should implement protections against the dangerous men in our leadership.
Almost All Bishops ACT Like Sexual Predators!!!
Whatever percentage of our leadership might be evil, almost all of our bishops are ACTING just like sexual predators behave!!!
Taking minors behind closed doors, beyond the earshot and eyesight of everyone, IS predatory grooming behavior.
Asking a minor sexual questions is totally predatory behavior.
Almost every bishop is grooming our children for the sexual predators in our leadership ranks, in the neighborhood and anywhere else in society. The bishops groom kids for those serving above and around them. Bishops are grooming our youngsters for the predator who might replace him as the next bishop.
Fortunately, there are some leaders who refuse to take a child behind closed doors without a parent being present and also refuse to ask sexual questions. Good on them. Unfortunately, these bishops are in the vast minority. They are the ones who are proactively protecting our children.
What a horrid indictment on the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that the vast majority of our bishops continue to act like sexual predators. They are preparing our most vulnerable children for the monsters lying in wait. Some of those monsters are other bishops, stake presidents and mission presidents.
And remember…this ONLY happens in the LDS Church. In all other churches that I’m aware of, this behavior would result in the the pastor being disciplined or defrocked. Our friends the Catholics set a laudable example by not tolerating sexual questions being posed to minors.
Protect Your Children—NOW! Send your Bishop a Letter
Set firm boundaries with your children. Let them know that it is not appropriate to have one-on-one meetings with church leadership….or anyone else. Inform them that they are to let you know if anyone attempts to take them behind closed doors, including the bishop and stake president.
Then set the same boundaries with the bishop. Put it in writing. Send your bishop a letter or email. Three sample templates can be found HERE.
I regret that my children were exposed to sexually explicit questions, all alone, behind closed doors. Please take action so your children won’t be victims. Otherwise, you can see and read the horrid consequences that may be in your children’s future.
What Else Can You Do to Help Protect The Children?
- Like Protect LDS Children Facebook page.
- After you send a letter to the bishop, share your experience on the Success Stories page.
- Sign or share the petition.
- If you have experienced inappropriate bishop interviews, share your story….if you feel ready. Victims of either overt or covert sexual abuse are the only ones who can determine when or if sharing their story is appropriate. We support you in whatever decision you make.
- If you are unfamiliar with the damages the LDS Church is causing to our children, educate yourself. See the stories. Read the stories.
- I have chosen to invest a ton of my own money into this campaign. If you want to help, feel free to donate. And thank you to all those who have already helped out to the tune of $80,000 over the past 6 weeks. Your commitment to save our children is stunning.
Donations
To make a donation, go to our website ProtectLDSChildren.org.
On a laptop, the donation button is in the upper left hand corner.
On a tablet, the button may be on the left or right side, depending on the size of the device.
On a phone, click the three line menu. The Donate button will be at the bottom of the menu.
All funds will go to a new organization named “Protect The Children Association.” A 501C3 application has been filed. All donations made 27 months before the application is approved by the IRS will be tax deductible. I’m expecting everything donated at this point will fall in that category.
Caveat: DO NOT feel any obligation to donate. DO NOT feel one whit of regret if you can’t or choose not to donate.
Thank you for traveling this journey at my side in whatever methods you choose.
Tocubit Is Invisible's Cubit 
Hi Sam, This, as usual is brilliant…thoughtful and on point. May I make a suggestion reguarding a simple symantic issue in the first part? When you say “I hope so.” It kind of sounds like you mean that you hope we have sexual predators, and I know darn well that’s not your intention at all. You mean you hope it’s no higher than their percentage. Maybe you could word it to reflect that… something like, “I certainly hope our percentage goes no higher!” I support you 100% in this work, Sam, and would never want to make you feel awkward. I’m an English Teacher, and editing just comes kind of natural to me, I’m afraid!! I adore you and your stand for our kids!
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On re-reading, Sam, I think you are okay! I must have missed something the first go-around…ignore this old teacher…I’m retiring at the end of May, which evidently is a good thing!!
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Hi Delicate,
I never take offense when corrections to my grammar, spelling or sentence structure are tendered. My strength doesn’t reside in writing. I appreciate any help in cleaning up my work In fact, I adore it.
Thanks for your support and kind words.
