The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, aka the Mormon Church, still has a policy in place that requires congregational leaders to regularly take children behind closed doors and ask questions of a sexual nature. There is no requirement to notify parents when these “worthiness” interviews take place. The meetings are usually one-on-one unless the child “desires” that another adult be in the room.
Except for the vague instruction that they should not be “unnecessarily probing,” there is no limit to what untrained Mormon leaders can ask a child. As a result, many bishops continue to ask totally inappropriate, shaming and harmful questions like those found HERE.
The Mormon Church MUST change their irresponsible and outdated policies that have harmed so many children.
Fortunately, there is anecdotal evidence that thoughtful parents and local Mormon leaders are stepping up to protect children on their own. Here are 3 recent examples.
#1: Stake president instructs, no one-on-one, no sexual questions!!!
Message receive this morning, July 13, 2019:
Sam, just thought I would drop you a line. I have followed you for a while and have appreciated your efforts and thought you would enjoy hearing some positive news.
I was recently put into a bishopric in a Utah ward. During my interviews with the stake presidency, I was determined to tell them that I would not do one-on-one child interviews and would not ask sexual questions. If that were to be an issue, I could not accept the calling.
To my great surprise, I was told by the stake presidency without any prompting from me that while I would be doing interviews with children, under no circumstances was I to ever interview a child without a parent present and I am not to ask questions of any sexual nature.
While I don’t know if that same advice was extended to the new bishop I was relieved to hear that from local leadership. While it is a small step, it made me feel like if enough local leaders feel this way the church will change regardless of the brethren…common consent will eventually win!
#2: Bishop eliminates one-on-one interviews
A message received yesterday:
Hi Sam,
I have a family member who is the executive secretary to his bishop. In their ward there has to be a chaperone for interviews with all minors and all women. Basically their bishopric has decided that if a minor or any female meets with any member of the bishopric, one of the other members of the bishopric or the executive secretary has to also be in attendance as a “chaperone” as they put it.
I know this isn’t being done everywhere and that it may not be the policy at a stake level. Either way I know I’m happy to see it’s being done in that ward and a good step.
#3: Bishop asks all parents to be in interviews
Recently the Mormon church sent out a survey soliciting opinions about a “proposed change” to the age for “worthiness” interviews. Following is one of the public comments on 2KUTV’s FB page.
My brother in law is a bishop. Every interview with a minor, he invites the parents/guardian to join them. Sometimes they refuse and other times they join. He says he interviews the same.
Good for the bishop. There is no policy to ask parents to be present in the interviews. He has chosen a path of protection for both the child and himself. I can only hope that this bishop has also ditched the sexual questions. To ask them in front of parents would be doubly shaming for the child.
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Tocubit Is Invisible's Cubit 
You are making a difference Sam. Keep speaking out.
Has not Sam testified of the wrongs of what have occurred from asking CHILDREN sexually explicate questions? Yea, he has boldly, and what was the LDS / Brighamite church done in response, they want to cast him out, and have said Sam Young is of the and will not get back in his place where he belongs and we need to remove him from our ranks. All while at the same time protecting the one on the right of the picture. Who had his books sell in Deseret Book until recently as the LDS / Brighamite church trying to hide or be secret about what is going on. I have never read any of his books, but I can speculate it would of had things that mostly tickled peoples ears, especially considering he has not had the baptism of fire or if he once did he has lost it because of his sins and crimes against God and the people. A repentant man will confess of his sins, not hide behind the law or lawyers. Now also take a look at which man the LDS / Brighamite church is supporting and which one they are forsaking. To me this is a very dirty rotten fruit of theirs.
https://seekingyhwh.com/2018/09/09/bishops-are-judges-of-israel/
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One glaring problem I see with this—many of the parents, including my son with his children, think it’s ok to ask these questions. He an I are in complete disagreement. He asked me “how is the bishop to know if he’s worthy or not?”
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From a recent Mormon Stories Podcast about this very issue I learned the following:
We need to teach our children that their worthiness is not in what they do, but their worthiness is who they are as a human being and they were born perfect. What they do and how they measure up in the eyes of a church doesn’t not make them worthy. Children are worthy because of who they are. That’s how we teach our children to become healthy, self-empowered, and well-armored against sexual predators and bullying, etc.
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Local church leaders making these changes on their own are going to push general church leaders into a corner where, sooner or later, general church leaders are going to be compelled to comment.
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It surprises me that worthiness centers so much around sex. The Sermon on the Mount contains the main body of commandments that Jesus gave both in Jerusalem and the New World. Why don’t we ask about the things he thought were important? He did say don’t lust after a woman but he also said don’t get angry, give to those that ask, don’ be so concerned about financial security and when you pray ask for forgiveness rather than remind God how great you are. Why don’t we ask about those (this is directed at adult interviews: none of these should be asked of children)? As I look back at mistakes I have made and things I wish I could undo sexual peccadilloes are at the bottom of the list. I much more wish I could take back the hurtful things I have said to others.
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For me, this bishop and counselor-chaperone thing is CREEPY and when it happened to me as an adult earlier this year, it made me EXTREMELY UNCOMFORTABLE. I felt ganged up on.
Or maybe, it simply triggered all my other bad memories of being ganged up on as a lone LDS woman in a room full of LDS men.I am PLDSC story 622.
The practice of asking about sexual purity needs to end, period. But because I cannot always guarantee that my children will not be protected from this practice WE HAVE STOPPED ATTENDING. I am the last line of defense for my children and there is absolutely no way in hell that even a smoke’s fart of a breath of what happened to me is ever EVER going to happen to them.
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Yes!!! May many more parents follow your example.
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