" Note: Previous title was "Mormon Church Excommunicates former Bishop Sam Young for trying to protect children!"
What would you, as a parent, think if your 12-year-old son came to you and asked “What does chastity mean? What is masturbation?”
Being a good parent, you manage not to show surprise at his questions, but you calmly ask him, “Where did those questions come from?”
His reply set off alarms in your head and heart. “It was Bishop _____. He asked me to come into his office at church and he shut the door. It was just him and me, no one else was there.”
A single male adult alone in a closed room with a minor male child? Asking your son sexually explicit questions? Your heart beats faster and your hands tremble as you ask yourself, “What’s going on here?”
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, based in Salt Lake City, Utah, has for many years conducted “Worthiness Interviews” with both boys and girls, starting when the child reaches 12 years of age. These interviews usually take place twice a year and are conducted by the bishop, behind closed doors, and only the bishop and the child are present in the room.
NOTE: Earlier this week, the LDS Church announced that both boys and girls beginning at age 11 may now partake in certain temple ceremonies, and boys may be ordained into the Aaronic Priesthood.
Worthiness Interviews that start at age 12 (now may start at age 11) are fraught with danger for both the child and also the bishop conducting the interview. The LDS Church leadership has provided bishops a recommended list of 15 questions to be asked, one of which is: “Do you live the law of chastity?”
The LDS General Handbook of Instructions directs bishops that “Worthiness interviews must be private. They should not be rushed. Interviewers should not add any requirements to those that are outlined in the temple recommend book.” [Emphasis added.]
Although the LDS General Handbook of Instructions specifically states that interviewers should not ask any questions not found in the temple recommend book, many members report that they have been asked personal and probing questions, especially regarding sexual behavior.
Sam Young is Mormon and was raised Mormon. At 19, he served a 2-year full-time mission to Guatemala and El Salvador. He got married in the temple and raised 6 children in the church. Sam Young has actively served in many callings, including a 5-year stint as an LDS bishop.
After he had been released from his calling as a bishop (still in good standing with the LDS Church and its leadership), he learned from his four daughters that their bishop had asked them if they masturbate. Sam was outraged to learn that his daughters’ personal, intimate boundaries had been callously bulldozed without his knowledge or consent.
Sam Young tried to communicate his concerns with his Bishop and with his Stake President. (An LDS Stake is composed of several wards, and the Stake Presidency is composed of three laymen, just as a Bishopric is). Sam Young got nowhere; he was ignored. During this time, he also became aware of several other instances of children being asked inappropriate and sexually explicit questions behind closed doors with a single adult male, the bishop of that ward.
Sam Young began collecting and assembling their stories. It was his hope that once the LDS leadership could read the stories and learn about the damage done in the past and that was still happening, that the leadership would make changes so that no more children were hurt, damaged or traumatized by inappropriate and sexually explicit questions with a single adult male behind closed doors. As of this writing, Sam Young has over 1,000 stories, many of them heart-rending and unable to complete reading without crying out over the children’s pain and suffering from such interviews. Many adults now have also contributed their stories of the shame and suffering they experienced from their bishop’s worthiness interview when they were children,
Books containing the firsthand accounts of the damage done to hundreds of children as a result of this Church policy were also delivered to LDS Church leaders at a rally on March 30th. You can read over 800 stories of victims by clicking here.
Along with the personal stories, Sam also got a list of 29 questions that are commonly asked of minor children in a closed room by a single adult male.
***Trigger Warning***
Asked children & youth in dignity interviews behind close doors in the mormon church
Disturbing pornographic questions below. They are too obscene for polite adult discussion.
Yet, they appear to be approved fodder for probing our children behind the closed doors of our Mormon leaders.
Here are 29 questions that have been asked and continue to be asked by many LDS bishops in order to probe our children in their ‘worthiness interviews’. To me, they are ALL ‘unnecessarily probing or invasive.’ They are disgusting and vile.
29 Questions
Do you masturbate?
Do you know what a vagina is?
What were you thinking of while you masturbated?
Do you masturbate under or over the panties?
How many fingers do you use?
When was the last time you watched pornography?
What type of pornography do you watch?
Do you masturbate while you watch pornography?
Where and how did your boyfriend touch you?
Were your nipples hard?
Did you get wet?
Where were his fingers?
Where was your underwear?
What color were your panties?
Did you orgasm?
Did you know that once boys reach a certain level of arousal, they have no choice but to keep going, that they can no longer stop their sexual advances?
Have you ever put your penis in another boy’s anus and if so, did you like it?
Describe the sexual positions you engaged in?
Did you engage in oral sex?
Did she orgasm?
Was she shaved?
Did you ejaculate?
How many times did he ejaculate?
Where did he ejaculate?
Did you engage in anal sex?
Did the boy ejaculate in your mouth?