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I have written in a while and probably won’t for a long time again. I found your ennuendo to what I believe are excellent Bishops, was uncalled for . You don’t have a clue as to how many Bishops there are that are sexual predators. I believe the number is extremely small. To imply otherwise was very tacky. I don’t want to read any more condemnations of all because of a few. I would have expected more from you , Sam.
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Hi Janice,
I’m not intimating that the bishops are sexual predators. However, no matter how excellent a bishop is, if they take minors all alone behind closed doors, they are doing exactly what a predator does. Then, if they ask sexual questions, this is classical grooming behavior that all sexual predators use. All professionals to whom I’ve spoken acknowledge this. All other churches recognize it and have forbidden it. So, most of our bishops are not predators, but they are all doing precisely what a predator does. Even the excellent ones are unintentionally grooming our children for the predators. The victims of Joseph Bishop and Philander Smartt were groomed all during their years in the YW program to go behind closed doors and discuss sex with an adult male authority. We are the only institutional Christian church on the planet who does this to their kids. This is what we are out to stop. Our excellent bishops are doing unintended harm and setting up or children to be victims as minors and as they enter their adult years.
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To set policy that does not allow a minor to have a private interview can be harmful too. Sometimes the perpetrator is the parent. Even in the medical community minors are protected by HIPA laws which allow the to privately converse with their doctors about sexual conduct or abuse. As a survivor of abuse there has always been a fine line behind help and hurt
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You have a very good point. What the petition calls for is a parent or other adult of the child’s choosing to be present.
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Being accustomed to being on the wrong side of an issue doesn’t make a person right. I too, was accustomed to the churches stance, and have family members that are defending the bishops interviewing practices. But, just like the changes in temple endowments and initiatory procedures, the bad parts had to go. This also must go, and it’s about time someone like Sam came along to point it out. He is 100% correct. When I told my bishop friend about this whole thing, he balked at it. I told him to replace the words Mormon bishop with catholic priest, and his entire outlook on these interviews changed in an instant. Sam is right in what he is doing. We have all been wrong for many many years. It’s time to make it right.
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Hi, Sam, You have stated quite simply that : “Bishops are acting like sexual predators in that by taking a child behind closed doors they are GROOMING that child to be a victim of a potential predator at some future date…that is not ambiguous !!! I have to state that I am so pleased and grateful to God that Jan and I are out…absolutely, and half our children. God actually made it quite clear to us in a most dramatic way in October 2016 (very personal and traumatic but He has been here for us every step of the way) that we needed to resign. That is why we recognise that He is guiding you. ( It is so obvious!!! Why can others not see that?).At least we know where our loyalties lie; otherwise we too might have been judgemental of your amazing efforts, which are being directed by God. How else could you have achieved so much success? Certainly not without God.
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Plus, Alma 39:5, Moroni 9:9, and Jacob 2;28. all normalize abysmally bad, false and stupid Mormon beliefs and doctrine about sex, chastity & virtue and sexual “sin.”
Even without actual sexual predation, and without the deliberate grooming for sexual abuse, the normalizing effects of these “worthiness” interviews with Mormon bishops—alone, behind closed doors, with Mormon girls and boys and even adults — is also harmful, and further normalizes the sick and perverse Mormon view of sexual sin, chastity and virtue in those three verses from the Book of Mormon.
• Second only to murder?? Bullshit!
• Chastity and virtue most important and dear above all things?? Bullshit!
• The Lord God delights in the chastity of women — a verse specifically for girls and women all by themselves?? Bullshit!
• Chastity and virtue all over lds.org and, implicitly or explicitly, without qualification, linked to Alma 39:5 and a sin second only to murder?? Bullshit!
Even without actual, criminal sexual abuse, this Mormon teaching and doctrine, itself, is abusive. These interviews just make it worse.
Informed Mormon parents can put an end to these interviews simply by acting responsibly and saying NO! Including NO! to “follow the leaders” and “doubt your doubts.”
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In my own mind, No Bishop or Stake President nor anyone else has NO right to take ANYONE behind closed doors and talk about any sexual question. My ex wife was abused and my marriage was ruined because of it. I have been subject to humiliation and disgrace because I refused to answer any further questions about sexuality in any interview!
Because of what has happened to me, I have a strong testimony of the church, but almost a total distrust in Bishops! That is the bottom line.
My present Bishop said that he is going to help me with some of the issues that have happened to me. He and ONLY ONE other Bishop before him have tried. Maybe something will be done this time.
But the bottom line is this. NO ONE ON ONE INTERVIEWS WITH ANYONE AND NO TALK ABOUT SEXUAL THINGS AT ALL!
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❤️❤️❤️
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Reblogged this on CFS-ME-River's-Edge and commented:
All thanks to Sam Young for his loving efforts that have given a choice to so many of us, and hope of a better future for the LDS children. Tho I’ve told my story in depth in Sam’s book, perhaps I can tell a little of it here to persuade those on the fence about this practice. It’s too late to change our childhoods that were filled with shame. It’s too late to go back and tell my young self that I did matter, that I was of value after being stripped of that title in worthiness interviews, from age 14, when I was probed about that all important question before Christ, did I masturbate. I created diaries with check boxes just to make sure I didn’t ever do that again. I wanted God to love me. So badly. So desperately. You may think it a sob story, but I had already been abandoned by the father I desperately loved and missed, kidnapped by my mom’s future boyfriend, molested in his apartment, and at the age of 11 stared at the dark ceiling, frozen in terror, after he finally brought me home that night. Everything was going to be different after that. Especially when my mother married him. I had been coerced into promising not to tell. So I didn’t. Nobody knew but me.
The Bishop who interrogated me about masturbation never told me how much the Savior loved me just the way I was, even though I masturbated. The thought never crossed his mind that those questions retraumatized me every time I was coerced into telling if I masturbated. He never asked if I was ok. He didn’t probe for if I felt loved and safe. The answer would have been no. He just focused on adding more shame to my young mind. Masturbation became the line in the sand that I focused all my strength of character upon. If I could just get that perfect, god would love me. I never did. I always slipped. I was never worthy. So God never loved me. And I needed him to, so very very much.
No child should ever have one of these creeps take them alone behind closed doors, who know nothing at all of God’s love if they are actually asking children ‘worthiness’ questions. How can a man know anything of Christ if he is making a child feel estranged from the love Christ. As if perfecting the flesh is the way to God, instead of love for one another, these men show they have no love of God in their hearts by the very act of doing this to a child. I have to do mental gymnastics now to make my mind think that I could be loveable to God. When I’m out in nature, closest to him, I sometimes find myself giggling like a child over something like tossing fallen leaves in the air, and I know and feel God’s love. But my mind easily returns to it’s familiar status of unlovable, and it will never be the state of mind I find myself in without great effort. Some damage is permanent. But I still try.
Please sign Sam’s petition. Children shouldn’t have their default mindset be, ‘God can only love me if I’m worthy,’ and be regularly placed in the dangerous setting where not only their spiritual innocence is stolen, but their physical innocence too if they get the bad luck of having a pedophile too for a Bishop.
Those in power won’t easily give it up. Power is intoxicating and even Joseph Smith recognized that most men given a little power will exercise unrighteous Dominion over others. He got that right . It’s time for this practice to stop, even if those in power don’t get it. They may be not paying attention, not aware, or too busy to see what is happening under their watch. We must make them aware! We must! I am not the only child who suffered so much from being taken behind a Bishop’s closed doors, and worse things happened as I became a young adult, fully groomed for the Bishop who wasn’t a good man. Read the stories. Far too many of them. This practice must stop.
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All thanks to you, Sam the Lion Heart, for your loving efforts that have given a voice to so many of us, and hope of a better future for the LDS children. Tho I’ve told my story in depth in Sam’s book, perhaps I can tell a little of it here to persuade those on the fence about this practice, since Sam has finally given us safe place to speak up. It’s too late to change our childhoods that were filled with shame. It’s too late to go back and tell my young self that I did matter, that I was of value after being stripped of that title in worthiness interviews, from age 14, when I was probed about that all important question before Christ, did I masturbate. I created diaries with check boxes just to make sure I didn’t ever do that again. I wanted God to love me. So badly. So desperately. You may think it a sob story, but I had already been abandoned by the father I desperately loved and missed, kidnapped by my mom’s future boyfriend, molested in his apartment, and at the age of 11 stared at the dark ceiling, frozen in terror, after he finally brought me home that night. Everything was going to be different after that. Especially when my mother married him. I had been coerced into promising not to tell. So I didn’t. Nobody knew but me.