Did you put your mouth on her vagina, or use your fingers?
Did he touch your breasts?
Did you touch his penis?
Did he penetrate you?
To a rape victim:
Did you like it?
What did you do to egg him on?
What were you wearing?
Did you orgasm?
https://invisiblescubit.wordpress.com/2018/08/08/29-questions/
In almost every locale, children cannot give consent to being asked sexually explicit questions. Let’s repeat that critical point - children cannot give informed consent to these sexual questions. The United Nations, National Institute of Health, the American Academy of Pediatricians, and victims’ organizations define these questions between a minor unable to give informed consent and an adult male as child sexual abuse. (Thanks, Cheryl D – 42nd screen page from https://invisiblescubit.wordpress.com/2018/08/08/29-questions/)
In March of 2018, Sam suggested the following to LDS Leadership:
Here are two changes that tens of thousands of us support you (LDS Leadership) in making.
1) Eliminate one-on-one interviews.
2) Forbid sexually explicit questions from being asked of our children.
These simple changes will protect our children, protect our leaders and protect the good name of our church.
The response from the LDS Leadership? In June of 2018, the church openly declared that bishops are to ask the question “Do you live the law of chastity?” That is a SEX question….with a child who is barely 11.
To date, Sam Young’s actions have been directed at three audiences:
The Q15. (Quorum of the 12 Apostles, President Russell M. Nelson; First Counselor Dallin H. Oaks; and Second Counselor Henry B. Eyring) I had hoped that as they were confronted with the massive damage their policies have done to thousands of children that they would change the policy in a substantive way. The 15 chose to excommunicate rather than to mitigate. I no longer plan to reach out to these men who turn a blind eye to their own victims.
The Mormon members. My hopes are that parents and local leaders will implement changes to protect their own children, their congregation and themselves. Many children are being protected from harmful interviews and potential predators. However, most members have either not heard of our cause or have chosen to support the policy from SLC. Going forward, I’ll continue to reach out to the fine members and good-hearted leaders in the Church.
Non-members. Our cause has now reached the ears of millions of people outside the Mormon Church. They get it. I have never talked to a non-Mormon who wasn’t disgusted. Nor was anyone previously aware of what Mormons subject their children to. Our efforts to reach this group have met with resounding success. We will continue to spread the word in the community-at-large.
Yes, Sam Young was excommunicated from the LDS Church; he appealed the excommunication to the First Presidency of the Church, which upheld his excommunication on September 12, 2018 “for conduct contrary to the laws and order of the Church.”
Dec 12, 2018: LDS Bishop Charged with Sex Abuse
- Days before the church announced that 11-year-olds are now to be interrogated about sex, a Mormon bishop was charged with sex abuse of young people in his congregation. How ironic that both these news stories appeared at the same time.
Much of what Bishop Head did is CONDONED by the LDS Church. You can read the news stories at FOX13, 2KUTV, and KSL.
What Does the Mormon Church condone?
One night, after a church activity in August of 2017, Head drove the boy home. But when he got to the boy’s driveway, he “locked the vehicle doors and stated, ‘We have to figure this masturbation thing out. You’re not leaving until we figure this out,'” the charges state.
A bishop all alone with a young boy? Bishops are totally sanctioned to be alone with the children and youth of their congregations!!!!
A bishop behind closed doors? Absolutely. Whether it be an office, a car, or a home, the church allows children to be taken behind any closed door by any bishop.
Bishops talking about masturbation with a minor? You better believe it. That’s the #1 question on the list of 29. In many stakes and wards, the leaders have been told that masturbation specifically should be asked.
Another boy told police that Head would discuss sex “all the time,” according to the charges.
A bishop talking about sex all the time? Bishops are mandated to interview the youth at least 2 times per year. If he perceives the child needs help with a ‘problem,’ he has the purview to call the child into interviews as often as he deems necessary.
A decade after it happened, I found out that at age 12 my daughter was probed by the bishop, “Do you masturbate?” I asked her if that question was ever posed again. Like the boy who was abused by his bishop, her response was “All the time, dad.”
The Mormon Church provided this statement in response to their bishop being charged with child sex abuse.
“Abuse of any kind cannot be tolerated in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints”
Sam Young’s rebuttal to this statement: LIARS!!! Their policy of one-on-one interviews opens the way for abuse. Asking sexual questions IS child abuse!!! Thousands of witnesses provide a monstrous monument to the massive abuse the church has facilitated.
You can SEE and READ hundreds of those stories at protectldschildren.org.
The full story of Sam Young’s journey from the discovery of his daughters being asked inappropriate and sexually explicit questions many months ago to today is found at https://invisiblescubit.wordpress.com/.
Sam Young’s focus has now changed from Protect LDS Children to Sam Young - Protect LDS Children - And Children of All Religions
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