The Bishop who interrogated me about masturbation never told me how much the Savior loved me just the way I was, even though I masturbated. The thought never crossed his mind that those questions retraumatized me every time I was coerced into telling if I masturbated. He never asked if I was ok. He didn’t probe for if I felt loved and safe. The answer would have been no. He just focused on adding more shame to my young mind. Masturbation became the line in the sand that I focused all my strength of character upon. If I could just get that perfect, god would love me. I never did. I always slipped. I was never worthy. So God never loved me. And I needed him to, so very very much.
No child should ever have one of these creeps take them alone behind closed doors, who know nothing at all of God’s love if they are actually asking children ‘worthiness’ questions. How can a man know anything of Christ if he is making a child feel estranged from the love Christ. As if perfecting the flesh is the way to God, instead of love for one another, these men show they have no love of God in their hearts by the very act of doing this to a child. I have to do mental gymnastics now to make my mind think that I could be loveable to God. When I’m out in nature, closest to him, I sometimes find myself giggling like a child over something like tossing fallen leaves in the air, and I know and feel God’s love. But my mind easily returns to it’s familiar status of ‘unlovable,’ and loveable will never be the state of mind I find myself in without great effort. Some damage is permanent. But I still try.
Please sign Sam’s petition. Children shouldn’t have their default mindset be, ‘God can only love me if I’m worthy,’ and be regularly placed in the dangerous setting where not only their spiritual innocence is stolen, but their physical innocence too if they get the bad luck of having a pedophile too for a Bishop.
Those in power won’t easily give it up. Power is intoxicating and even Joseph Smith recognized that most men given a little power will exercise unrighteous Dominion over others. He got that right . It’s time for this practice to stop, even if those in power don’t get it. They may be not paying attention, not aware, or too busy to see what is happening under their watch. We must make them aware! We must! I am not the only child who suffered so much from being taken behind a Bishop’s closed doors, and worse things happened as I became a young adult, fully groomed for the Bishop who wasn’t a good man. Read the stories. Far too many of them. This practice must stop.
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Wow! A reblog. I don’t think that has ever happened. Let me apologize again for what happened to you. Thank you for raising your strong voice to protect the children of today from the same fate.
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Thank you! For the healing empathy, and for calling my voice strong. You make me think, ‘Maybe I’m braver than I thought…. ‘
….and that makes all the difference
Joelle Casteix Said,
‘One child who has been … abused by a person in a position of trust, is one child too many.’
And I say,
‘One child made to feel brave, is an Army.’
Thanks for making me (and so many of the ‘Ones’) feel brave.😊
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I totally agree with you. This grooming must stop. I have a similar story, and mine starts with the same man who later became my bishop and at the time he was only an explorer adviser who belittle and shamed me as a young man.
Later he was with my wife, which destroyed our marriage and our family and still has affects on my children as well. They are now adults.
This behavior MUS change. I spoke to my Bishop two weeks ago and this past Sunday as well. He and I will then visit with the Stake President, to hopefully fix most the the problems that have been going on for the last 30 years… Praying for you and hope you will pray for me too.
Good luck!
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Oh Ron, I will pray for you! So sorry this practice caused you and your family so much pain. The LDS church needs to go back to the drawing board and define what they stand for. If it is for families, if it is for the love of Christ, they need to humble themselves and admit that yet again, the way they’ve been doing it doesn’t fit. They’ve changed before, they can do it again. If you can get your local leaders to help you, and they are kind hearted and not power driven and allow themselves to think about what love is, you may have a chance at influencing things for the better! I’m so sorry you were destroyed too. I think part of the problem with the top dogs at the LDS church are the same problems we have with Congress. They make so much money and are treated to everything they need by those who reverence them, they are completely out of touch. And they might know, but have created a system where the lowly can’t reach them! Look how hard Sam tried and the system is set up not to bother them with such trivia. So they don’t know the state of the members, they just keep spouting out orders to obey. So you’re working with your local leaders and that’s great if they are listening! Good luck Ron!
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Thank you. I needed that today. I have been through so much in the last 30 years. My Bishop told me two weeks ago that things have changed and we can go up a different road now. I hope so. Up until now, I have thrown up my hands in not just frustration, but utter loss.
If there is no change, then, I will realize one thing. That true forgiveness is ONLY through Christ, and that the supposed judges in Israel are not and have no compassion for the citizens of the kingdom. They take sides.
All those years ago, I truly believed what i had been told, that the church leaders said that if there are problems in a marriage, the male is the one at fault in each and every case no matter what.
There are always two sides, but it is not always the man’s fault. I took responsibility for things that I was not responsible for nor did I realize the true impact of what I was getting into doing what I did to “protect” myself..
I know now that the atonement covers everything that happens in our lives. Spiritual judgement on earth is chaotic at best and very judgemental.To be shamed to have no hope to ever have happiness in this life or forever is truly NOT the correct answer as I was told.
Having lost my marriage and my children over the years because of a vindictive wife and leaders who in my mind were judgemental and left me cold.
I have only had one other bishop and stake president who showed me that they truly cared and gave me a chance, but when it came down to it, the same old practices left no hope.
Maybe there will be hope now. I am just not putting my eggs in one basket. I can’t get excited about anything because I have been embarrassed and disappointed to a fault. I can’t live with more utter and absolute disappointment anymore. Depending on where this goes will determine where I go from here.
I don’t think I could or would leave the church over this as I have weathered everything in the last thirty years, but I definitely will go up another path…
Too many doors slammed leaves this man left without much hope.
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You don’t have to leave the Church, but you are SPOT on that Jesus Christ is the only judge in Israel. I read from John forward, for comfort and consolation about that. He said ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life, no man comes to the father but BY ME.’ He didn’t say ‘by my designated leaders, judges and prophets,’ in fact he says We can come ‘directly to the throne of God to find help in time of need.’ Anyway, those are two of my favorite scriptures. I needed them when I had too many middlemen and gatekeepers between me and God. Keep on believing that God loves you! The same way you love your kids.!
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Weren’t you a bishop? Does that make you, what? A recovered pedophile?
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I was a bishop. At the time, I was not aware of the dangers of taking a child all alone behind closed doors. I wasn’t a pedophile. 99% of bishops are not pedophiles. By taking children behind closed doors and asking sexually explicit questions they are acting just like any proficient pedophile grooming his next victim. Everyone outside our church recognizes this and are repulsed by our interview policy. It’s disgusting in my view too.
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You disgust me, you take something completely non sexual and pin the church in a way it’s not remotely intended. I pity you. You might not see it, but you are an apostate. You actively work against the church. You are listening to the wrong spirit. One day you’ll have to answer to this. You’ve completely misconstrued the church and bishops.
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So basically you are admitting to grooming children for pedophilia, did I get that right?
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The title of this post is so wrong. And harms the Lord’s Church. I think you’re losing the sight, Sam.
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Man, do people learn nothing in school these days?
Sam wrote that they ACT LIKE pedophiles, not that they ARE.
Here is another example. Matthew 7:22-23. Many folks may ACT LIKE Christians, but they cannot presume to represent that they know Christ simply because they have checked off the boxes and gone through the presumably correct motions. Have you ever been smiled at by someone who hated you? It acts like a smile, but it isn’t one.
So, what Sam is saying is true. The setting, the open-ended permission to ask probing questions, the uncomfortable age difference… Well, it kinda looks a lot like a pedo porn film. “Well, hey there, little girl. Let’s you and me talk about your yoni.” Yes, just like a careful but unconverted hypocrite looks a lot like a Saint.
So let’s get this mess straightened up and start having our actions and works match the righteous intents of pure-for-Christ hearts.
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People, please be more concerned about the potential of harming children than harming the name of the Lord’s church. If it’s His church, He would want us to be passionate about protecting children and not image and certainly not worry about a title. The Lord is much bigger than that! Sam your sight is better than 20/20 and I am thankful for your vision. A person with a healthy self esteem recognizes truth more than their need to reinforce their beliefs. I see far too many of us denying truth and turning a blind eye just to convince ourselves we don’t have a problem with keeping children safe to feel comfortable in our our faith. We do have a problem. It’s the truth and let’s do something about it rather than spending time nit picking at titles, calling another an apostate and accusing them of following the wrong spirit or having to answer for saving kids??? Do something useful and loving and might I add Christlike, and help protect children. Sam, you are a voice of hope and healing. I have 2 precious granddaughters and they will never go behind a door without their Oma there and sexual questions are off limits! Thank you Sam! I want to be like you when I grow up! See you in October!
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